Okinawan at Heart and Cool Japan: Affinity and Transnational Identity in Indonesian Performance of Okinawan and Japanese Music and Dance

Abstract

This dissertation explores the ways in which engaging with Japanese and Okinawan performance challenges and helps construct new definitions of Indonesian global identities through four case studies: the Jakarta Sanshin Club, U-maku Shinka Eisa Indonesia, JKT48, and IND48. Through ethnographic fieldwork and performance analysis, I examine the ways in which cross-cultural encounters and e-gentrification have created spaces that have allowed Indonesians not only to participate in international conversations as part of fan and performance communities, but also to become leaders and influencers within those communities in ways that also showcase Indonesian cultures. Much of the literature on globalization has tended to focus disproportionately on the East-West binary. These narratives privilege the idea of Euro-American cultural and technological global dominance, while underrepresenting the realities of regional politics that have and continue to be culturally influential. The relationship between Indonesia and Japan since the mid-20th century has been especially important for the development of Indonesia’s infrastructure. Likewise, through the “Cool Japan” cultural diplomacy policy, Japanese popular culture has become deeply intertwined with Indonesian popular culture. Moreover, the East-West binary narratives tend to overshadow the ways in which individuals participate in global networks. In this study, I look at how Indonesian performers of Japanese and Okinawan music and dance develop an affinity with those cultures and integrate cultural performance into their own identities. Policies like “Cool Japan” and ideologies like “Okinawan at Heart” encourage Indonesians to take part in Japanese and Okinawan performance and use it as a medium for explorations of all three cultures. By refocusing the conversation on globalization around the performers, I examine the ways in which Indonesian performance of Japanese and Okinawan cultures is used to reinforce and challenge Indonesian societal norms, and to recontextualize Indonesian global identities in the 21st century.