[Editor's Note]
In 1967, the field diary of Polish-British anthropologist Malinowski was published publicly after his death. Because the remarks in it were very contrasting with his attitude towards locals in serious works, it triggered a lasting debate on the professional ethics and scientific nature of anthropologists.
Compared with the ethnographic texts completed by anthropologists in their study, the notes they took casually during field surveys may be able to retain the experiences and feelings of "this moment" more realistically, thereby triggering academic thinking. For the public, reading these foreign stories and memory clips will also be a novel and exciting textual journey.
Therefore, the Pengpai News column opens a column called "Field Investigation Notes" which mainly publishes field research notes in disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, ethnology, and economics. We look forward to telling field stories so that readers can expand the boundaries of daily life experience while gaining new knowledge. Submissions are welcome in this column. The email address for submissions is: [email protected]. Please indicate the location of the field in the email title.
Indonesia Bangka Island is located on the east side of Sumatra Island, across the Bangka Strait, facing the South China Sea in the north, across the Gaspar Strait to Belitung Island , and facing the Java Sea in the south. Bangka Island is rich in tin and requires a large number of workers. Recruited by the Dutch colonial government, a large number of workers from southern China set foot on this foreign land, and shed sweat on this hot land, taking root, writing a history of Chinese people rushing to Southeast Asia, living and entrepreneurship hard.
Banga has therefore become a place in Southeast Asia that Chinese people arrive at relatively early. Chinese people have extremely strong vitality. After a cruel and difficult journey, there have been six or seven generations of Chinese living in Bangka.
The life experiences of Chinese people in Bangjia are less concerned by many Southeast Asian researchers. Bangka Island is far away from the Indonesian capital Jakarta . The transportation is inconvenient and the journey is long. Although Bangka Chinese have a long history, there are very few researchers who go to Bangka to engage in field surveys and understand the current status of Chinese cultural heritage. Early Chinese workers worked hard in Bangka, and the history of creating a new space for Chinese people has not been widely explored.
With the support of the Guangdong Overseas Chinese History Project, I went to Bangjia and conducted a large number of visits and data collection work for local Bangjia Chinese. The old Chinese, who was in his seventies, told me about the tragic experiences of the early Bangjia Chinese workers and their unknown pioneering deeds.
color paintings reflecting the mining of early Chinese
Taoxi Chinese workers and their descendants
Heaven is fair to people in every place. Because of its valuable tin mine, Banga has ushered in a large number of foreign populations and promoted local economic development. In the early days, due to the lack of modern mining equipment, the Dutch colonists who ruled this land focused on the hard-working Chinese workers. The poor Chinese workers in the south were full of adventure and hard work. Under the urging of the Dutch colonists, they rushed to Nanyang with their fellow villagers, opening the curtain for the southern Chinese workers to go to Bangjia to dig tin mines.
Early Chinese Comrade
The tropical sun is vicious and ultraviolet rays are extremely strong. It shines on the Chinese Comrade's back, biting the skin like an ant, causing numbness and pain. In order to clean up the tin rice, Chinese workers had to soak in water all year round and use extremely simple tools to bend down to a dustpan to screen out the tin rice in exchange for a meager salary. Part of the salary is used to pay the commission stipulated in the contract, and the other part is sent back to your hometown in China to raise children and support the elderly.
Due to the sun on the back, facing the stream, and the large number of tropical insects, Chinese workers often suffer from skin diseases, but due to the lack of local medicine, Chinese workers rarely receive timely treatment. The harsh working environment, cruel exploitation, and hard work day after day have made many Chinese workers unable to adapt to extremely high-intensity work and die miserably.
Only a few Chinese workers survived the hard life of a life-threatening life. After they ended their contract and redeem themselves, they used their savings to buy land from local indigenous people, began to engage in planting industries, or started small business, gradually got out of the dilemma of extreme poverty and recuperated in Bangka and reproduced their descendants.
The current tin harvesting factory
The Chinese in Bangka are basically descendants of Chinese workers who picked tin rice at that time, and it seems that the figure of their ancestors can still be seen in them. Because Chinese girls are very lacking and high-intensity work is not allowed to move to Bangka, some Chinese working men intermarried with local Javanese girls in Indonesia, gradually forming a special ethnic group of mixed races "Baba Nyonya" (transliteration of Baba nyonya in Malay, called "Baba" for men and "Nyonya" for women). In fact, in the early Chinese chose to intermarry with Indonesian girls. In addition to the reasons for the lack of Chinese girls, there was another very important purpose, which was to obtain local land through Indonesian girls and be accepted by the Indonesian society.
