Mahabharata's heroes return

Matheos Viktor Messakh , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/01/2009 12:37 PM | Features
Blast to the past: Comic lovers enjoy nostalgic moments of their childhood readings through republished old comics.

Forget Batman, Spiderman or Superman. There is another breed of action heroes out there in the brightly hued land of comic books. Their names have a more local take, like Gatotkaca, Arjuna, Abimanyu and the twins Nakula and Sadewa.

Don't expect Captain America-versus-Superman high jinks or super-criminals threatening the world. This comic offers the real actions of heroes from the epic Mahabharata or Ramayana, which are sometimes portrayed symbolically by puppet masters.
Within the last few years, Indonesian comics have awakened from a long sleep since the invasion of Western comics in the late 1970s and 1980s. Comic-lover communities have been sprouting up here and there, sharing interest in old Indonesian comics, while also promoting the re-publishing of both old and new ones.
Earlier this month, the publishing of the comic Riwayat Pandawa (The Tale of Pandawa) has brought together the monumental works of late comic writer Teguh Santosa on Mahabharata, Bharatayudha and Pandawa Seda in one bundle.
Publisher Pluz+, a special publisher set up by comic lovers, spent two years collecting pieces from the series from collectors and bookstores around the country before reprinting them using a special technique.
These comic strips have never been published before. They were first published as a supplement in children's magazine, Ananda, in the 1980s.
"The old publishers never kept hard copies. So we had to restore old copies of published material, and then reprint them," says comic lover Andy Wijaya, who was involved in the process.
It all started when several comic buffs got together through a mailing list and Website, komikindonesia.com, back on June 20, 2004.
The online platform was able to draw together comic lovers nationwide, which later on went to mediate comic copyright holders and publishers to re-publish quality comics. As of today, the number of active members in community has reached more than 2,000 people.
"As comic lovers, we know which ones are still wanted in the market and we also help the copyright holders with legal matters so they don't feel reluctant to re-publish their comics," says Andy, who owns the comic-book shop Anjaya Books.
To date, the group has helped negotiate the publishing of no less than 15 old Indonesian comics, including selected titles of superheroes series such as Gundala Putra Petir, Si Buta dari Gua Hantu, Godam and Dina.
However, sales are not that rosy.
"We sell at most 300 copies of each title, from a target of 1,000 copies," says Andy.
Driven by the determination to rejuvenate Indonesian comics, but at the same time facing the reality of the business world, Andy joined hands with fellow comic lovers Gienardy S., Asrin Nirwan and Erwin Prima Arya, in founding Pluz+, dedicated to publishing selected Indonesian comics.
Having their own company, they re-publish only limited edition of comics upon order from other comic lovers. This helps shorten the distribution chain, as they can sell directly to readers or specialty bookshops.
The digital printing technology has also helped them realize their business ideals. In the past, more than 3,000 copies of any one title had to be printed to make it financially feasible, but now a 500-copy print is sufficient.
"The printing cost could have been much higher, but with limited editions, we spend less money and we don't have to spend money on storage," says Andy.
"We don't have to chase after sales targets, and can comfortably rely on our own links, because sales from these cover the production costs."
