Chinese-Indonesians not at home in China<\/p>\n
By Justin Jin<\/p>\n
BEIJING (Reuters): Every time Xu Baimin writes a letter home
\nto Indonesia, her sister there slips the postman a small tip when
\nhe makes the delivery.<\/p>\n
The money seals the postman's lips about Xu, an Indonesian
\nethnic Chinese who returned to the motherland in 1958 and stayed
\non, finding work as an engineer and settling in Beijing to marry
\nand raise a family.<\/p>\n
\"We don't write home frequently because if we did people would
\nthink the family has close contacts with the Communist Party,\"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
Xu's fears have been heightened by a new outbreak of anti-
\nChinese violence in Indonesia linked to the country's economic
\ncrisis.<\/p>\n
Now, as Chinese shopkeepers are targeted again by Indonesian
\nmobs, there has been speculation that large numbers of Chinese
\nmay pack up and leave.<\/p>\n
But Xu is not encouraging her relatives to follow her to
\nChina. Her experience in the country, like that of thousands of
\nother Indonesian Chinese, has been bittersweet.<\/p>\n
And the feelings of young Chinese from Indonesia now studying
\nin China appear to be just as ambivalent.<\/p>\n
\"I cannot advise my family to come,\" said Xu, whose patriotic
\nzeal brought her to China to help build the country after the
\n1949 Communist revolution, but who immediately found herself
\ncaught up in political upheavals that brought economic disaster.<\/p>\n
\"After all, one can still conduct business in Indonesia, and
\nthe anti-Chinese sentiment is only temporary.\"<\/p>\n
Xu was just 18 when she set sail for China on a Dutch steamer
\nto join the Communist Party, abandoning a comfortable life in a
\nfamily that prospered by selling foodstuff.<\/p>\n
\"When I left, imprints of all 10 of my fingers were taken, and
\nthe Indonesian government said I could never return,\" said Xu, an
\neighth-generation ethnic Chinese.<\/p>\n
There was no turning back when the late Chairman Mao Zedong
\nlaunched his Cultural Revolution in 1966 that plunged China into
\na decade of ultra-leftist chaos. Xu was sent to work in the rice
\npaddies of central Hebei province as a result of her overseas
\nconnections.<\/p>\n
\"It was so tough that we might as well have stayed in
\nIndonesia,\" she said.<\/p>\n
Xu now earns 1,300 yuan (US$157) each month as an oil
\nengineer. She has a mainland Chinese husband and two grown
\nchildren.<\/p>\n
Ethnic Chinese make up about three percent of Indonesia's 200
\nmillion population but control more than 70 percent of the
\ncountry's private wealth.<\/p>\n
Beijing has been keeping a wary eye on the latest Chinese-
\nbashing but has played down its concerns, partly to avoid fanning
\nthe violence.<\/p>\n
Several ethnic Chinese Indonesian students in Beijing said
\nthey were not looking to China as a safe haven. They had come to
\nacquire language skills to do business in Chinese-speaking Asia,
\nand did not intend to stay long.<\/p>\n
\"I don't think I would stay,\" said 24-year-old Ade Saputra, a
\nstudent at the Beijing Languages and Culture University.<\/p>\n
\"I don't get the feeling that the Chinese government welcomes
\nus.\"<\/p>\n
Analia Wirjadi, who recently returned to Indonesia after
\nstudying for 18 months at the same university, said if she had to
\nflee she would go to the West.<\/p>\n
\"The older generations still think of China as their country,
\nbut for us, we are born in Indonesia, and we don't think about
\nmoving to China,\" she said, speaking from her home in Jakarta.
\n\"Maybe I would emigrate to America or Australia.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/chinese-indonesians-not-at-home-in-china-1447893297",
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