Since Chinese workers need to work outside, they hand over their children to their Indonesian wives for their care and they will bear the early education. But after Baba Nyonya reached a certain age, the Chinese father would send them to the Dutch school to learn Dutch, receive education from Western culture, or receive Chinese culture in private schools run by Chinese people.
Many Baba Nyonya who received Western education have become intermediaries between Chinese and Dutch colonists, which we commonly call assistants. Since Baba Nyonya is influenced by the Chinese father and under the discipline of Indonesian mothers, she has distinct characteristics in both diet and clothing, which is different from local Indonesians and has many differences from traditional Chinese. For example, the clothes worn by Nyonya are both sargon-local garments from Indonesia, and the sleeves are decorated with traditional Chinese patterns. Coupled with their mixed-race figure, they look graceful and charming when wearing Nyonya clothes.
Baba Nyonya
Ba Nyonya This special ethnic group is between Indonesians and Chinese, and has fewer interactions with Chinese, but is regarded as a heretic by Indonesians. No matter how they want to become indigenous Indonesians, they have been labeled as Chinese in history, and because of their skin color, body shape and appearance, Indonesians regard them as Chinese, which gradually favors Chinese and eventually integrates into the Chinese community.
When I was investigating locally, some Chinese did not hesitate to their mixed-race identities, provided many photos left by their ancestors, and led me to visit their ancestral homes and appreciate the Nyonya clothes their great-grandmother wore when they got married. The Nyonya in the photo combines the genes of Chinese and Indonesians, with a beautiful appearance, dignified appearance, and a very Nanyang style.
Preserving the Tinder of Chinese Culture
In order to stay in Indonesia for a long time, the early Chinese chose to cooperate with the colonists Dutch. They used their smart minds and frugal financial management methods, while inheriting the fine tradition of Chinese people paying attention to children's education. The economic conditions of some Chinese descendants have gradually improved, and more and more Chinese descendants have entered the upper class. This part of Chinese are more Westernized, and their children generally receive Western cultural education. When the Dutch colonists evacuated from Bangjia, some of them followed the colonists to immigrate to the Netherlands, some immigrated to other Western countries, and the rest stayed in the hot land of Bangjia.
In order to live in Bangka for a long time, some Chinese sent their children to public schools and allow their children to receive Indonesian education, gradually blurring their impression of Chinese culture. However, most Chinese still send their children to Chinese schools for Chinese education, inheriting many excellent traditions of Chinese culture, and cultivating the qualities of being strong, hard-working, thrifty, and good at financial management.
Chinese ancestral home
With intergenerational efforts, Chinese wealth has been continuously accumulating. For example, I purchased a large amount of land from the indigenous people and obtained a lot of wealth by planting rubber and cutting wood, and gradually became a wealthy class.
1965, Indonesian President Suharto came to power and was hostile to Chinese people, implemented a policy of restricting Chinese people, adopted a cultural assimilation policy that could cut off the fire from the bottom of the pot, prohibiting Chinese people from speaking Chinese, running Chinese schools, publishing Chinese newspapers, organizing Chinese communities, and even forcibly changing their names and adopting Indonesian names. It was not until the collapse of the Suharto regime in 1990 that Chinese language education gradually regained its vitality, but more than 30 years of cultural restrictions have made many new generations of Chinese unable to receive Chinese language education, and they even do not know their surnames.
Nowadays, Chinese people who can speak Chinese are basically over 75 years old. Chinese born after 1965 or even 10 years ago have basically lost the opportunity to learn their mother tongue. Their lifestyle, dressing, and living and eating are no longer much different from those of local Indonesians.
In order to avoid being influenced by Suharto's extreme cultural policies and to protect themselves, many Chinese people have joined Christianity and used Christianity to spread Chinese culture. For example, they use the Chinese Bible to preach, thereby retaining Chinese printed matters. Some Chinese use church radio to spread Chinese songs, so that Chinese language can still leave a resounding sound in Bangka.
A Chinese older sister over 80 years old is hosted by the Bangavenhou County Christian Church Radio. During the reign of Suharto, she insisted on broadcasting 2 hours of Chinese songs every day. She said that the songs of Teresa Teng are particularly popular among Chinese listeners, and many listeners play the songs sang by Teresa Teng on demand every day. In the era of white terror, Chinese people have protected the spark of Chinese culture through these methods, hoping to burn again in Bangka one day.
Chinese Cemetery
Banga Indonesians affirmed the contribution of Chinese people
Early, the Chinese in Banga worked as a local courier, belonging to the extreme poverty class, eating and living with local Indonesians, so there was no big difference in the living environment of the two and they became good friends. Chinese people have a hard-working spirit and are good at managing finances. Therefore, Chinese who escaped from the disaster gradually stood out in the competition with local Indonesians and became rich.
