Arts

On the Internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Howard Manns & Simon Musgrave Monash University #SLXG2015

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Ethnic identity in Indonesia from the digital margins to the mainstream core

Brief intro

Foregrounding tensions in the digital margins

Deconstructing tensions in the digital margins

Conclusion

Brief Intro

Post-Reform era

Continued shift to Indonesian

Influence of Jakarta Indonesian

Revalorization of the ethnic

Tensions between the national,

Jakarta & ethnic spheres

(language & identity)

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Post-Reform era

Tensions explored in a number of contexts (e.g. media, conversation)

Emphasis on Indonesian that is ‘good’ (appropriate to context)

Some disagreement about what constitutes ‘good’

Manns (2014a, 2014b) examined Indonesian youth radio in East Java:

- Javanese accents are yucky full-stop

- Station identity=‘young executives’= only colloquial Indonesian

- Station identity=‘friend, confidant’= some Javanese lexical items

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Ethnic identity in Indonesia from the digital margins to the mainstream core

How do these tensions unfold in the digital margins?

What role do the digital margins play in the negotiation of these tensions?

Part II:

Foregrounding tensions

Stirring the ethnic pot: Kei Savourie

Jakarta-based relationship consultant

11 tweets about Surabaya, January 13 2013

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Tweet 2

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Every time I go to Surabaya, I always shake my head when I see the clash of cultures that takes place here. Surabaya has an identity crisis.

Tweet 3

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

It has large malls, modern ways of hanging out, up-to-date fashion, but the language is Javanese. My brain can’t make sense of [literally ‘receive] this contrast.

Tweet 11

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If you want to be modern, you know, you have to be open and outward looking. [And] when you’re in the office, the school or the mall, you speak Javanese?

Tweet 8

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

There’s nothing wrong with Javanese. But it strongly indexes ethnicity and exclusivism, [and] this isn’t appropriate in the modern era.

Tweet 5

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Surabaya isn’t as modern as Jakarta, but the people pretend to be modern. It isn’t as traditional as Jogja, but they pretend to be Javanese. Epic fail.

Tweet 1

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

You can’t become global and speak English without being able to speak good Indonesian. How do you expect to expect to advance?

Tweet 9

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

If you’re really like Jogja and Solo, and you’re truly concerned with preserving Javanese culture, then you have to speak Javanese.

Themes which emerge Hierarchies: languages, levels of development/modernity

medok as a stigmatised identity

– Indexed by a o vowel shift (Jowo) Open (= modern) v. exclusive (= traditional)

Semiotic registers are also located hierarchically

Authenticity: Surabaya is sok-sokan:

– Pretending to be modern (malls, fashion) – Pretending to be local (speaking Javanese)

Notably: Savourie constructs a (Jakartan) vision for modernity not unlike that of the New Order

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Part III:

Deconstructing tensions

Kaskus

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Kaskus and elevating the ethnic self

• Extensive response to Savourie’s tweets • Data from various threads on Kaskus • Two aspects:

– Deconstructing the Jakarta mould – Constructing an alternative: Surabaya mould

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Deconstructing Jakarta Three themes:

– Jakarta is something separated from the rest of the country – Jakarta linguistic practices are as locally specific as somewhere like Surabaya – Jakarta also has a collision of cultures

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Pulau Jakarta

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Jakarta feels like its own island. Like it’s not on the island of Java.

Three in one

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Really, what are the standards for what constitutes modern and ‘sociable’ language? Jakartan language and using lu gua lu gua? That’s totally a regional language, too, for the Betawi, and it’s been influenced and

mixed with a number of regional cultures.

Constructing an alternative Representing medok as a linguistic choice

(Re)-valuing multilingualism

– Giving distinctiveness – A place for accommodation

(Re)-valuing openness

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Representing medok

Savourie used vowel shift

– Differentiates language and culture • budaya Jawa • bahasa Jowo

Kaskusers embrace this

– Javanese is a common language choice in threads – But SR1 (Indonesian) is also used for many posts or as a matrix – Vowel shift used as marker of identity

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

medok identity

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Wow, if you are a Javanese guy, can’t you be medok?

What do most of people in Surabaya use? Javanese, right? If Javanese people can’t speak Javanese, then who can?

Multilingualism

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

He’s missed the point that from childhood the Javanese can already speak two languages and are bilingual. They speak Indonesian and Javanese.

Distinctiveness

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

His research is unimportant and shallow. Surabaya should be forced to act if we’re derided for our accent? It’s just our special, defining feature.

Accommodation

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

I studied in Jogja, yeah, and I tried to swear less.

Openness

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

God, this person doesn’t make sense. Surabaya, you know, has become acculturated with a mix of cultures. And a culture that is open is a culture that absorbs foreign cultures without any conflict.

Look at lots of local cultures that have become acculturated with outside cultures.

Emerging themes

Emerging here a ‘Surabaya mould’:

– Openness is multidirectional – Multilingualism and multiculturalism are legitimate – Ethnic identity is compatible with modernity

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Part IV:

Conclusion

Hubs, peripheries, new registers Hub and periphery are:

– Relative notions – Contextually defined

Bahasa yang baik is a hub

– Javanese, gaul, alay, Jakarta, Kaskus are all peripheries SR1 is a hub, SR2 is relatively peripheral

Kaskus style is a hub online

– The Javanese style used online in this debate is peripheral – But it establishes its own centrality

The rigid alignments of New Order discourse can be broken

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo

Identity as action We have looked at a periphery (relative to ….)

More freedom:

– Tie to ideology is weaker at periphery – Medium has affordances

Plural identity is a choice which can be accessed using different styles

– Logically via Indonesian (SR1) – Emotionally via Javanese (SR2)

• With implication that other groups could use their own language in the same way

On the internet, no-one knows you’re from Suroboyo