Andy, a fan of Kus Bramiyana's Laba-Laba Merah (Red Spider), believes that old reprinted comics still have their own market, and with better printing techniques, people will still long to browse through comics in remembrance of their long-lost childhood memories.
"We've been targeting a segmented market, where people actually buy nostalgia, and for whom money doesn't matter," says the man who gave up a career in Singapore for one in rejuvenating the local comic scene.
Comic researcher Seno Gumira Adjidarma says comics based on the Indian epics have a unique position in Indonesian history, born as they were from political repression.
Images of yesteryears: Comic community in Indonesia reprints several widely known old comics of Indian epics.
The first such comics, popularly known as "komik wayang" (shadow-puppet comics), were published in 1954-1955, when writers struggled to find a safer form of comics, as they were deemed a representation of imperialism.
During this time, the publisher Keng Po printed Johnlo's works: Lahirnya Gatot Kaca (The Birth of Gatot Kaca) and Raden Palasara. Meanwhile, Bandung-based publisher Melody issued R.A. Kosasih's series of Mahabharata. For his efforts to preserve traditional values through comics, Kosasih was later named the father of Indonesian comics.
"As a schoolboy in the 1960s, I remember the time comics were seized from students and burned, as they were seen as a representation of imperialism; so comic writers came out with something safer to produce. This is why we have comics based on wayang," Seno says.
Pluz+ co-founder Gienardy S. says the reprinting of the Indian epics was just the beginning of the effort to rejuvenate the Indonesian comic scene. The publisher will also support the production of new comics and comic merchandise.
"A new generation of Indonesian comic writers has been hired by foreign comic publishers. We just need to support them to be better in developing characters and solid plots," says Gienardy.
The decision by comic lovers to reprint the Mahabharata, Bharatayudha and Pandawa Seda, says Seno, is not just to scratch around for documentation, but a resistance to the business hegemony of the big comic industry, which offers cheap and low-quality comics in bulk.
"It doesn't matter if our kids don't understand Naruto *a popular Japanese anime*. But if they don't understand the Mahabharata, it's like losing their identity," Seno said last month during the launch of Riwayat Pandawa.
Teguh Santosa is not the first writer to draw comics absed on this Indian epic, and he has drawn parallels with his noted predecessor, R.A. Kosasih.
Although both writers rely on original Indian repertoire, which has been locally developed in certain versions, in certain parts Kosasih only wrote them in his narration, while Santosa draws them in his pictures.
"This is really an enrichment. We have different versions of visualization," says Seno.
Whereas Kosasih's works are filled with Indian-styles temples, Teguh's works are filled with Javanese character, particularly in architecture.The fact that these stories were treated only as an insertion in a children's magazine clearly shows its inferior position, despite the fact that Teguh Santosa was an important figure in the history of Indonesian comics.
If Wid N.S. was known as the creator of superheroes Godam and Aquanus, Teguh was known as the creator of many martial arts figures. He was the first Indonesian comic writer hired by the world comic publisher Marvel Comics in New York as an inkman for the serials Conan, Ali Baba and Piranha.
His style of presentation is also unique compared to the latest comic styles.
"If the strength of Japanese manga is in their movement, Teguh's works are like paintings. His surrealism gives his scenes the effect of a painting. We love staring at them. Although the costumes are weird, the imagination is strong," says Seno.