Chinese people have not forgotten their early life experiences of sharing weal and woe with Indonesians. They have worked hard to give back to the local society, build schools and hospitals, and set up charitable foundations to provide medical treatment for Indonesians and help poor Indonesian children go to school. Their business hired a large number of Indonesians and treated them well, which not only promoted local economic development but also received praise from Indonesians. Many Indonesians have high loyalty to Chinese bosses, and there have been many generations of serving Chinese bosses. For example, Wei Baofu I interviewed is the sixth generation of Chinese. He owns a large number of industries in Penang, and he runs the resort I live in. He hired many Indonesians to run the resort. Indonesian staff are kind and polite. When I chatted with these employees, I found that these Indonesians were quite satisfied with the working conditions here, saying that the boss was very kind to them and they were willing to work here. One of the Indonesians also gestured that both of them were working here.
The sixth generation of old Chinese who was interviewed
Among my interviewees, Chinese Wei Baofu is one of the top wealthy businessmen in Bangjia. The resort he runs is large, with a radius of ten kilometers and a wide coastline. I lived by the beach at night and fell asleep listening to the rising and falling waves. In the morning, I sat in front of the villa balcony, and I was in a very comfortable mood with the dry sea breeze. Sometimes it rains heavily on Bangjia, beating the banana leaves and the coconut trees outside the house, which reminds me of the scene of coconut wind and banana rain, which has a unique taste of Southeast Asia.
Banga Island scenery
Indonesians are basically Muslims, but they are not taboo to eat with us and do not exclude Chinese people, which surprised me. Because I once visited Malaysia , local Malays are unwilling to eat with me. An Indonesian driver drove me to visit , Bangka Penang , Liegang, and Wenhou. He introduced the local situation along the way, guided the local buildings, and played the role of a tour guide. He was polite and capable, loyal and simple, which left a deep impression on me.
What impressed me even more was that when I visited Bangavenhou County, the local deputy county magistrate came out to receive it. From the outside, he looked like a Chinese, but this gentle and gentle Chinese deputy county magistrate no longer knew Chinese. He treated me as a Chinese investor and tried his best to promote local tourism resources and investment conditions to me, hoping that after I returned to China, I could introduce Chinese investors to Bangjia to invest, which made me laugh and cry.
Wenhou County Government Meeting, the second on the right is the deputy county magistrate of Chinese
Then, the staff of the Wenhou Tourism Bureau took me to visit the local cultural exhibition hall and exhibited photos of early Chinese mining in the local area, affirming the contributions of Chinese to the local area, which made me feel good about the Bangka Indonesians' practical attitude.I talked with this Tourism Bureau staff, and they were also very sure of the Chinese's contribution to the local area, and hoped that Indonesians and Chinese could live in harmony and develop their economy. They say that anti-China is a bad phenomenon. They learned from various channels that Middle East is in a tragic situation and people are displaced, and said that Indonesia does not want extreme terrorists to appear and hope that Indonesians and Chinese can develop together.
The photos displayed from Wenhou County and the impression of Indonesians of Chinese people. I feel that although Indonesia used to have anti-Chinese phenomena, and now some politicians have made remarks that are unfavorable to Chinese for their personal gain, overall, Indonesians are still relatively friendly to Chinese people.
Especially in Bangka, Chinese not only promote local economic development, but also do a lot of public welfare undertakings, which has been recognized by local Indonesians. In 1998, a serious anti-Chinese incident occurred in Indonesia, with Chinese shops burned down and Chinese women raped, but these did not happen in Bangka. On the one hand, this shows that the Bangka Indonesians highly accept Chinese, and on the other hand, it reflects that the Chinese who have lived in Bangka for several generations have been highly integrated into local life and understand that wealth needs to be given back to the Bangka Indonesians, so they have been supported and protected by the Bangka Indonesians.
Temples donated by Chinese
Chinese education is in full swing
From 1965 to 1990, Indonesian Chinese education was destroyed, resulting in few Chinese under 75 years old being able to receive Chinese education. They only know that they are Chinese, but they already have little understanding of Chinese culture and China. They received Indonesian education since childhood and spoke fluently in Indonesian . Their dress and living habits are no different from those in local Indonesians. Some Chinese claim to be Indonesians, do not recognize themselves as Chinese, and even adopt a hostile attitude towards China. Some Chinese receive Western education and are not very friendly to Chinese and China.
