Do not stand out. Do not attract attention. Since we were kids, we were socialized to “fit” in our society. Becoming outliers could justify acts of violence perpetrated against us. This becomes truer in a marginalised community. There are no needs for actions. An aspect of your identity is enough to make you an outlier. In such communities, there are codes you need to abide by to increase your chance of survival. Blend in. Build good rapport. Work hard so you can move abroad lest anything happen. These guides are commonly found in the Chinese-Indonesian community–who lives in a vulnerable position–spread mouth-to-mouth, generation-to-generation. “A self-disciplinary body” is what they become, as said by Thaniago in Disciplining Tionghoa. These “individuals ‘voluntarily’ control and regulate themselves and their ethnic community for the sake of survival”.

These self-disciplining guides are what I attempt to collect in this project in the form of a survival guide. The illustrated book will consist of historical backgrounds, as well as stories and lessons from Chinese-Indonesians coming from different cultures, geographical locations, era, and class. Watchfulness and self-regulation are the day-to-day realities to survive. In vulnerable communities, they are translated into habits, lifestyle, and standards of success that continue to be carried post-conflict. Survival guide allows us to decode them to access history from the margins, as well as the agency possessed by marginalized groups to survive.