Dedicated to puppets

Matheos Viktor Messakh , THE JAKARTA POST , JAKARTA | Fri, 06/26/2009 1:26 PM | Lifestyle

Given that he owes his life to a puppeteer, businessman Rohmad Hadiwijoyo felt it was all he could do to help support the survival of the traditional art of puppetry.

The dalang, or puppeteer, in question is Ki Joko Edan, from whom Rohmad learned the art of puppetry. He followed the dalang wherever he went for six years from the time he finished elementary school until he finished high school. It was the dalang who gave him the last name Hadiwijoyo.
Only after he enrolled at a college in Jakarta in 1985 did Rohmad part from his mentor, but still he stayed in contact from time to time.
Thanks to the value of puppet stories, which Rohmad claim are the key to his success, he has been able to build a traditional Javanese house joglo on a block of land in the sleepy area of Cirendeu in South Jakarta dedicated to those who want to become masters in the art of puppetry.
The 3,400 square meters of land in the valley of the Pesangrahan river, which he bought from another puppetry-loving businessman, cost him Rp 2 billion; he spent another Rp 600 million building the 200-meter-square house and a two-story cottage used mainly as accommodation for people who perform at the joglo.
"When it's about my hobby, everything else comes second," says Rohmad, also a professional puppeteer. "Besides, I was raised by a dalang and I want to do something for all the dalang."
He opened the complex, named Paguyuban Putro Wijoyo Parwo, in March 2006. It is equipped with a modern sound system, two sets of puppetry gamelan worth Rp 400 million and two boxes of classical Javanese puppets. The parking lot and the front yard of the joglo can hold more than 50 cars.
Now, the complex is home to 30 traditional Javanese gamelan players (wiyogo), three Javanese singers (sinden) and two puppeteers (dalang). Most of these people are simple workers: builders, carpenters, small traders. One of the puppeteers is a handyman.
Every Thursday night the 30 members of the paguyuban - a term that loosely translates as "association" or "community" - hold a regular performance, with a rehearsal every Monday night led by senior members for its can-didate puppeteers and gamelan players.
Five young puppeteers and five gamelan players are currently taking lessons at the paguyuban. Some of these young puppeteers have taken part in broader events such as at the national festival of child puppeteers held at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) in July last year.
The paguyuban also provides a rehearsal space for 15 puppetry groups of various sizes in South Jakarta, which take turns to perform at the center each month.
Among the 15 puppetry groups in South Jakarta are troupes such as Inarcahya in Ciledug, Nirmala Sari in Cinere and Sanggar Sidodadi in Sawangan.
The monthly performances are part of a puppeteer exchange among the members of the South Jakarta branch of the Indonesian Puppeteers Association (Pepadi).
"Perhaps the puppeteer communities in South Jakarta are the most active puppeteer communities," said Ki Gede Kwatno, a puppeteer at the paguyuban and secretary of the South Jakarta branch of Pepadi.
"We hold a regular exchange of puppeteers and gamelan players to give both small and big groups more opportunities to perform. We offer more options for some of the communities which have a limited gamelan set and even *a limited* stock of puppets."
Kwatno, a handyman, had been part of another group since 1998 but he joined Paguyuban Putro Wijoyo Parwo in 2007 because he feels comfortable with the center's distance from residential areas.
"I used to be part of a group that practiced near a mosque but people used to complain a lot," he said.
As well as providing rehearsal space for puppeteers, the paguyuban is also involved in an array of educational enterprises aimed at fostering and promoting the art of puppetry, such as training workshops for puppeteers, exhibitions of the various kinds of wayang found in Indonesia and wayang performances.
In the past two years, the paguyuban has held five exhibitions, with its most recent a workshop and exhibition of Betawi shadow puppets at TMII in April.
The community also takes part in an annual puppetry festival held in July by the Indonesia Puppeteers Association. Last year, it hosted the festival.
Although some of the young puppeteers who study at the pagu-yuban are students from schools in Jakarta, Reinel Litana, the Pepadi treasurer in Jakarta, said the pagu-yuban would approach international schools in Jakarta to introduce puppetry either as an extracurricular course or even part of the curriculum.
"Six months is all a student needs to be able to become a puppeteer," said Litana, who has been working with Rohmad for six years.
And with the center currently in use only a few days a week, Litana encourages other groups to use the place for rehearsals.
"They just need to tell us to put their name on the list and we will arrange the schedule," he said.

Franki Raden: Building cultural bridges

Matheos Viktor Messakh , THE JAKARTA POST , JAKARTA | Tue, 03/31/2009 11:29 AM | People

JP/R. Berto Wedhatama

Franki Raden knows what it’s like to see the world from the other side.

With extensive experience and more than 16 years studying and lecturing around the world, he has earned the authority to judge the social engineering of Indonesia’s art and culture.

He agrees that the country’s indigenous art and culture have been abused by the state for propaganda about our heritage, but he does not agree that foreign scholars and artists should be permitted to exploit or study that heritage without contributing anything to its preservation.
“After all this time, we are so proud of our traditional art and cultural richness, we talk about it all the time, everywhere, but we do nothing about it,” Franki says.

“On the other hand, many scholars and foreign artists come here to learn about us. Some take their material from our culture and built their portfolio and work without even mentioning Indonesia.”

Concerned that the country’s art and culture were being undervalued by Indonesians and exploited by outsiders, Franki and his colleague Serrano Sianturi founded the Sacred Bridge Foundation in Jakarta in 1998.

