Hearth and Pages: Breaking Barriers by Aimee Dawis

“What does it mean to be a Chinese woman in Indonesia?”

Social issues is the one thing that always driven me to read non-fiction books. And with the heated prejudice and racism in Indonesia, especially towards Chinese-Indonesian people, I feel like I need to pick up more books about this issue. Because when we’re facing sensitive issues like race, we need to try to be more well-informed first, before we’re opinionated. Unfortunately for me, getting my hand on one of the books that talk about this issue—in this country—is quite hard. Mostly because they’re quite pricey and the one and only library in my city doesn’t have them. So when I saw that this book was sold at a bargain price on Periplus, I know I have to get it. Especially since one of my childhood hero—Susi Susanti—is also in this book.

In Breaking Barriers, Aimee Dawis wanted to give us a glimpse of how Chinese-Indonesia women can still thrive and stand tall in a patriarchal country with heavy prejudice towards Chinese descents. In a way, Dawis manage to do that with this book. Her interviews with nine Chinese-Indonesian women in this book did provide us with a glimpse of their struggle and their determination. Unfortunately, my problem is exactly that. All I got from this book is just a glimpse. I was hoping for something that’s more deep and detailed, but turns out I only got the surface. I feel like I was reading a summary, which kind of disappointed me. If only Dawis focus more on the struggle and dig a bit deeper on the issue, this book will be much better.

The other things that I feel lacking is the social class diversity in this book. We got nine amazing women who represent successful Chinese-Indonesian women, But we only got one woman from lower working social class to talk about her struggles. Even one of the profiles told her to pick the lower and middle class Chinese-Indonesian women’s story instead of hers. This is a bit disappointing because when you talk about social issue, it is important to get equal amount of representatives from each social class. In my understanding, being inspiring is not always have to do with succesfull business or academic achievement. There are many achievement in life that can inspire people, and most of them actually come from middle and lower working class people.

Though I don’t think this book break any barriers, Dawis did deliver some insightful topics in the introduction. I was able to learn a brief the history of Chinese-Indonesian people and their shaky relationship with other Indonesian people. It’s kind of hit and miss for me, but I still enjoy the book because of some inspiring stories the profiles give. Breaking Barriers is a pretty good book if you see it as Aimee Dawis’ way to ease us into the life of Chinese-Indonesian women.