Beyond the Colonial Outsider: Chinese Indonesian Participation and the Making of Indonesian Nationalism 1928–1949
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24114//jk.23.2.75907.489-510Keywords:
Participations, Chinese Indonesians, Indonesian Nationalism, National Identity, Partai Tionghoa IndonesiaAbstract
Previous research on Indonesian nationalism has primarily focused on indigenous groups, political leaders, and revolutionaries, often positioning Indonesian Chinese as colonial intermediaries, a minority group, or an exception. This article re-examines the participation of Indonesian Chinese in Indonesian nationalism from the Second Youth Congress in 1928 to the transfer of sovereignty in 1949. Drawing on contemporary print sources, archives, political biographies, constitutional debates, and historical studies, the analysis applies Manuel Castells’ theory of identity construction alongside concepts of social boundary formation and national membership. The findings identify three primary forms of Indonesian Chinese participation: the establishment of networks and movement spaces such as Kramat 106; contributions to public discourse through Sin Po and the Partai Tionghoa Indonesia (Indonesian Chinese Party); and involvement in political and revolutionary activities between 1945 and 1949. The article argues that while Indonesian Chinese challenged their status as outsiders, they continued to face unequal recognition. It advocates for a more inclusive historiography by integrating Indonesian Chinese into the grand narrative of Indonesian nationalism.
References
Abas, H. (1987). Indonesian as a Unifying Language of Wider Communication: A Historical and Sociolinguistic Perspective. Australian National University. https://catalogue.uiii.ac.id/?p=show_detail&id=34636
Adam, A. W. (2024). Pribumi, Minoritas Tionghoa dan China, by Leo Suryadinata. Bijdragen Tot de Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, 180(2–3), 307–309. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134379-18002010
Ahlborg, H., & Nightingale, A. J. (2018). Theorizing Power in Political Ecology: The Where of Power in Resource Governance Projects. Journal of Political Ecology, 25(1), 381–401. https://doi.org/10.2458/v25i1.22804
Ambyo, T., & Jones, B. A. B. (2026). The Commons before “the Commons”; Decolonial Perspectives on Journalism through “Soenting Melajoe” (1912-1921). Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia, 27(2), 197–220. https://doi.org/10.17510/wacana.v27i2.2177
Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Verso.
Anderson, B. (2006). Java in a Time of Revolution: Occupation and Resistance, 1944-1946. Equinox Publishing.
Angkasa, H. Z.-. (2024). Peranakan Indonesian Architecture of the Late 19th to Early 20th Century in Java and Sumatra: From Architectural Amalgamation and Historical Roots to Ownership Significance.
Antons-Sutanto, R., & Antons, C. (2016). The Construction of Ethnicity in Colonial Law and Its Legacy: The Example of the Peranakan Chinese in Indonesia. In Routledge Handbook of Asian Law (pp. 398–420). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315660547
Arpannudin, I., Suyato, Murdiono, M., Charismana, D. S., Hidayah, Y., Yuanjaya, P., Mulyono, B., & Alrakhman, R. (2025). Shaping Globally Minded Young Citizens Through Islamic International Education: A Case Study of Global Islamic School in Yogyakarta. Jurnal Kewarganegaraan, 22(2), 216–227. https://doi.org/10.24114/jk.v22i2.65661
Aryodiguno, H. (2019). Changes in Chinese-Indonesian Identity: Indonesianization or Re- Sinicization? AEGIS : Journal of International Relations, 3(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.33021/aegis.v3i1.728
Avicena, S., Prima Judith, A., & Kusumaningsih, S. (2024). The Chinese-Indonesian Community, Constitutional Debates, and Citizenship: Navigating Identity and Rights. Indonesia Discourse, 1(1), 159–186. https://doi.org/10.15294/indi.v1i1.22655
Bahar, S., Sinaga, N. H., & Kusuma, A. B. (1995). Risalah sidang Badan Penyelidik Usaha-Usaha Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia (BPUPKI), Panitia Persiapan Kemerdekaan Indonesia (PPKI), 29 Mei 1945-19 Agustus 1945. Sekretariat Negara Republik Indonesia.
Barth, F. (1998). Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference. Waveland Press.