“My concern is with empowering people who have been living with their culture for hundreds of years. It’s so ironic if these people have tremendous expertise but they can’t make a living out it,” he says.

“Why is it people who study computers for five years can make a living out of their expertise but not these people?”

The foundation has attracted the attention of many people concerned about the preservation of world culture, including Japanese national living treasure Tsutomu Yamashita, who become chairman of the advisory board of the organization, and the former director of Unesco Jakarta, Stephen C. Hill, who is a member of the advisory board.

Franki, whose real name is Franki Suryadarma Notosudirdjo, is an ethnomusicologist, composer, cultural critic and multimedia artist who has received numerous awards and fellowships from prestigious research and arts institutes including the Social Sciences and Research Council (SSRC), The Ford Foundation, The Henry Luce Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, The Arts Council of Jakarta (DKJ) and The Indonesian Film Festival (FFI).

Franki finished his studies in his music composition at the Jakarta Art Institute (IKJ) in 1986. Two years later, he became a visiting artist in New York sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. He later studied composition with Chou Wen-Chung at Columbia University and Stephen Dembski at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned his PhD in 2001.

His research has always focused on issues at the intersection of the arts, religion, the media and politics in Asia, as well as colonial arts and culture in Indonesia, and Asian-American contemporary arts. He spent two years researching jazz in the Afro-American community in Chicago, as well as teaching in the Fine Arts Cultural Studies program, at the Faculty of Fine Arts at York University in the UK and the Visual and Performing Arts program at the University of Toronto in Canada.

His studio work, which demonstrates his strong interest in combining elements from both Western and non-Western cultures, has been performed in Indonesia, Japan and the United States.

After years overseas, Franki decided to bring his family back to Indonesia, stopping for one year at the National University of Singapore, where he was a lecturer on studies in Asian Art and Popular Culture in Southeast Asia.

During his 10 years of back and forth to Jakarta running the Sacred Bridge Foundation, Franki and his colleagues designed and organized numerous events on a global scale, such as the legendary Sacred Rhythm Festival in Bali and Kyoto, the Interfaith Music Clinic and Concert at Borobudur Temple, and Cultural Healing for the Tsunami Survivors in Aceh.

The foundation’s programs, all of which take an interdisciplinary approach, are based on four domains: Intercultural dialogue, cultural education for children, preservation of indigenous arts and capacity building.

Franki believes Indonesia has great potential to contribute to world music but that no significant steps have been made.

“It takes the whole continent of Africa to have a variety of music heritages but it only takes one country, Indonesia, to have a thousand musical traditions. Why shouldn’t we do something?” he says.

“We don’t want to just be hired as an instructor if one of our original instruments is taken by a foreign artist or institution.”

Franki said his long-term goal is to bridge groups or cultures around the world to bring about a better future. “Indigenous cultures everywhere are a huge repository for cultural values and civilization, but they have been neglected everywhere.”

The best way to approach these cultures as an ethnomusicologist, says Franki, is to become an insider and work with people to empower their culture. He himself once lived in a Dayak community in Tanjung Manis, East Kalimantan, to reinvent their long-defunct mouth organ, which was generally used in rituals.

“We are not going to represent anybody or any culture, because every representation has its own bias and that’s very dangerous.”

But, he adds, indigenous peoples should not be left to deal with these problems on their own.

“They won’t be able to solve their own problems because it has become too complicated, requiring a multidisciplinary approach. They need people who understand their problems, understand how the system works and help empower them,” he says. “Government
can play a role here. They can think of a system where the economy is integrated with art and culture.”

Love of Literature just doesn't pay

Matheos Viktor Messakh , THE JAKARTA POST , JAKARTA | Mon, 02/02/2009 12:59 PM | Lifestyle

Something for nearly everyone: Visitors to the Kompas Gramedia Fair 2009 pass by publishers’ stalls. Although many books written in other languages are available in Indonesia, few Indonesian books are translated into English or other languages. JP/J. Adiguna

Despite Indonesia’s rich literary tradition and vibrant local publishing scene, the work of only one Indonesian writer — Pramoedya Ananta Toer — has made its way onto the international stage.

