Do Indonesians Dislike Chinese?

Question

I was talking to an Indonesian girl and she said that many Indonesians dislike Chinese people. Why is this?

I realize that it is a generalization however, if many people hate them, then there is usually a general reason, as well.

For instance, MANY Koreans hate Japanese people. The general reason lies in the Japanese occupation of Korea.

Answer 1

Just to clarify, I think she didn't mean Chinese as in "people from from China or Chinese nationality" but more on people from Chinese race who live in Indonesia (Indonesian Chinese).

Most Indonesian does not care about Indonesian Chinese and does not discriminate against them, but there are some Indonesians that does not like Chinese just like other countries, there are racist people.

Having said that, although there's a lot of different ethnic in Indonesia, Chinese is probably the only one ethnic AFAIK that is treated differently by law. There are different charges if you're Chinese compared with non-Chinese even though both are Indonesian nationality.

I believe one of the factor is because Chinese dominates the Indonesian economy and therefore somehow the poor vs rich sentiment get interpreted to native vs Chinese although nothing can be further than the truth.

The other possible factor is that maybe traditionally when Indonesia was colonialized by the Dutch, there was special treatment for Chinese as most of them are merchant and traders and the sentiment lives on until now.

If you google about Indonesian Chinese, you'll see that Indonesia has couple of riots/conflicts to this issue.

Answer 2

I have many Indonesian friends either Chinese decent or native, Generally I believed they don't dislike each other it's just a economics problems or simply humongous rich poor gap between them.

For decades the government suppress the Chinese, The only area allowed for the Chinese was to do business it is only natural that they control/hold maybe 70% of the Indonesian economy simply because there are nothing else to do, So they must work hard to make a living. As for the corruption issues I believed they are no more corrupt than anyone of us to stay in the business, (I mean what would you do if your competitor bribes the official to favorable term with their company and you cannot report them as if you do report them will sucks you even more?).

So the only one getting rich here would be the official and the Chinese, Getting the pictures? Hope it help you.

Answer 3

First it's very hard to define the word "Indonesian". Scattered in over 13,000 islands and speaking more than 500 languages (i.e. sharing linguistic features less than 3%). I am a non-chinese in Indonesia. I speak fluent Chinese and live among the Chinese. Half of my family members are married to the Chinese. What would say about that?

Some of the so many reasons:
1. It's structured by the privious regimes. In the past, in Java island especially, the Chinese were not allowed to live in villages. They live in cities and became traders and therefore control the economy. Later this results in the economic jealousy. Unlike in other islands, a lot of them live like other indonesians and therefor not so visible.

2. Another structure is that the privious regime AKA "the new order" poured lots and lots of money to some few Chinese tycoons or use them to run their business. This is a design to create an image that the Chinese control the economy as most are traders but at the sametimes hiding the corrupt government officials' fortune into less tangible business, oil, mining, transporation, telecommunication. This exposed the Chinese especially poor Chinese in a vulnerable situation when there are social unrests. The image is worsened by the fact there are many tycoon "robbed" Indonesian banks and leave the country using the money the stole to run business in other countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and China.

3. The Chinese, stereotypically, tend to look native Indonesians as second class by calling them names and they live in ghettos and don't really blend in.

4. During the colonial times i.e. Dutch occupation, the Chinese enjoyed 2nd class status below the Dutch and above native Indonesians.

5. Education in Indonesia is still very poor. There are a lot of people trapped in stereotyping and bigotry.

What do you mean by Chinese or Indonesian Chinese? There are many kinds of Indonesian Chinese i.e. Teo Chew, Hakka, Fu Jian, Kong Fu, Fu Chia etc etc? Do you think they get along well? They DONT!

Answer 4

Some Indonesians dislike Chinese for certain reasons. It is open secret, everybody knows that Chinese are controlling the Indonesian economy and some of them practise corruption in order to get any business license from the goverment. Apart from that they oppress and take advantage by paying low salary when they employ the native people in their companies. They normally treated the chinese and the native employee differenty especially when come to salary and benefit although both employees have the same qualifications and experience. But, however not all the chinese are like this, some of them are good.

Answer 5

My understanding was that the Chinese came to Indonesia and got rich off the labor of Indonesians. We have Indonesian friends (and sometimes our staff) would point someone out and say "They're Chinese" for no apparent reason. During the 1997 "troubles" several of Indonesians of Chinese descent were assaulted or killed.

Answer 6

this question is subjective. but somehow it happened that chinese were discriminated in indo for some political reason. after the independence era, indo government had built good relation with china government in social,politic and cultures. since china had brought so much influences in indo, some communist teaching was brought as well and so some chinese-indo were accused of being communist collaborator.thus the government enforcement tried to ban everything related to "chinese" by banned the teaching of chinese language, denied the chinese name and change it to indonesian name etc- and the anti china sentiments were increased by then.
hope this help.

Answer 7

i agree with BB, the native being racist coz they see lot of chinese ppl are more succesful and richer than the native. they feel jealous and say that chinese occupied their land.
but the truth is, if chinese is not there, i dont think indonesia would become more developed country like now..
coz we know that the feeling of chinese about working is very high and 24 hours non stop, but the natives tends to be lazy and very slow,no offence but im telling the truth here. thats why chinese indonesian are more in control in indonesia. coz lot of them work from zero.
i have lots2 of chinese indonesian who had experience like this (work from zero)

but actually, the ppl who think that chinese are richer becoz they corrupt.. are actually not true, coz.. they can see that their own ppl are the one who are the real corruptor.
the chinese who are rich are the one who own this company and that company, and if u look the inside, it is their company and they developed it well. (yeah maybe some touch of corrupt..ok)
but if u ask why the government ppl are very rich, i mean FREAKING RICH... why? coz they ONLY work for government. what else? hum.. nope,, nothing else, just work for government. but they are freaking richhhhh!!
look at soeharto! the 5th richest person in the worlD!!

ps:and always got bribe!! want my signature for your business approval and land? buy my signature for 500 million rupiah! (only for signature!!!) ->my own friend's experience!

Answer 8

This is a silly question. Do Brits like Chinese? Do Aussies like Chinese? Do Brazilians like Chinese? Do Chinese people like Indonesians? yadda yadda yadda...

Bottom line is you can't make any sweeping generalizations. You will come across people who are racists and those who aren't. Sometimes it's not even about race. Maybe it's resentment for non-natives living in their land and being richer/more successful in commerce, than them natives.

Answer 9

i heard because there were many chinese whores in indonesia

Answer 10

I didn't know anyone cared about either one of them.