Anti-Chinese Violence in Indonesia, 1996–1999

Jemma Purdey

Although people of Chinese descent constitute less than 3% of the population in Indonesia, Chinese Indonesians dominate private business and play a vital role in the country's economy.

As a minority group, the Chinese in Indonesia suffered discrimination during the colonial period, but from 1996 until the final months of Suharto's rule, serious acts of violence against them occurred with alarming frequency, reaching a climax in major urban centres in May 1998. In this first book-length study of anti-Chinese hostility in contemporary Indonesia, Jemma Purdey undertakes a close analysis of the main incidents of violence during 1996--99. She places anti-Chinese riots within a broader context , considering causes and agency as well as the way violence has been represented in the media.

Jemma PURDEY is a Fellow with the Department of Political Science at the University of Melbourne, where she earned her PhD in 2002.

[A Southeast Asia Publication Series: Asian Studies Association Australia] More info on the series can be found at their website

publication year: 2006
352 pages
ISBN: 978-9971-69-332-9  Paperback  US$30.00  S$38.00

Our edition is available in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.