Bazzi, S. (2025). How to Build a Diverse Nation: Lessons from the Indonesian Experience. Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, 61(3), 379–416. https://doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2025.2582855
Blaut, J. M. (1986). A Theory of Nationalism. Antipode, 18(1), 5–10. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.1986.tb00350.x
Blommaert, J., Collins, J., & Slembrouck, S. (2005). Spaces of Multilingualism. Language and Communication, 25(3 SPEC. ISS.), 197–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2005.05.002
Booth, A. (2016). Economic Change in Modern Indonesia: Colonial and Post-colonial Comparisons. Cambridge University Press.
Brubaker, R. (2004). Ethnicity without Groups. In Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Minority Rights (pp. 50–77). Cambridge, Masachusetts, United States. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511489235.004
Buzan, B. (2025). We Will Need to Be Lucky: The Problem of Leadership in a Deep Pluralist World Order Facing a Climate Crisis. Chinese Journal of International Politics, 19(1), 25–41. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjip/poaf017
Chandra, E. (2012). “We the (Chinese) People”: Revisiting the 1945 Constitutional Debate on Citizenship. Indonesia, 94, 85–110. https://doi.org/10.5728/indonesia.94.0085
Chi, J. K. G. (2003). Emergent identities and state-society interactions: transformations of national and ethnic identities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. University of Washington.
Chin, G. V. S. (2021). Engendering Tionghoa nationalism: Female purity in male-Authored Sino-Malay novels of colonial Java. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 52(1), 110–132. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022463421000138
Chua, C. (2004). Defining Indonesian Chineseness under the New Order. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 34(4), 465–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472330480000221
Coppel, C. A. (2008). Anti-Chinese Violence in Indonesia after Soeharto. Ethnic Chinese in Contemporary Indonesia.
Cowen, D. (2020). Following the Infrastructures of Empire: Notes on Cities, Settler Colonialism, and Method. Urban Geography, 41(4), 469–486. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2019.1677990
Darmansyah, D., Misman, M., & Pristiwaningsih, E. (2010). Buku panduan Museum Sumpah Pemuda. Museum Sumpah Pemuda, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.
Deng, Y. (2024). The Power of Identity. In Beyond Identities in Modernity: An Outlook Interpreted from a Fresh Chinese Perspective (pp. 21–30). Wiley Brockwell. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003528180-3
Eng, P. van der. (2020). Chinese Entrepreneurship in Indonesia: A Business Demography Approach. Business History, 64(4), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2020.1788542
Fasseur, C. (1994). Cornerstone and Stumbling Block. In R. B. Cribb (Ed.), The Late Colonial State in Indonesia: Political and Economic Foundations of the Netherlands Indies, 1880-1942. KITLV Press.
Februandari, A. (2020). Authenticity in Cultural Built Heritage: Learning from Chinese Indonesians’ Houses. International Journal of Building Pathology and Adaptation, 38(2), 262–278. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJBPA-02-2019-0017
Fogg, K. W. (2019). Making an Indonesian National Hero for Lombok: The Shifting Category of Pahlawan Nasional. Indonesia and the Malay World, 47(137), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639811.2019.1560710
Freedman, A. L. (2002). Political Participation and Ethnic Minorities: Chinese Overseas in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the United States. Routledge.
Gat, A. (2013). The Long History and Deep Roots of Political Ethnicity and Nation-alism. Cambridge University Press.
Gottschalk, L. R. (1951). Understanding History: A Primer of Historical Method. Canadian Historical Review, 32(1), 87–87. https://doi.org/10.3138/chr-032-01-br15
Guo, S., & McFarland, T. (2023). Dual Nationality and National Belonging: A Case Study of Chinese Diaspora in Indonesia from 1949 to 1960s. Revue Europeenne Des Migrations Internationales, 39(2–3), 155–174. https://doi.org/10.4000/remi.23184
Heidhues, M. S. (2012). Anti-Chinese Violence in Java during the Indonesian Revolution, 1945–49. Journal of Genocide Research, 14(3–4), 381–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/14623528.2012.719371
Henley, D. E. F. (2021). Nationalism and Regionalism in a Colonial Context. In Nationalism and Regionalism in a Colonial Context. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004486928
Hoogervorst, T. G. (2021). Language Ungoverned: Indonesia’s Chinese Print Entrepreneurs, 1911–1949. Cornell University Press.
