| Summary: | The title of the book, Chinese Ways of Being Muslim: Negotiating Ethnicity
and Religiosity in Indonesia itself self-explains its nature and contents. It
is a continuity of the Identiti Cina Muslim di Malaysia: Persempadanan
Perundingan dan Kacukan Budaya written by the same author, which focuses
on the identity struggle and crisis of the Chinese Muslim community in
Malaysia. Unlike the previous publication, this book has shifted from a mere
focus on cultural and identity of Chinese Muslim community into a more
comprehensive examination of all the social construction of Chinese Muslims
from different sociological, economic, political and cultural dimensions, with
a special focus on Chinese Muslim community(ies) in Indonesia.
As the author of the book, Hew Wai Weng from the Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia, asserts in its foreword that despite the
existence of signifcant literatures dealing with the issue of Chinese Muslims’
historical existence in Indonesia, especially in Java from the ffteenth and
sixteenth century, and their role in Islamic propagation, they however do not
really address the issue of cultural and politics of identity as presented in his
book. The author also acknowledges that there are also many studies on the
topic focusing specifcally on the cultural policy of the Suharto regime and
the assimilation of Chinese Muslims. On the other hand, there have also been
many studies conducted on the Chinese Muslim conversion experience and
the difculties they faced after embracing Islam. Without denying the existing
studies, research works and discussions on the issue of Chinese Muslims in
Indonesia, the author nevertheless argues that most of the works were focusing
on the elites of Chinese Muslims community(ies) in Indonesia, and neglecting
the voices of ordinary Chinese Muslims.
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