In this article, I will argue that the main determinants of the prominent sporting role played by the Chinese in post-independence Indonesia can be traced back to the favourable economic and socio-political conditions they experienced during the colonial period, and the subsequent opportunities they enjoyed during the Sukarno era.Īlmost a decade on, the number of such publications remains inadequate, particularly those that are easily accessible to the Western world. In badminton, Chinese Indonesians even managed to occupy the world’s top position. They also featured in football, boxing, billiards, and chess. For example, they almost completely dominated the weightlifting and basketball scenes, and also had a strong presence in the domains of swimming, badminton, lawn tennis, and table tennis.
Their participation in a range of sports-at both the regional and the national level-was out of all proportion to their demographic representation in the country. Introduction Ethnic Chinese athletes featured prominently in the national sports scene during the first two decades of Indonesia’s independence. The study is based primarily on official documentation, the print media, as well as the testimonies and insights of more than a dozen former Chinese sports champions-now mostly in their seventies. The article will also investigate the political environment manifest during the Sukarno era-one that facilitated Chinese Indonesians’ enthusiastic participation and achievement in sport. It will examine the colonial roots-the prevailing economic and socio-political system inherent to the Dutch East Indies-that might have provided a foundational basis for their significant performance in later years.
This article aims to investigate the determinants influencing their prominent role on the Indonesian sports scene during those periods. For many years they maintained an almost absolute domination in weightlifting and basketball, while enjoying prominence in water sports, lawn tennis, table tennis, and further sports disciplines. Less well known, however, is the prominent role Chinese Indonesians played-before the advent of the New Order-on the wider Indonesian sports scene. In contemporary times, Chinese Indonesian participation in sport is primarily associated with badminton.
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