Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I interviewed my friend Cindy, a Chinese who migrated to Indonesia and married an Indonesian 12 years ago. She said culture is what people wear, say and do which may be different from other people. The difference is the culture diversity which is based on where the people come from. She notices the significant difference is in the language because not many people can speak Mandarin. It is kind of hard for her to learn Indonesian, but luckily, her husband speaks Mandarin and Indonesian, so she has been learning to speak Indonesian from her husband, and both of her children become bilingual.

Another friend is Joe, an Indonesian with Bataknese ethnic (one tribe out of more than 300 tribes). He grew up in the family where parents speak both Indonesian and Bataknese, and he followed so many Bataknese traditional routines through their family’s weddings, funerals and other gatherings when he was a child. He cannot speak Bataknese but understands some. According to Joe, culture is the actions that people do, and diversity is the different way of thinking that people have which results in different actions. Different routines from what other neighbors or friends did with his family that he experienced in his childhood were the results of different way of thinking that his parents had.

The third person is my daughter, a teenager who thinks a culture is a routine that people do influenced by their environment, family and nationality. She notices and experiences the difference, but cannot define what diversity is.

One similarity from those three people and the aspects I have learned about culture and diversity is the actions or things that people do. This confirms that when people have to think of what a culture is, they tend to name the surface culture, the actions that people do or can be seen. They do not seem to include religion, family relationships, ideas, emotion, etc. as part of culture. My Chinese friend included language, the deep culture because it is the most significant diversity she is facing, but she did not include her Chinese values that I believe must be very much different from what the Indonesians believe.

From what they have in mind about culture and diversity, I become more certain that people in general have similar perspectives on culture and diversity, but for those who want to better understand other people, their perspectives on culture and diversity should be broader and deeper. Culture includes someone’s values, emotion, and other unseen aspects. We have to deepen our perspectives on culture in order to better understand about diversity. 

 

Visitor must wear a 'sarung' (white piece of clothes like a skirt) when visiting Prambana temple to respect the Hindust culture 

 

I am wearing a 'kebaya', a traditional gown often worn by women when attending a traditional wedding party