The power of names in a Chinese Indonesian family's negotiations of politics, culture, and identities

Based on patterns of naming across four generations in first author Lie's Chinese Indonesian family, we argue that naming practices are not just a function of personal taste or cultural habit but rather reflect negotiation of larger-scale political and historical conditions. We show that seemin...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of international and intercultural communication 2017-01, Vol.10 (1), p.80-95
Main Authors: Lie, Sunny, Bailey, Benjamin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Assimilation
auto-ethnography
Autoethnography
Chinese Indonesian
Ethnography
Families & family life
identity
language ideology
Names
Personal names
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Summary:Based on patterns of naming across four generations in first author Lie's Chinese Indonesian family, we argue that naming practices are not just a function of personal taste or cultural habit but rather reflect negotiation of larger-scale political and historical conditions. We show that seeming contradictions and puzzles in the names and naming practices in Lie's family can be explained by the specific social and political challenges faced by members of the family, particularly during the assimilation period of Suharto's 1966-1998 reign. Both Lie's family and the Indonesian state have treated names as having a high degree of constitutive power in these negotiations.
ISSN:1751-3057
1751-3065
DOI:10.1080/17513057.2016.1216577