Contemporary Literature from the Chinese 'Diaspora' in Indonesia

Since the fall of Suharto a number of Chinese Indonesian writers have begun to write as Chinese Indonesians, some using their Chinese names, some writing in Mandarin. New literary activities include the gathering, publishing and translating (from Mandarin) of short stories and poetry by Chinese Indonesians. Pribumi Indonesians too have privileged Chinese ethnicity in their works in new and compelling ways. To date, little of this new Chinese Indonesian literary activity has been documented or evaluated in English. This paper begins to fill that gap by examining the ways in which recent literary works by and about Chinese Indonesians give expression to their ethnic identity.