Imagining “Indonesia”: Ethnic Chinese film producers in pre-independence cinema

• Main Authors: SETIJADI, Charlotte, BARKER, Thomas
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2010
• Subjects: Indonesia; National cinema; Ethnic Chinese; Colonial cinema; Asian Studies; Film and Media Studies
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2784; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4041/viewcontent/Imagining_Indonesia_Ethnic_Chinese_film.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In this paper, we aim to re-examine the roles of ethnic Chinese filmmakers in Indonesian cinematic history as a preliminary study in the reconsideration of the early years of the film industry. Here, we regard the simplification of history in the film industry as part of a broader attempt by nationalist and New Order ideologues to “appropriate” the origins of cinema and “ ” in Indonesia. On the same note, we argue that the narrative tradition that privileges “indigenous” filmmakers as the originators of asli (authentic ortrue) Indonesian culture on screen reflects the dominant yet narrow definition of nationalism as based on ethnic and cultural primordialism. We challenge this common historical construction and assert that in the first decades of Indonesian cinema, ethnic Chinese filmmakers played pivotal roles in forming the images of Indonesian culture and peoples on screen.