The Two Faces of San Kew Jong

FOR the first time the Cap Goh Meh festival was celebrated on a national level. Singkawang in West Kalimantan, which has long been known as the City of a Thousand Temples, hosted the celebrations. Festivities were started in Jakarta and climaxed in Singkawang at the beginning of this month. The streets were magically transformed into places with parades of lanterns and many tatung (mystics who perform trances). There was also a gigantic kue keranjang or basket cake (so called because the cake’s wrapping is made from the leaves of bamboo which look rather like a basket around the cake). Successful Singkawans who had moved away from Singkawang collected money to the tune of more than Rp3 billion—all donated from their own pockets—to pay for the big celebrations.

Nevertheless, San Kew Jong—the Chinese name for Singkawang—also has a hidden area which is obscure and inhabited by many descendants of ethnic Chinese who have lived there since they were chased away during the occurrences related to 30 September 1965. It is as though they are imprisoned in poverty and lack of education and now they are also victims of so-called people trafficking. Tempo journalist Bina Bektiati visited the city at the beginning of March this year and recorded the two faces of Singkawang.