“Indonesian Americans: A Diversity of Perspectives," sponsored by the Indonesian Studies Program of the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies, created a deeper understanding of the Indonesian diaspora.

by Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan (UCLA Ph.D. 2014)

UCLA International Institute, June 7, 2016 — Approximately 100,000 people in the United States today self-identify as Indonesian. In recognition of this growing, yet understudied, population, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) held its inaugural Symposium on Indonesian Americans at UCLA’s Young Research Library on May 14, 2016. “Indonesian Americans: A Diversity of Perspectives” marked the first-ever meeting of its kind to bring together academics from the United States and Indonesia with members of the Indonesian diaspora in the U.S.

Approximately 75 people attended the event, which featured panels on identity formation among Indonesian Americans as well as on the diaspora’s two most prominent subgroups: ethnic Chinese and Muslims. Over the course of the day, panelists and audience members discussed the issues and challenges facing Indonesians in the U.S., as well as their contributions to U.S. society as one of the more recent Southeast Asian populations to have made their homes here.

The symposium was the result of a collaboration between Juliana Wijaya, lecturer in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, and Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan, adjunct faculty member of the Department of History. As coordinator of the UCLA Indonesian Studies Program of CSEAS, Wijaya opened the symposium by noting that the continued evolution of Indonesian American communities and their experiences calls for critical analysis.

Professor George Dutton, speaking in his capacity as director of CSEAS, acknowledged the historic nature of the event. Calling the study of Indonesians in the United States a heretofore overlooked area in Indonesian Studies, he congratulated the symposium organizers, participants and attendees for their efforts to bring more attention to this topic. Indonesian Studies Program benefactor and symposium panelist, Ms. Julia Gouw, echoed those sentiments and lauded the format of the symposium, which enabled community members to contribute their perspectives. Addressing those in attendance she said, “no matter what our stories are, we are all able to increase understanding about what it means to be Indonesians or Indonesian Americans in the United States.”

Panel discussions

Ms. Gouw, the former President and Chief Operating Officer of East West Bankcorp, was joined on the first panel by two distinguished scholars, Esther Kuntjara, professor emerita of linguistics and culture at Petra Christian University in Surabaya, and Dr. That Tjien Ngo, a renowned scientific researcher and biotechnology inventor who resides in Southern California. UCLA Lecturer Wijaya, the panel moderator, posed a series of thought-provoking questions concerning transnational connections between Chinese Indonesians and Chinese Indonesian Americans.

From left: Juliana Wijaya, Julia Gouw, Esther Kuntjara and Dr. That Tjien Ngo.
(Photo: Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan.)

Professor Kuntjara, a specialist on the lives and identities of Chinese Indonesians, emphasized the animus that this population historically has faced in their homeland. Assessing the effects of the collapse of Suharto’s New Order regime in the late 1990s on Chinese Indonesians — who were the targets of heightened discrimination and violence during the Suharto years — she pointed to indications that conditions are improving for ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. Speaking from their experience as Chinese Indonesian Americans, Ms. Gouw and Dr. Ngo, who both emigrated in the late 1970s, spoke candidly about the new professional and personal opportunities that they found in the United States. These panelists also addressed the ways that their identities as Indonesian Americans of Chinese descent allowed them to connect with other members of the Chinese diaspora, as well as with their fellow Indonesians here. 

Jean-Paul R. deGuzman, a comparative race historian who currently holds teaching appointments in the UCLA Interracial Dynamics General Education Cluster and the UC Santa Barbara Department of Asian American Studies, chaired the subsequent panel, “Indonesian Americans: Identity Formations and Challenges.” Two of the panelists, Anita Lie, Professor of English and Director of the Graduate School at Widya Mandala University in Surabaya, and symposium co-organizer Dahlia Setiyawan, have conducted research on community building and identity formation among Indonesians in the United States. The two scholars were joined by Dwirana Satyavat, who provided a valuable first-person perspective in his capacity as a longtime member of the Indonesian community of Greater Los Angeles.

The panelists discussed how second and 1.5-generation Indonesian Americans are more likely to express solidarity with other Asian Americans than the immigrant generation, who are most concerned with preserving their cultural heritage. Setiyawan described how ethnoreligious tensions or intra-community hostilities carried over from Indonesia can act as significant obstacles to community growth and solidarity. Citing a collaboration between Muslim and Christian Indonesians in Philadelphia, on the other hand, she noted that such issues have been and can be overcome. As both Lie and Satyavat emphasized, the diversity within the Indonesian diaspora in the U.S. might itself hold the key to strengthening both community identity and solidarity.

Lived experience of Indonesian Americans

The closing panel, chaired by Adjunct Faculty Lecturer Setiyawan, featured the voices and viewpoints of three Indonesian American Muslims who addressed topics and questions from the audience that ranged from the meaning of the word jihad (struggle) to their thoughts on intolerance toward Muslims in the U.S. and Islamic extremism in Indonesia.

Ms. Hani White, a member of the Indonesian community in Philadelphia since the early 2000s who was recently appointed to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s Advisory Commission on Asian American Affairs, reflected on how being an Indonesian Muslim in America means helping expand others’ awareness both of Islam and Indonesia. Trikartikaningsih Byas, Associate Professor of English at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York, emphasized how her choice to wear a headscarf has produced opportunities for dialogue with her students about Islam and perceptions of Muslims.

And Muhamad Ali, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside, provided both a scholarly and personal perspective on the Indonesian American Muslim experience. Reclaiming the positive connotations of the word jihad, he joined his fellow panelists in discussing how their personal struggle includes showing others what tolerant, progressive Islam looks like. Doing so, they stressed, has been instrumental in dealing with instances of Islamaphobia that they and their communities have experienced.

Speakers and participants at the conference. (Photo: Budijono Untung.)

This ground-breaking opportunity to unite Indonesian Americans representing so many different backgrounds and perspectives was made possible by Ms. Gouw’s generous financial support of the Indonesian Studies Program, as well as her personal support for increasing the visibility of the achievements and challenges of Indonesians in the diaspora. “As an Indonesian American, I’m glad that as well as examining topics within Indonesia, the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies has organized an international symposium that addresses the issues and experiences of Indonesians in the United States,” she noted. “The fact that the Indonesian Studies Program is taking into consideration the experiences of Indonesians living here indicates that this program is making a significant contribution toward expanding the study of Indonesia in a new and exciting direction.”

Published: Monday, June 6, 2016