Why are Chinese Indonesian unable to speak Chinese?

There are a lot of Indonesian students in Singapore from Chinese descent. Before they came to Singapore, most of them expected an English speaking environment, which is true in academic world. But there are other languages that are widespread outside that world, most notably is Mandarin Chinese. Many of Chinese Indonesian do not expect such a counter when some of the canteen aunties are not able to speak English and only able to speak Chinese to them. Their Malaysian or Singaporean friends are also mostly speaking Chinese among themselves. Most of the Chinese Indonesian unable to understand Chinese, making them feels alienated, even though they are also considered as Chinese.

I remembered there was a Malaysian girl asked me whether I could speak Chinese. I answered I am only able to speak a basic Chinese. Then she asked me whether my parents can speak Chinese, I said “Yes, they can”. She asked me back, “Why don’t they teach you?”. That question made me ponder. My father speaks not so fluent Chinese, at least not as fluent as my mother. And my parent’s working language environment is not in Chinese, not even Indonesian, but mostly in Javanese. In fact, there are many, if not most, of my Chinese friends in primary and secondary school, even their parents are unable to speak any Chinese language or only understand a little Chinese.

One easy way to answer Chinese Malaysian or Singaporean or Chinese mainlander question is by stating that speaking Chinese is prohibited in Indonesia. But I encountered one China guy asked me if he comes to Indonesia, is it against the law if he speaks Chinese in Indonesia? I guess he thought there would be a fine or maybe even imprisonment for those who speak Chinese. That question made me shocked. In fact, Chinese language was banned in formal situation in the past. There was no broadcasting radio, TV, or newspaper in Chinese language. Actually there is no law that mentioned someone will be jailed if he/she speaks in Chinese. It was just a kind of suggestion. Some officers/local people dislike hearing a Chinese speaking people in Indonesia or giving them a difficult time in getting licenses or such. But it is not for the foreign tourists, just for the local Chinese Indonesians.

Although the Chinese overseas are currently have a various nationality, they still consider themselves as Chinese. Do they have the same culture? Actually no! They have been living long enough in different countries to develop different customs and habits. In fact there are stereotypes about Singaporean, Malaysian, or Chinese Mainlander. There was one of my non-Chinese friend who told me that he surprised that many Chinese Indonesians dislike the Mainland Chinese. He thought Mainland Chinese is ‘purer’ or ‘more genuine’, so Chinese Indonesian should accept them well or a kind of adore them. But the culture differences between them are big enough, make it wouldn’t happen. Another fact is that most of Chinese Indonesian or Chinese South-East Asian are from Southern provinces, mostly from 2 provinces: Guangdong and Fujian. Whereas most of Chinese mainlander come from various China provinces.

As far as I know, Chinese medium schools in South-East Asia were only available in Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam; it is only in countries where Chinese population have quite a big percentage, 75 % in Singapore and about 50% in Penang, the rest of Malaysia and Brunei is lower than that. In the rest of South-East Asian countries, Chinese is just a small minority and government tends to assimilate Chinese people to local population through for example, changing Chinese name to local name, a practice that also happens in Thailand, Vietnam, and Myanmar; closing Chinese speaking school; banning Chinese newspaper, etc. With the recent resurgence of China economy, some Chinese schools re-established in the past decade. Malaysia government doesn’t encourage assimilation like in Indonesia, that’s why Chinese Malaysians still retain their Chinese name.

Another reason Chinese Indonesian cannot speak Mandarin is because many of them have been living in Indonesia for generations or centuries, make them lose the Chinese speaking ability. It’s called peranakan/baba in Indonesia/Malaysia/Singapore. Many of the Chinese overseas who live in Thailand, Australia, USA for generations (not recent/second generation immigrants) are also unable to speak Chinese. Because Chinese is the minority in that area, many of them don’t have much chance to speak Chinese in daily life. That case also happens in Indonesia. Chinese have arrived in Indonesia since 1000 years ago. In the area where there are many Chinese that no longer speak Chinese, the recent immigrants from China tend to assimilate and intermarry with them, therefore their children cannot speak Chinese.

There were Chinese language schools in Indonesia until 1966. After its closure, there was no more Chinese school or newspaper until around year 2000. Many people become less accustomed to Chinese language because of that. But some people who previously studied in Dutch/Indonesian school had been less accustomed to Chinese language long before 1966. And also even if their family still maintain their ancestor’s language, the language would not be Mandarin, but Cantonese, Teochiu, Hakka, Hokkien, etc. Mandarin school was just started in early 20th century. In fact in China itself, Mandarin Chinese (bai hua) started to appear in books and official documents after May forth movement in 1919. National language was established from Beijing dialect pronunciation, and the grammar is based on mostly northern Mandarin Chinese.

There are still some Chinese Indonesian who are educated in Chinese language who still preserve speaking Chinese language at home, but they are the minority. In some parts of Indonesia, such as North and East Sumatra, as well as West Kalimantan, most of the Chinese over there are able to speak Chinese ‘dialect’ such as Hokkien, Teochiu, or Hakka. For the rest part of Indonesia, most of young generations unable to converse in Chinese. Although I know there are some families in Java/Sulawesi/East Kalimantan who still maintain speaking Chinese within their family. Based on 2010 census, 24.07% of Chinese Indonesian speak Chinese at home. It’s not a high percentage. source

In foreign country, Chinese Indonesian tends to form their own community and usually does not mingle with other Chinese from different nationality. Even from their name, people can tell whether they are from Indonesia, except for some of them whose names are undistinguishable to other Chinese or Western name. Some of the names can be easily identified as Indonesian Chinese name.

People tend to be classified into the certain race in Singapore. It does not happen in Indonesia. Or if it happens, it’s not stated clearly. Singapore application form is frequently ask about race, name in Chinese character, and even dialect. I’m sure it make some Chinese Indonesians think about themselves, “Why I don’t know anything about this?”, “Am I really Chinese?”. If they stated that they are ‘Indonesian’ race, it would be frowned by other people, since they have a Chinese-looking face.

Here some other writings about Indonesian Chinese:
this
this
and this