Universitas Indonesia Conferences, International Conference on Chinese Indonesian Studies

Font Size: 
The Conflict of Identity in Mencari Sila Kelima
Hiqma Nur Agustina

Last modified: 2017-09-26

Abstract


This paper discusses the conflict of identity which is often become the problem for the descendent of Tionghoa or Chinese people in Indonesia. In particular, the novel entitled Mencari Sila Kelima.  Sebuah Surat Cinta untuk Indonesia was written by a 16-year-old Chinese-Indonesian genius girl, Audrey Yu Jia Hui which demonstrating the conflicts of identity, voicing minorities, discrimination issues, racism and stereotypes that often struck Chinese descendant in Indonesia. The peculiarity of this novel is the identity conflict felt by the writer who feels there is no place and space either from the people around her or the environment in which she lives. Being a Chinese or Tionghoa-Indonesian descendant is not easy to pass, especially the views of “being different” are still crucial issues to discuss. To get the answer about the effort toward the conflict of identity and how she could face the prejudice, the theory of identity will be used as the tools to analyze the novel. The results of this study reveal that being an Indonesian-Chinese descendant which lives in Indonesia often got bad stigma, prejudices, and discriminated even the same treatment like the other Indonesian citizen.