Asian Heritages. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; Chicago: University of Chicago Press [distributor], 2016. 204 pp. (B&W photos.) US$99.00, cloth. ISBN 978-9-462-98064-8.
Ana Dragojlovic’s Beyond Bali is a meaningful contribution to translocal diaspora and mobility studies as well as Asian and European studies. Drawing from her ethnographic work and engagement with relevant social theories, she investigates Balinese diasporic formation in the Netherlands with a focus on the many layers and tensions in her interlocutors’ attempt to construct Balineseness or kebalian in post-colonial context. Dragojlovic defines the encounter between the Balinese diaspora and the Dutch as “post-colonial intimacy”, that is, “a relationship of proximity and mutuality between Balinese and Dutch people” rather than an unequal exchange between the former as the colonized and newcomers and the latter as the colonizers and citizens (45). She explores kebalian in the context of this post-colonial intimacy in various settings—among different Balinese groups in the Netherlands, between the Balinese diaspora and their Dutch family members and society at large, and between the Balinese and other migrants and ethnic minorities in the Netherlands, both in private and public realms.
To substantiate her argument, Dragojlovic carefully analyzes several instances of diasporic kebalian: the enduring political legacy of the Balinese Left in chapter 1, the intersecting dynamics between Balinese everyday cultural and artistic expressions with the Dutch state’s promotion of active citizenship for the migrants in chapter 2, and her interlocutors’ views on Dutch colonialism, other ethnic minorities in the Netherlands, and artistic practices in chapters 3–5.
In the first chapter, she traces one of the earliest groups of Balinese diaspora in the Netherlands—those who studied in Eastern Bloc countries supported by Sukarno’s government and leftist activists. Unable to go home because of their tainted association with Sukarno and the communists after the 1965 anti-communist purge, they were forced to become exiles. They then became respected figures in the Balinese community in the Netherlands and actively promoted the sense of kebalian in the community. Dragojlovic then turns to the everyday life of her interlocutors in the second chapter, showing how they navigate their lives and embrace kebalian at their respective workplaces, in their children’s school and community activities, and with their Dutch spouses and family members, who sometimes find the tensions between kebalian and the Dutch citizenship and familial values expected for migrants and ethnic minorities. In chapters 3 and 4, Dragojlovic explores a major tenet of kebalian of Balinese as “the best of all the rest” of other ethnic groups, whether in the colonial Dutch East Indies or in the present-day Netherlands, by focusing on her interlocutors’ reception of a state-sponsored exhibition, Indonesia: The Discovery of the Past, which displayed various Balinese royal objects looted by the Dutch and an anti-colonial play, Puputan, Val van Bali (Puputan, The Fall of Bali) performed by the multicultural choir Colorful City Koor. Here, rather than showing the expected anti-colonial stance against the Dutch incursion on their sovereignty, the Balinese diaspora instead downplays such a stance, seeing the colonial invasion mainly as just another episode of their history, a fate shaped by the power of the kris (the royal dagger) according to their Balinese-Hindu ontology, or a historical fragment misused by other ethnic groups in the Netherlands for their own advocacy agenda. In chapter 5, Dragojlovic then highlights the life history of I Komang Suaka, a Netherlands-based artist from Bali who recognizes his Balinese roots but refuses to be seen and tokenized as a Balinese artist. Finally, Dragojlovic concludes her investigation in the last chapter, presenting the common thread among her case studies.
Here, she finds that the relationship between the Balinese diaspora and the larger Dutch society to be mainly characterized by post-colonial intimacy, rather than the bitterness commonly found between former colonized nations and former colonizer, or between Western host country and non-Western countries. This post-colonial intimacy is founded upon the idea of the Balinese as a bearer of artistic culture and traditions, standing out from other ethnic groups, whether in predominantly-Muslim colonial Indonesia or the multicultural contemporary Netherlands. With the increasing concerns over multiculturalism and migration in the Netherlands, this sense of intimacy is renewed: both the Dutch state and the Balinese diaspora share similar concerns regarding the perceived negative role of Islam (or rather, Muslim migrants) in Dutch society and the emphasis on active citizenship for ethnic minorities in the Netherlands, wherein the Balinese are cited as an example of good minority citizens.
Beyond Bali is an enjoyable read. Dragojlovic moves seamlessly between her ethnographic encounter with the Balinese diaspora and engagement with studies on postcolonialism, citizenship, and subjectivity. She skilfully shows the subtle-yet-inherent tensions in the postcolonial intimacy between the Balinese and Dutch society, particularly how her interlocutors strategically position themselves in Dutch society and in doing so sometimes perpetuate the existing cultural hierarchy in that host society. Using relevant vignettes, she also shows her interlocutors’ ambivalence regarding the said hierarchy, which both benefits them greatly but also marginalizes them at times. Her theorizing effort to gain a more generalizable insight into postcolonial subjectivity from what might be considered a niche research topic is also commendable. Needless to say, her book also provides an important addition to the recent literature on Balinese subjectivity.
I do, however, have several minor comments. First, Dragojlovic could have explained more explicitly the justification for her case studies. While specialists and familiar readers on the topic can easily see the key points emerging from and connecting each case study, more general readers would have benefited from a brief discussion of her case selection. Moreover, although she does make some references to some other cases beyond her research scope, a more comparative take on some of the episodes that she encountered in her research could have enriched her argument. She could have explained in more detail, for example, how the experiences of the Balinese Left and the artist I Komang Suaka are echoed in other diaspora communities. But these criticisms do not discount the value of her book. Overall, Beyond Bali is a must-read tour de force.
Iqra Anugrah
Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, USA