Visit any Gramedia bookstore around the country, and you will see that fiction is the most visited section. Hundreds of novels, plays and anthologies are published here every year, but few get translated, keeping them inaccessible to the rest of the world.

The list of obstacles is a long one, according to John H. McGlynn, the director of publications at the Lontar Foundation.

“First and foremost is lack of support, whether from the private corporate or government sector. There has to be recognition — especially from the government — if you want to present yourself to the world as a civilized nation through literature and art.”

McGlynn, who has lived in Jakarta for 33 years, translated several works by Pramoedya and arranged his US tour. In 1987, he established the Lontar Foundation along with writers Goenawan Mohamad, Sa-pardi Djoko Damono, Umar Kayam and Subagio Sastrowardoyo as an initiative to foster greater appreciation of Indonesian culture, particularly through the translation and publication of Indonesian literature in English.

It is hardly a secret that few Asian governments and business have made the effort to have their local literature translated and promoted worldwide. Writers from India, Singapore and the Philippines who write in English gain some success, and a few Chinese and Japanese writers have managed to break through on the international market.

This lack of government support means publishers must rely on sales alone — an approach that doesn’t work for translations.

“Most countries around the world recognize that,” McGlynn said. “Throughout South America, Europe, other countries in Asia, there are institutions or the government itself provides subsidies to publishers who want to publish their literature.”

Book supporters: A group of cheerleaders choose books at the Kompas Gramedia Fair 2009 at Istora Senayan in Jakarta, on Jan. 29. JP/J. Adiguna

Low sales and high production costs mean that most of the revenue from a translated book — 80 or 90 percent — goes toward covering production, distribution, translation and writing, plus overheads, leaving the publisher with an unsustainable profit margin.

“If the maximum amount a publisher or a translator can get get from a Rp 100,000 book is maximally Rp 10,000, how many books do they have to sell to get a profit?” he said. “The publisher of a translation can’t survive using the commercial model.”

Even one of Indonesia’s biggest publishers, Kompas-Gramedia, finds it hard to sell translations or other books written in English.

Bagus Dharmawan, a chief editor of Penerbit Buku Kompas, a subsidiary of Kompas-Gramedia publisher, believes that the lack of a local market for English-language books means many publishers are not interested in having local works translated.

“We still have a problem with literacy even in Indonesian,” he said. “How can we expect people to read in English?”

One example, said Dharmawan, was an English version of Development Manifesto by the late economist Mubyarto, published in 2005. By October 2008, only five exemplars had been sold.

Yet Indonesian publishers have a high rate of translating books written in other languages into Indonesian. According to UNESCO, Indonesian is among the top target languages for translations. When it comes to works translated out of Indonesian, the language does not appear on the list. Countries that have published books translated from Indonesian include Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, Germany and theUnited States.

Even when works are translated and published, convincing international booksellers to distribute them is very difficult, especially in the United States, which is the world’s biggest market.

“Of the some 100,000 books published in the US last year, less than zero comma something percent were translations,” McGlynn said — a sign of the international lack of appreciation of foreign literature.

“There is not that much interest in the West in knowing about Indonesia, and it’s happening with almost all non-English languages.”

Only a few authors who write in languages other than English are well-known in the West. Many become known after winning prizes, especially the Nobel Prize.

“Of all the wonderful Spanish-language writers, a couple have gained fame, and Umberto Eco is the only well-known Italian writer,” McGlynn points out. “Indonesia has only Pramoedya and it’s very limited. … He was interviewed by almost all major televisions, radio and newspapers, but that didn’t help him increase sales at all.”

That there are no institutions representing writers compounds the problem.

“There is no such thing as literary agents in Indonesia, whereas Western publishers will only deal with an agent. They don’t deal with authors, they don’t deal with publishers. So for a writer from Indonesia who doesn’t have an agent, they won’t get to first base.”

And even then, it is a crowded literary scene.

“If we’re going to translate something from Bahasa Indonesia into English, it has to say something different or it has to say something so amazingly well, that they will take notice.”

