no apartheid in indonesia and malaysia

[kasumigenx]

Chinese population in Malaysia and Indonesia assimilates..

Is it possible for the Chinese population in Malaysia and Indonesia to tend to assimilate to the local population?

 

[kasumigenx]

just bumping

 

[Cuāuhtemōc]

Didn't the Chinese tend to self-segregate themselves from the local population for the most part?

 

[kasumigenx]

Didn't the Chinese tend to self-segregate themselves from the local population for the most part?

In many other countries of SE Asia only the wealthy chinese immigrants segregate but the poor chinese immigrants assimilate how could that be the case for Indonesia and Malaysia..

 

[Rex Romanum]

How it is possible for the apartheid of indonesians and malaysians and their chinese descent population not to exist and the chinese assimilate to the indonesians and malaysians easily...


Could the Chinese in indonesia and malaysia assimilate to the locals there like in many other South East Asian nations..

Errr what?
I live in Indonesia from my birth until now, and I have to say that there's no thing such as apartheid in my country.

 

[kasumigenx]

Errr what?
I live in Indonesia from my birth until now, and I have to say that there's no thing such as apartheid in my country.

I thought that Indonesia is like that hehehe..but is it possible for the Chinese population in Malaysia and Indonesia to tend to assimilate to the local population rather than segregate?

 

[hexicus]

Obviously Chinese are capable of assimilating, they just didn't.

Possibly that's because (pre 1900) the cities were fairly small and so people stuck to their own clans/villages etc? If you have a large melting pot city things could go differently.

 

[Rex Romanum]

I thought that Indonesia is like that hehehe..

So you are asking question without searching for some info about that...?

but is it possible for the Chinese population in Malaysia and Indonesia to tend to assimilate to the local population rather than segregate?

Over time, yes.
As a matter of fact, there are a LOT of Chinese-descent and Japanese-descent students (as well as the black-skinned ones) in Indonesian schools. They aren't really "segregate" with local populations.

 

[kasumigenx]

Obviously Chinese are capable of assimilating, they just didn't.

Possibly that's because (pre 1900) the cities were fairly small and so people stuck to their own clans/villages etc? If you have a large melting pot city things could go differently.

Thank you

Over time, yes.
As a matter of fact, there are a LOT of Chinese-descent and Japanese-descent students (as well as the black-skinned ones) in Indonesian schools. They aren't really "segregate" with local populations.

Good

 

[Theodoric]

Over time, yes.
As a matter of fact, there are a LOT of Chinese-descent and Japanese-descent students (as well as the black-skinned ones) in Indonesian schools. They aren't really "segregate" with local populations.

Didn't quite a lot of them also leave after Indonesia achieved independence? If I recall correctly, in the colonial era the Chinese had been at times a privileged minority (forming a class between, like the Tutsi's had been in Rwanda). Then again, I distinctly remember the Chinese population of Jakarta/Batavia being massacred at least once.

 

[yourworstnightmare]

Apartheid is segregation by force directed by the government. Don't use that word if you mean something else.

 

[Rex Romanum]

Didn't quite a lot of them also leave after Indonesia achieved independence?

Well, no. AFAIK most, if not all, of Chinese-Indonesians were supporting the independence movement, especially during 1940s Japanese occupation. Although I will admit that after the independence the Chinese-Indonesians and native Indonesians had been undergoing an on-off relationship...

If I recall correctly, in the colonial era the Chinese had been at times a privileged minority (forming a class between, like the Tutsi's had been in Rwanda).

Yes. The Dutch established a caste system in Indonesia, in which the third and last class was for the natives, the second class for Chinese, Arabs, and other "oriental foreigners", while the first class was reserved for the Europeans. (this was a classic colonial strategy for the Europeans, in fact Britain and France used same strategy in their African and Middle-Eastern colonies, by using local Jewish or Christian communities as a "buffer" between the indigenous populations and European colonists)

Then again, I distinctly remember the Chinese population of Jakarta/Batavia being massacred at least once.

Yes again. In October 9, 1740, there was some "clash" between the Dutch and the Chinese-Indonesians in Batavia, which resulted in a whole-scale massacre...

 

[hexicus]

There was a serious attack on Chinese people in Jakarta about 10 or 15 years ago.

At the time I knew a Chinese girl who lived in Jakarta, she came back with photos of bodies that where seriously disturbing.

 

[Flocculencio]

Is it possible for the Chinese population in Malaysia and Indonesia to tend to assimilate to the local population?

A lot of the earlier immigrants did- they adopted some Malay customs and the local dialects of the Malay language. In Malaya it's the wave which came from the 19th C onwards which didn't have time to adapt and which came in large enough numbers that they could form their own viable communities. The scale of this can be seen from the fact that Malay/Chinese tensions in Malaysia derive from the fact that the Chinese population is currently almost half as large as the Malay population and just 50 years ago was almost equal in size- in fact one of the big issues surrounding the decolonisation process in Malaya was the fact that including Singapore in Malaysia actually meant a Chinese population on par with the Malay population. You're not going to have assimilation with a minority population of that size, unlike the earlier immigrants who were a handful of merchants who essentially incorporated the customs of the local elites they did business with.

In the case of Indonesia, the attacks on Indonesian Chinese post-independence were directly a reaction to Dutch colonial racial policy. Prior to that the Indonesian Chinese situation was similar to the situation in Malaya itself- small merchant elites adopting some local customs and speaking the local dialect of Malay.

Also be careful with your nomencaluture. It's ludicrous to suggest that there was any policy of "apartheid"- that's a very specific term with a very specific meaning.