Anti-Chinese Violence in Indonesia, 1996–1999
By Jemma Purdey
SERIES:
ASAA Southeast Asia Publications
University of Hawaii Press
In this first book-length study of anti-Chinese hostility during the collapse of Suharto’s regime, Jemma Purdey presents a close analysis of the main incidents of violence during the transitional period between 1996 and 1999, and the unprecedented process of national reflection that ensued. While ethnicity and prejudice are central to the explanation put forward, Purdey concludes that politics, economics, and religion offer additional keys to understanding why such outbreaks occurred.