However, the repeated anti-Chinese movement and the Indonesian exclusion of Chinese people have shown that even if Chinese are completely assimilated by Indonesians, they are still not accepted by Indonesians. This prompted some Chinese to rethink their identity and the embarrassing social environment in which Chinese people live in Indonesia. Some Chinese are more willing to set up Chinese schools to inherit Chinese culture and maintain the spark of Chinese culture in Bangka. They regard the spread of Chinese culture in Bangka as their mission.
China has invested heavily in Indonesia, and the number of Chinese tourists has increased greatly, all of which require a large number of Chinese-speaking workers, which has promoted the development of Chinese language education in Indonesia. Many students who receive Chinese language education can find jobs in Chinese-funded enterprises or tourism industries, which inspires Chinese and even Indonesians to learn Chinese.
There are also some Chinese people who are committed to inheriting Chinese culture in Bangka in order to continue the cultural roots of Chinese people. For example, Wei Baofu and Huang Shihui, who I interviewed, relied on their own financial resources to open trilingual schools in Bangka ("Three Languages" refer to Indonesian, Chinese and English) to promote the development of Chinese education in the local area, cultivate Chinese talents, and also enable Chinese culture to continue to be inherited in Bangka.
Trilingual School Gate
Chinese Mr. Ye Junming introduced to me that Chinese people realize that allowing children to receive Chinese education can help them find a job with good salary, and are also happy to send their children to Trilingual School to study. Some Indonesians are willing to send their children to trilingual schools for education when they see the commercial value of Chinese. These Indonesian students studied Chinese hard and had excellent grades. They were recommended to study in China for one to two years by Trilingual School. After studying, they returned to Bangka and served as Chinese teachers at Trilingual School. This situation is very common, and a phenomenon that surprised us very much is that the Chinese language teacher of Chinese children is Indonesian.
Indonesian teacher who teaches Chinese
I talked to an Indonesian teacher who is engaged in Chinese teaching. The Chinese-speaking Indonesian teacher said that since the Trilingual School can provide it with good salary, he is very happy to be a Chinese teacher at Trilingual School. But as far as I know, their salary is less than 2,000 yuan a month, while the tour guide's monthly income can exceed 10,000 yuan.I am half-believing about whether his statement of being a Chinese teacher comes from the heart and whether he is really willing to engage in Chinese teaching for a long time. Because I found in the survey that many Indonesians will change their careers to find higher-paying jobs after five years of being Chinese teachers when they end their contracts with trilingual schools. How to retain Chinese teachers is a great test for local Chinese schools.
Trilingual School Chinese and Indonesian teachers
Chinese culture and identity crisis
Although Chinese education is in full swing in Bangka, the difficulty of reopening Chinese courses in a country where Chinese education has been banned for 35 years is predictable. Education requires a long cycle, and learning Chinese requires a language environment. In addition, the difficulty of learning Chinese is high, which makes many students afraid that the Chinese level will remain at a very low level. In order to go to school, these students transferred to Indonesian schools, and the Chinese they had learned before gradually became deserted.
Although Chinese people are committed to establishing trilingual schools in order to inherit Chinese culture so that students can have the opportunity to receive Chinese education, the operating funds of these schools are basically donated by Chinese people. The local education department also prioritizes funding to public schools due to limited funding, so the funding for these schools is extremely small. Nowadays, the person in charge of running trilingual schools is all older, and the younger generation is generally not interested in trilingual schools. Once the elderly Chinese pass away, how to maintain these trilingual schools is really a big problem.
The Chinese ancestors of Bangka were the first batch of workers to immigrate from China. They brought Chinese culture, opened Chinese schools, and promoted the development of the local economy. However, with their aging and death, the inheritance and continuation of Chinese culture in Bangka faces the problem of no successor.
Children are singing in Chinese, and the boy at the forefront is Indonesian
Once Chinese culture has ended its inheritance and continuation in Bangka, Chinese people may lose the root of cultural and ethnic identity and become a very embarrassing ethnic group that speaks Indonesian but cannot be accepted by Indonesians. At the same time, it is difficult to have the strength to unite and safeguard the rights and interests of Chinese people.
Although it is a trend for Chinese people to integrate into the mainstream local society and is irreversible, if Chinese people integrate into the local society, they can be accepted by Indonesians, which will of course help the Chinese people to survive and develop locally. However, from a realistic perspective, even if Chinese people accept Indonesian culture, exclusion still occurs from time to time, and Chinese seem to be permanently labeled as identity by Indonesians. For example, Jakarta Governor Zhong Wanxue, who has Chinese and Christian identities, failed to run for re-election last year and was sentenced to two years in prison, which fully demonstrates that Chinese people still need to fight for their own interests and need to use cultural ties to safeguard ethnic identity and prevent Islamic extremist forces from destroying and attacking Chinese society.