The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy’s highly successful award-winning 1997 novel, was an example of a book that “broke out”, McGlynn said, because it is well written in English and also illuminates Indian society.

“That’s where Pramoedya had a gift. He was both a good writer and he said something about Indonesia.”

A contemporary Indonesian novel, such as crime or chick lit, will not appeal to Western readers who already have too much choice.

“Not that Indonesian writers should look toward the West and say ‘what’s going to make it there?’ That should not be their measure of success. Their measure of success should be how well it is received within their country. But if they do want to introduce Indonesia abroad through literature then they need to say something about Indonesia.”

The lack of such writing, McGlynn said, is one reason the Lontar Foundation has not been as productive as hoped. During its 20 years of existence, the foundation has published less than 100 books.

A further limitation is a shortage of translators, and the time and money required for the translation.

“It takes a year or more to get the translation of a novel right,” McGlynn said. “But no organization can afford to pay a good translator what they deserve.”

McGlynn could translate Pra-moedya’s works only because the publisher paid him in advance.

“Most of the good translators I know have a full-time job. They only translate for love of Indonesia and there is no appreciation of that love. And after a while it just gets burned out.”

The tale of the `peranakan'

Thu, 01/22/2009 1:49 PM | Lifestyle

Peranakan is a term used to refer to the descendants of early Chinese immigrants who partially adopted indigenous customs through either acculturation or intermarriage with indigenous communities.
Many peranakan Chinese families have been settled in Indonesia for centuries and have mixed indigenous-Chinese ancestry. There are about 7 million peranakan in Indonesia.
According to University of Indonesia anthropologist, Iwan Meulia Pirous, the origins of Chinese Indonesians vary greatly, as do the timing and circumstances of their immigration to Indonesia and their strength of ties with the Chinese mainland.
"Many local Chinese cultures are disregarded. After political reformation in 1998, the Chinese could more openly express their culture," said Pirous, who is also a member of the Forum for Indonesian Anthropological Studies (FKAI).
"But this is always as a global Chinese identity. Symbols like dragons, Chinese coins and lanterns frequently appear, but there are also many local cultures."
It is possible, Pirous said, that early Chinese settlements existed long before Admiral Zhang arrived in the early 15th century as part of what is considered the first wave of immigration.
The second wave of immigration occurred around the time of the Opium Wars (1839-1860), while the third wave was around the first half of the 20th century. Descendants of early immigrants, who have become creolized, or huan-na (in Hokkien), by marriage and acculturation, are called peranakan. The more recent Chinese immigrants and those who are still culturally Chinese are called cina totok.
In the 15th century, many first-generation peranakan were born Muslim as they settled down, marrying indigenous women. They founded mosques, using a combination of Chinese and local designs.
The peranakan contributed various cultural influences - mainly culinary, including various types of noodles. Other contributions are beautiful batik pesisir from Cirebon, Pekalongan, Kudus, Lasem, Tuban and Sidoarjo, and traditional herbal medicines known as jamu.
Since 1870, politics have threatened peranakan culture. When the Dutch government issued an agrarian policy prohibiting pribumi (indigenous people) from selling their land to foreigners, this affected the Chinese, who were categorized as foreigners ("foreign Orientals"). Consequently their integration with their "indigenous" neighbors was disrupted.
Despite their contribution to the nationalist movement and struggle against Dutch colonialism, the peranakan were coming under increasing government pressure by the late 1950s to assimilate with what was then viewed as the indigenous Indonesian "national identity".
During Soeharto's era, the peranakan were stigmatized as leftist sympathizers and banned from politics, because Sukarno's regime chose to side with the People's Republic of China - something that Soeharto as an anti-Communist American ally did not want.
- Matheos V. Messakh

Cultural journey begins with a single step

Matheos Viktor Messakh , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 01/22/2009 1:49 PM | Lifestyle

