by Aimee Dawis

One hundred bare-chested men in sarong (traditional cloth featuring batik prints) burst into the scene, chanting ancient Balinese songs.  In a matter of minutes, they were sitting in a large circle, their bodies and hands moving rhythmically to the chants, which sounded more like mantras to call forth the heavenly spirits.

A beautiful couple emerged and danced blissfully in the middle of the chanting men.  They were in full regalia, which indicated that they belonged to the royal family. Alas! A monster came and took the beautiful lady away with him, to the anguish of the prince.  A mystical white monkey, hanuman, came to the aid of the prince, who had to fight the monster’s barong, a frightening creature.  The spectacular performance reached its climax as the prince defeated the monster and rescued his princess.

This was the Balinese ketjak dance performance – one of the most stunning cultural performances in the world that is uniquely Indonesian.   The first time I watched a live ketjak performance was not at Bali or at the Indonesian National Theater.  It was at the tenth anniversary celebration of Perhimpunan INTI (The Chinese-Indonesian Association) at Istora Senayan, Jakarta, on June 23, 2009. More >

by Aimee Dawis

The 14-year-old girl cowered in fear as terror erupted outside of her family’s Chinese medicine shop.  Screams of people fleeing for their lives could be heard clearly as angry mobs hunted down the Chinese, burning and looting their shops and houses.  She wanted to help those people outside but she was afraid to leave the shop.  She knew that the pandemonium outside was a horrible sight to behold.  She took a peek out of the window while her mother was not looking and saw countless bodies, many without heads, cluttered all over the sidewalk.

The girl’s parents had taken in many of their relatives seeking refuge; their shops and houses set on fire just hours before they ran to her family’s medicine shop.  It was as if they knew that her parents’ medicine shop would not be disturbed.  The girl wondered if it was because her father prayed to Kuan Kung (the warrior god) every 15 minutes, asking him to ward off evil and to protect their family during this time of crisis.

The year was 1965 and the city was Medan in North Sumatra, Indonesia.  The ethnic Chinese were the targets in the aftermath of a failed attempted coup that was allegedly masterminded by the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party). Because China was suspected of backing the PKI, the political instability that occurred between 1965 and 1966 caused the masses to unleash their animosity toward the ethnic Chinese. More >