Surviving Chineseness in Chinese Indonesian Wedding Celebration

The long stay of the Chinese in the archipelago has resulted in the forming of hybrid
cultures among the Chinese community or often called as orang Tionghoa in Indonesia
today. The hybrid cultures have been a blend of traditional Chinese cultures and the local
cultures. Apparently, in today’s life we see that some Chinese tradition is still maintained
even when it is gradually fading. This paper aims to describe our study on how Chinese
Indonesian wedding celebration today still preserve some old Chinese traditional rituals
and use several tokens which symbolize their Chineseness. The surviving Chineseness is
discussed in the use of colours, the ornaments including the gifts for the celebration and in
how the wedding rituals are performed. The data were collected from some real Chinese
wedding celebrations and from the interviews we conducted with the brides and grooms.
The study also shows that some traces of Chineseness can still be identified. They play a
significant roles in how they negotiate their hybrid identity of being Chinese Indonesians.