A new exhibition of Chinese antiques is remarkable not only for the cultural, historical and aesthetic value of the items on display.
Equally remarkable is the exhibition's tribute to Chinese culture, given Indonesia's dark history of racial hatred, violence and state-driven oppression of the nation's ethnic Chinese.
This hio louw is used to hold incense sticks for offerings. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
"Warisan Budaya Tionghoa Peranakan" (Cultural Heritage of Chinese Descendants), open at the elegant Bentara Budaya Jakarta complex in South Jakarta until Jan. 25, is an exhibition of antiques dated between 1850 and 1960, and is extraordinary for the tale it tells of Chinese acculturation in Indonesia.
"Because those [Chinese] who arrived had different backgrounds and those who visited also had various backgrounds, the result is a Chinese culture that varies from one part of the country to another," former minister and nationalist advocate Siswono Yudo Husodo said at the opening of the exhibition last Thursday night.
The exhibition has been expertly brought together by curators Gunawan Widjaya, Musa Jonatan and Rusdi Tjahyadi, who collected 300 items of furniture, china, textiles, musical instruments, works of art, magazines and newspapers from about 20 owners in Jakarta, Bogor, Bandung and Semarang.
"We only selected items before 1960 because we knew that after the 1960s the New Order regime didn't recognize Chinese culture," said exhibition director Irwan Julianto.
"People had to change their names, Chinese writing was not allowed and so on. One of the consequences of this was that the Chinese were afraid to produce things that had Chinese influences. Some inheritors even sold theirs."
From musical instruments to kitchen sets, from gambling equipment to items for worship, the exhibition shows not only the evolution of household items, but also the struggle of the ethnic Chinese to preserve their culture.
Curator Rusdi Tjahyadi said that although ethnic Chinese in Indonesia tried to keep the original style and size of their furniture, some styles had already changed as part of their assimilation into the local culture.
Inlaid table set with intricate carvings. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
You can view an impressive catalogue in a distinctly Chinese style: Cantonese furniture set for tea, perfume cupboards, medicine cabinets, opium beds, lounge chairs, incense burner, altars, writing tables, a wooden statue of the god Zhong Gui, a Qing dynasty vase.
Alongside these are pieces of Chinese furniture with Indonesian touches: a writing table, a mirror set made in Padang and a gamelan from Lasem in Central Java with European, Java and Chinese influences.
Also on display are non-Chinese items used by Chinese families, such a German-made Berkefeld water filter and beer keg with art nouveau design, a Japanese lead crystal jar, a European coffee grinder and an Art Nouveau coat hanger. These items were mostly used by the Chinese community after 1920.
Irwan Julianto said that after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the last ruling dynasty in China which ruled from 1644 to 1912 with a brief abortive restoration in 1917, the Chinese diaspora began, with many Chinese descendants in Indonesia feeling it was more of a free nation. They started to adapt to the dominant culture around them - at that time in Indonesia, the Dutch colonial culture.
"We don't want this exhibition to become a glorification of the past, but rather to show that Chinese descendants also had their cultural contribution to the Indonesian people and vice versa through their acculturation," Julianto said.
"We don't want re-Chinafication as happened to many old generations of Chinese descendants after the political reformation in 1998 when they forced many Chinese communities to speak only Chinese. That's why we came up with the cross-cultural community."
The exhibition is held by Komunitas Lintas Budaya Indonesia (The Indonesian Intercultural Community), an organization established in 2008 with the aim of nurturing interaction between the country's different ethnic and cultural groups to strengthen the building of the nation.
In conjunction with the exhibition, which took more than four months of preparations, was the launch of a book on Chinese culture in Indonesia titled Peranakan Tionghoa Indonesia - Sebuah Perjalanan Budaya (Indonesia's Chinese Descendants - A Cultural Journey).
The book, published by The Indonesian Intercultural Community in collaboration with Intisari magazine, was written by eight Chinese Indonesians who are experts in various aspects of Chinese culture including architecture, literature, journalism, fashion, art and furniture.
What makes this exhibition especially deserving of attention is that these antiques are all privately owned - meaning we might never again have the opportunity to see them gathered together in one single moment and place.