China and the Shaping of Indonesia, 1949-1965

CONTENTS

CONTENTS Acknowledgements xi List of Figures xiii Introduction: China in Indonesia: What’s in a Name? 1 Déjà Vu All Over Again? “The China Fever” and Its Significant Precedent 2 Approaches to China in Indonesia 6 Nature and Characteristics of China Observers in Indonesia 17 Structure of the Book 22 Part I: (Re)presenting China Chapter 1: Changing Images of China in Pre-1949 Indonesia 33 Historical Interactions and Perceptions of China in Pre-20th-century Indonesia 34 Indonesian Nationalists and China, 1900–49 41 Perceived Parallelisms 52 Conclusion 57 Chapter 2: Discourses on Chinese Politics 59 “New Democracy”: Chinese Practices and Indonesian Perceptions 60 China in the International Arena:“An Awakening Lion” or “A Threatening Red Dragon”? 70 “Brother Mao”: Images of Mao Zedong in Indonesia 73 Conclusion 76 Chapter 3: Social Dynamism and Economic Progress 79 The Purposefulness and Orderliness of an Egalitarian Society 80 New China’s “Amazing” Economic Growth 89 The People’s Commune as an Epitome of Social and Economic Progress 93 vii Making Sense of China’s Socio-economic Progress: Politics or Chineseness? 96 Conclusion 104 Chapter 4: Of Culture, Religion and Intellectuals 106 “New Culture” and Nation-building 107 Intellectuals in the PRC: “Engineers of Human Souls” or “Tools of Propaganda”? 112 A Question of Religious Freedom 119 Conclusion 124 Part II: Constructing the China Metaphor Chapter 5: Indonesian Dreams and the “Chinese Realities”: The Sociopolitical and Intellectual Dimensions 127 Political Instability and Cultural Antagonisms at Home 129 Disillusionment and Alienation of Intellectuals 136 Preconceptions about Indonesia and the Construction of China-images 144 Conclusion 153 Chapter 6: An “Inner China” and External PRC: The Ethnic and Diplomatic Dimensions 154 Indonesian Chinese Society and the Construction of Images of the Ancestral Homeland 156 Brothers of Different Kinds: Indonesians’ Paradoxical Views of the Chinese 168 Sino-Indonesian Diplomatic Relations and the Making of the China Metaphor 175 China Creates Its Own Images 185 Conclusion 200 Part III: Shaping a New Trajectory Chapter 7: Sukarno, the China Metaphor and Political Populism 205 Sukarno and China before 1956 207 Mr Sukarno Goes to Beijing 213 Sukarno’s Perception of China and Vision for Indonesia 223 Conclusion 230 viii Contents Chapter 8: Pramoedya, the China Metaphor and Cultural Radicalism 234 Pramoedya before 1956: The Evolution of a Cultural Intellectual 236 Pramoedya in China: The Politics of a Transnational Romance 242 The Transformation of Pramoedya: The Critical Years, 1956–59 253 Conclusion 259 Conclusion: China as an Alternative Modernity 267 Appendix: Biographical Notes on Major China Observers in Indonesia, 1949–65 275 Bibliography 292 Index 316 Contents ix ...