Chronology of the usage of the terms “Tionghoa” – “Cina” – “Tionghoa” for Indonesian Chinese

Karsono, Ong Mia Farao (2015) Chronology of the usage of the terms “Tionghoa” – “Cina” – “Tionghoa” for Indonesian Chinese. JOURNAL OF LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE , 6 (1). pp. 160-167. ISSN 2078-0303

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Abstract

Understanding the chronology of the usage of the terms “Cina” or “Tionghoa” in Indonesia will benefit all people, namely in preventing misinterpretation and in enhancing the relation between nations and countries. This article uses the literature review method to search the meaning of the term, and questionnaires to find out the opinion of the young generation of Indonesian Chinese about the meaning of the term “Cina”. From literature review we find that initially the term “Cina” does not have a negative meaning, but because of the government’s discriminative policy towards the Chinese ethnic in Indonesia, the term “Cina” gets a negative connotation. The result of our survey shows that the young generation of Indonesian Chinese mostly do not think that the term “Cina” has a negative connotation. This fact indicates that Indonesian internal affairs policy is becoming better. However, there are still a few of young Indonesian Chinese who still think that the term “Cina” has a negative connotation from the former historic relation of their parents. However, this issue will lessen with the passage of time if the internal affairs policy of our country remains harmonious as at the present time.

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