The Cosmopolitan Performers: Chinese–Indonesian Migrants in Perth, Australia

Abstract

This paper will discuss the socio-cultural process of performance in relation to the cosmopolitan identity and imaginings of Chinese-Indonesian migrants in Perth, Western Australia. Representing the largest visible group of Indonesian migrants in Australia, the Chinese ‘descendants’ (keturunan) perform as Indonesian traditional dancers on the Australian multicultural stage, to "celebrate the institutions of the state(s) in which [they] live" (Appiah 1997, 633). Nevertheless and perhaps inevitably, this cosmopatriot identity is often tinted with uncertainty due to the ambiguity surrounding their positioning as a legally accepted ethnic group in Indonesia. When viewed as ‘ethnic’ dancers from Jakarta, these women are seen as ‘legitimate’ cultural representatives because the Indonesian migrant community accepts the discourse of Chinese historical settlement in Jakarta, creating a cultural syncretic influence. However, their own internal sense of belonging is disrupted, particularly due to the lingering memory of the violent ‘May 1998 riots’, which targeted Chinese Indonesians. For many, the uncertainty generated by this violent episode became the reason for migration and settlement in Perth. Migration, the Australian multicultural stage, and a cosmopolitan worldview thus provide the spaces for Chinese Indonesians to express a cosmopatriotic affiliation with Indonesia despite being in a neighbouring country.