Hoogervorst, T. G. (2023). Chineseness in Sino-Malay Printing: A Triptych of Self-criticism. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 24(4), 678–693. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2023.2221496
Hoon, C.-Y. (2011). Chinese Identity in Post-Suharto Indonesia: Culture, Politics and Media. Sussex Academic Press.
Jackson, K. D. (2023). Traditional Authority, Islam, and Rebellion: A Study of Indonesian Political Behavior. University of California Press.
Kim, D. S. (2022). Taming Abundance: Doing Digital Archival Research (as Political Scientists). PS - Political Science and Politics, 55(3), 530–538. https://doi.org/10.1017/S104909652100192X
Kurniawan, H., Supriatna, N., Mulyana, A., & Yulifar, L. (2023). From Integration to Marginalization: Representation of the Chinese in History Textbooks in Indonesia. HSE Social and Education History, 12(2), 134–159. https://doi.org/10.17583/hse.11060
Lamont, M., & Molnár, V. (2002). The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences. Annual Review of Sociology, 28(1), 167–195. https://doi.org/0.1146/annurev.soc.28.110601.141107
Laubenthal, B. (2023). Introduction: Assimilation, integration or transnationalism? An Averview of Theories of Migrant Incorporation. International Migration, 61(1), 84–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13118
Lee, D. (2016). Activist Archives: Youth Culture and the Political Past in Indonesia. Duke University Press.
Li, T. M. (2000). Articulating Indigenous Identity in Indonesia: Resource Politics and the Tribal Slot. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 42(1), 149–179. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417500002632
Maghfur, M. A., R., S. A., Fatkhurrohman, S., Y., T. P., & Setyoning, W. (2023). Pemanfaatan Museum Sumpah Pemuda sebagai Sumber Belajar melalui Teknologi Virtual Reality. Jurnal DinamikA, 4(1), 13–32. https://doi.org/10.18326/dinamika.v4i1.13-32
Mahdiyar, F. A. (2023). Sin Po: Peran pers Tionghoa dalam mendukung pergerakan nasional Indonesia 1925-1930. Historiography, 3(1), 154. https://doi.org/10.17977/um081v3i12023p154-161
Mamdani, M. (2012). Define and Rule: Native as Political Identity. Harvard University Press.
Manse, M. (2024). The Plural Legacies of Legal Pluralism: Local Practices and Contestations of Customary Law in Late Colonial Indonesia. Legal Pluralism and Critical Social Analysis, 56(3), 328–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/27706869.2024.2377447
Meer, A. van der. (2024). “Come to Java”: Colonial Tourism and the Fragile Illusion of an “Island Paradise.” Itinerario, 48(3), 294–314. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165115324000342
Mubah, A. S., & Anabarja, S. (2020). Globalization, National Identity and Citizenship: Dilemma of Chinese Indonesians in Indonesian Nation-building. Tamkang Journal of International Affairs, 23(3), 55–102. https://doi.org/10.6185/TJIA.V.202001_23(3).0002
Nugroho, S. (2020). The Divergent Nation of Indonesia. Springer.
Postero, N. (2017). The Indigenous State. University of California Press.
Putra, F. P., Fajriudin, F., & Permana, A. (2020). Perkembangan Lagu Indonesia Raya (Tahun 1928-2009). Historia Madania: Jurnal Ilmu Sejarah, 4(2), 269–286. https://doi.org/10.15575/hm.v4i2.9525
Ravensbergen, S. (2022). Do Not Harm the Decorum: Mixed Courts and Cloth in Colonial Indonesia. Law and History Review, 40(3), 533–548. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0738248022000438
Reid, A. (2001). Sojourners and Settlers: Histories of Southeast Asia and the Chinese. University of Hawaii Press.
Riyadi, Warto, & Sariyatun. (2026). Ethnicity, Nationalism, and the Politics of Belonging: Rethinking the Chinese Indonesian Contribution to Nationhood. Cogent Social Sciences, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2026.2639647
Roff, W. R. (1980). Political Thinking of the Indonesian Chinese, 1900-1995: A Sourcebook. Pacific Affairs, 53(4), 782–783. https://doi.org/10.2307/2757577
Strassler, K. (2008). Cosmopolitan Visions: Ethnic Chinese and the Photographic Imagining of Indonesia in the Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial Periods. Journal of Asian Studies, 67(2), 395–432. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002191180800065X
Sudarmanto, J. B. (2007). Jejak-jejak Pahlawan: Perekat Kesatuan Bangsa Indonesia. Grasindo.
