In every family photo album, something hides in silence. Approval and disapproval reside behind the selected photos. What is not conveyed directly are embedded within them. In it, some things are shown. Some things are omitted. It is an entry point to see the dynamics at play behind the family stage.

If so, what goes on backstage in a Chinese-Indonesian family? Perhaps, like any other family, there are intergenerational conversations that are considered personal, that are considered sensitive to be brought into the public sphere. Perhaps it revolves around family, school, work and marriage – wrapped in approval sometimes, often disapproval. These conversations represent a confluence of perspectives from different generations.

But difference, in the context of the Chinese community, has its own complications. Throughout history, the state–with its regime changes–has exercised direct and indirect repression. There were bureaucratic exclusions of the Chinese community from what is constructed as the “original Indonesian nation”. There was also the creation of “Chinese Problem”, a discourse that frames Chinese as those who hamper indigenous economy, ignoring the Chinese living in the lower and middleclass. Not mentioning the resulting violence that ensue. Through the boundaries created by the state, the Chinese have adopted a lifestyle that allows them to live within those boundaries. It becomes the norms constructed within the community, passed down from generation to generation. Following the norm, in turn, becomes a marker of solidarity, a way to be seen as part of the community.

The burden to adhere to these norms is even stronger in the family context. There are socially constructed roles. Giving birth to children, educating them to grow up following the norms, is closely associated with the role of the mother. The child’s failure in this regard is equated with the mother’s failure. This is further complicated by the concept of “heaven is on the soles of the mother’s feet” that emerges as “u hao”-a value of honor, respect, and devotion, especially to the mother. Thus, choosing to be different from what the community constructs, what the family and parents absorb, is reprehensible, despite the fact that differences in views are inevitable–especially when each generation is born into different social and political situations. 

This photo album is an entry point to explore how different regimes in power, policies adopted, and models of repression in a period create differences in the personal views of a mother and child. It presents personal and public family archive photos side by side. From the photographs presented, we can see how the political is translated into personal, how views need to be negotiated within a family context. It whispers, it displays itself so subtly, waiting to be discovered if the viewer is willing to find it.