1st Edition

Popular Culture in Indonesia Fluid Identities in Post-Authoritarian Politics

Edited By Ariel Heryanto Copyright 2008
    220 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    216 Pages 1 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This book examines popular culture in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, and the third largest democracy. It provides a full account of the key trends since the collapse of the authoritarian Suharto regime (1998), a time of great change in Indonesian society more generally. It explains how one of the most significant results of the deepening industrialization in Southeast Asia since the 1980s has been the expansion of consumption and new forms of media, and that Indonesia is a prime example of this development. It goes on to show that although the Asian economic crisis in 1997 had immediate and negative impacts on incumbent governments, as well as the socioeconomic life for most people in the region, at the same time popular cultures have been dramatically reinvigorated as never before. It includes analysis of important themes, including political activism and citizenship, gender, class, age and ethnicity. Throughout, it shows how the multilayered and contradictory processes of identity formation in Indonesia are inextricably linked to popular culture. This is one of the first books on Indonesia's media and popular culture in English. It is a significant addition to the literature on Asian popular culture, and will be of interest to anyone who is interested in new developments in media and popular culture in Indonesia and Asia.

    1. Pop culture and Competing Identities Ariel Heryanto  2. Indonesian Cinema: Exploring Cultures of Masculinity, Censorship and Violence Marshall Clark  3. Changing Social Formations in Indonesian and Thai Teen Movies David Hanan  4. Citizenship and Indonesian Ethnic Chinese in Post-1998 Films Ariel Heryanto  5. Consuming Taiwanese Boys Culture: Watching Meteor Garden with Urban Kampung Women in Indonesia Rachmah Ida  6. Fame, Fortune, Fantasi: Indonesian Idol and the New Celebrity Penelope Coutas  7. Consuming Gossip: A Re-domestication of Indonesian Women Ita Yulianto  8. Television dreams: Simulation, for a New Reality of Indonesia Edwin Jurriëns  9. Other Worlds in Yogyakarta: from Jatilan to Electronic Music Max Richter 

    Biography

    Ariel Heryanto is Senior Lecturer at the Asia Institute, The University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of State Terrorism And Political Identity In Indonesia: Fatally Belonging (Routledge, 2006) and co-editor of Challenging Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia; comparing Indonesia and Malaysia (Routledge, 2003).

    "This collection of articles on Indonesian popular culture, edited by Ariel Heryanto, is a very welcome addition to scholarship on Indonesian film, television, staged performances of music and dance...this collection offers a wealth of fresh thinking and perceptive studies of new developments in Indoesia's rich and thriving popular culture.  Scholars and students interested in cultural studies, or in the intersection of politics and culture, will want to read this book carefully." -- Michael Bodden, University of Victoria, Canada