Suriaman, Darmawan, C., Sapriya, Suryadi, K., & Karman. (2026). Integrating Augmented Reality and Digital Citizenship in Civic Education: A Systematic Literature Review. Jurnal Kewarganegaraan, 23(1), 207–230. https://doi.org/10.24114/65r7nh79
Suryadinata, L. (2022). Peranakan Chinese identities in the globalizing Malay Archipelago. ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
Suryadinata, L. (2023). Peranakan Chinese Politics and Decolonization in Indonesia. In Peranakan Chinese Identities in the Globalizing Malay Archipelago (pp. 213–230). ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.
Suwignyo, A. (2022). School Teachers and Soft Decolonisation in Dutch-Indonesian Relations, 1945-1949. Itinerario, 46(1), 150–171. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0165115321000309
Tanasaldy, T. (2022). From Official to Grassroots Racism: Transformation of Anti-Chinese Sentiment in Indonesia. Political Quarterly, 93(3), 460–468. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-923X.13148
Thio, M. L., & Sidarto, L. (2024). Reclaiming of the Heritage Name by Peranakan Chinese in the Netherlands and Their Sense of Delonging. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 13(3), 393–409. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-04-2024-0018
Tilly, C. (1995). Citizenship Identity and Social History. International Review of Social History, 40(S3), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020859000113586
Twang, P. Y. (1987). Indonesian Chinese business communities in transformation, 1940-50. The Australian National University (Australia).
Twang, P. Y. (1998). The Chinese Business Élite in Indonesia and the Transition to Independence 1940-1950. JSTOR.
Ubaedillah, A. (2023). The Minority and the State: Chinese Muslims in the Modern History of Indonesia. Al-Jami’ah, 61(1), 107–136. https://doi.org/10.14421/ajis.2023.611.107-136
Usmi, R., Budimansyah, D., Rahmat, Siti Masyitoh, I., Sari, B. I., & Eprilianto, D. F. (2025). Building Inclusive Citizenship: A Study in Yogyakarta Societies. Jurnal Kewarganegaraan, 22(2), 180–198. https://doi.org/10.24114/jk.v22i2.64727
Vickers, A. (2023). Erasing and Re-inscribing Chinese into Indonesian History. Asian Ethnicity, 24(1), 78–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2022.2069083
Wai Weng, H. (2023). Archipelagic Chineseness: competing ways of being Chinese Muslims in contemporary Indonesia and Malaysia. Asian Ethnicity, 24(1), 132–150. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2022.2122396
Walujono, A. (2014). The Discrimination of the Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia and Perceptions of Nationality. Scripps Senior Theses, 31(1), 104–110. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/508/
Wimmer, A. (2013). Ethnic Boundary Making: Institutions, Power, Networks. Oxford University Press.
Woolgar, M. (2023). Ethnic Politics, the Cold War and Sub-national Dynamics: the Indonesian Communist Party, the Ethnic Chinese Minority and Anti-Chinese Activities in West Java, 1949–67. Modern Asian Studies, 57(6), 1959–1983. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X22000592
Yadav, M. K. (2026). The Politics of Belonging: Identity, Recognition, and Social Inclusion in Diverse Communities. Journal of Progressive Social Inquiry, 1(2), 27–38. https://jpsijournal.com/index.php/jpsi/article/view/13
Yahya, Y. (2002). Peranakan Idealis dari Lie Eng Hok sampai Teguh Karya. Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia.
Yotes, T. S. (2024). An Integrated Threat Theory Analysis of Latent tension between native Indonesians and Chinese Indonesians. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 17(4), 427–447. https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2024.2397395
Yuliantri, R. D. A., & Suwignyo, A. (2024). Revisiting the Ideological Negotiation of Indonesian Identity, 1900--1942. Politics, Religion and Ideology, 25(1), 21–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2023.2301560
Yuval-Davis, N. (2011). The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations. In The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations. SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446251041
Zhou, T. (2019). Migration in the Time of Revolution: China, Indonesia, and the Cold War. Cornell University Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Fahmi Irhamsyah, Susanto Zuhdi, Juri Ardiantoro, Ricu Sidiq, Roni Fajar
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors published with the Jurnal Kewarganegaraan agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-SA 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. (See The Effect of Open Access)
Licence
Jurnal Kewarganegaraan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
