Penulis: arielheryanto

In many parts of Asia, smiling does not mean being happy, amused or friendly. Some Indonesians cannot utter a complete sentence without a burst of giggles, regardless of the topic. When I first lived abroad, I worked very hard to learn not to smile ‘too much’, so not to risk offending people.

Heryanto, Ariel (2015) “Asia literacy: A deeply problematic metaphor”, in C. Johnson, V. Mackie and T. Morris-Suzuki (eds), The Social Sciences in The Asian Century, Canberra: ANU Press, pp. 171-189.

keywords: digital technology, Euro-American centricism, literacy, new media, privacy, orality, smile

2014_The Cinematic Contest of Popular Post-Islamism-c

Heryanto, Ariel (2014) “The Cinematic Contest of Popular Post-Islamism”, in J. Schlehe and E. Sandkühler (eds), Religion, Tradition and the Popular; Transcultural Views from Asia and Europe, Bielefeld: transcript, pp.139-156.

keywords: Ayat-ayat Cinta, Islamisation, New Order, post-Islamism, youth

2013_Popular Culture for a New SEAS-c

Heryanto, Ariel (2013) “Popular Culture for a New Southeast Asian Studies?”, in Park S.W and V. King (eds), The Historical Construction of Southeast Asian Studies; Korea and Beyond, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, pp. 226-262.

keywords: Asianization, area studies, intra-Asia, Korean Wave, Meteor Garden, new media, popular culture, Southeast Asian Studies

2012_Screening the 1965 Violence-c

Heryanto, Ariel (2012) “Screening the 1965 Violence”, in J. Brink and J. Oppenheimer (eds), Killer Images: Documentary Film, Memory and the Performance of Violence, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 224-240.

keywords: Cold War, documentaries, film, history, 1965 massacres

“The sustained growth of the Indonesian new rich in the past three decades has included a substantial number of pious Muslims. Despite the latter’s ascendancy in the political and economic spheres, only recently have they begun to have both the urge and the power to thread their way into the cultural sphere, where Western and predominantly American pop culture have held sway for nearly a century.”

Heryanto, Ariel (2011) “Upgraded Piety and Pleasure: The New Middle Class and Islam in Indonesian Popular Culture”, in A. N. Weintraub (ed.), Islam and Popular Culture in Indonesia and Malaysia, London: Routledge, pp. 60-82.

keywords: Ayat-ayat Cinta, commercialization, commodification, piety, polygamy, religion, veil, youth

2010_The_Look_of_Love-c

Heryanto, Ariel (2010) “The Look of Love: New Engagements with the Oriental in Indonesian Popular Culture”, in D. Shim, A. Heryanto, and U. Siriyuvasak (eds), Pop Culture Formations Across East Asia, Seoul: Jimoondang, pp. 209-231.

keywords: Asianization, Chineseness, inter-Asia, K-Wave, middle class, oriental, racism, religion, women

Under the New Order government, the masses behaved in ways that might at first appear vulgar and unruly. But considered within the specific political context of that time, their behaviour can be regarded as much more rational and subversively powerful than has usually been portrayed, more so indeed than the political activism of the urban intelligentsia.

Heryanto, Ariel (2010) “Entertainment, Domestication, and Dispersal: Street Politics as Popular Culture”, in E. Aspinnal and M. Mietzner (eds), Problems of Democratisation in Indonesia: Elections, Institutions and Society, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, pp. 181-198.

keywords: appearance, culture, elections, entertainment, gender, non-elite, orality, politics

2010_Bearable Lightness of Democracy-c

Heryanto, Ariel (2010) “The bearable lightness of democracy”, in T. Reuter (ed.), The Return to Constitutional Democracy in Indonesia, Monash Asia Institute, Clayton, pp. 51-63.

keywords: democratisation, fetish, Iiberalisation, mass media, nostalgia, post-New Order, propaganda

Most observers of Indonesian culture devote attention to so-called traditional or ethnic cultures (often exoticized by many studies to be authentic cultures of the people), the state-sanctioned ‘official’ version of national cultures (as often propagated in schools and ceremonies), or the ‘avant-garde’ or ‘high’ cultures of the nation’s intelligentsia (as found in the academy, theatres and prestigious galleries). These categories are helpful for conceptualizing what we mean by ‘pop culture’, by highlighting what it is not.

Heryanto, Ariel (2008) “Pop Culture and Competing Identities”, in A. Heryanto (ed), Popular Culture in Indonesia: Fluid Identities in Post-Authoritarian Politics, London & New York: Routledge, pp. 1-36.

keywords: classes, ethnography, feminine, gender, identities, ideologies, industry, Inul Daratista, Islamization, masculine, pop culture