Jan 14, 2025 Last Updated 12:13 AM, Jan 7, 2025
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Arts

Nova Ruth: stages of collaboration

A singer for all seasons at ease with many musical repertoires and traditions

Hip hop with attitude

Rappers express their music in a Javanese way in Yogyakarta

Review: Dancing the Feminine

A look into Indonesian migrant women, identity, and cultural performances. 

Review: Stormy with a Chance of Fried Rice

Cover Image - Stormy with a Chance of Fried Rice
Review: Stormy with a Chance of Fried Rice

Reading for pleasure, 15 minutes a day

The National Book Committee Team - Courtesy of National Book Committee
Indonesia’s struggle to create a culture of reading

The pattern of a batik revival

How UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage program transformed the batik neighbourhood of Laweyan

'Kampoeng Cyber'

Yogyakarta’s little internet community, Taman Sari

Punkrock and global protest culture

Tolak reklamasi posters set up in Bali’s villages and neighborhoods - Birgit Bräuchler
An environmental movement is generating new forms of resistance by fusing traditional and contemporary Balinese art with social media

If I were Australia/ Kalau aku Australia

Poems across the Indonesian-Australian divide

A room of one’s own

Mobile libraries and writers clubs reveal a rich reading and writing culture among Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong

A feminist trajectory of literary influences

A writer pays homage to the women writers and intellectuals who paved the way for others

Urban Christian aspirations

The Indonesian worship team lead the audience in song - CY Hoon
A new interdenominational Christian movement is gaining momentum in urban centres

Review: Man Tiger strikes!

Man Tiger Cover Image
Longlisted for the prestigious Man Booker International Prize Eka Kurniawan’s novel signals the birth of a sophisticated crime noir genre in Indonesian literature

A post-colonial subversive

Semua Untuk Hindia cover image
Like Toer’s tetralogy before it, Semua Untuk Hindia turns Indonesia’s national history narrative on its head

After ’98: Censorship, compromises and resistance

Cancellations at UWRF 2015 were just the latest example of censorship in democratic Indonesia

Introduction to Man Tiger: A Novel by Eka Kurniawan

Man Tiger Cover Image
Introduction to Man Tiger: A Novel by Eka Kurniawan

Aquarelle Phantasm

An emerging poet takes the international stage

Battle of the bands

Julia Perez in Democrat Party campaign - http://www.jpnn.com
The influence of music videos in the 2014 electoral campaign

Review: The Crocodile Hole

Saskia Wieringa’s latest novel brings to life a dark period in Indonesia’s past

The Crocodile Hole

Indonesia, beginning of the 1980s. The young journalist Tommy comes into contact with the survivors of the genocide that the New Order regime of General Suharto carried out. To her bewilderment she hears stories about lurid dancing, castrations and the murder by young girls of a number of generals in the night of October 1 1965.  Guided by Ibu Sri, herself a former prisoner and a member of the women’s organisation that was held responsible for these alleged sexual and sadistic perversions she sets herself the task to unravel these fantasies.  Who invented these hateful lies which were meant to incite mass organizations to murder possibly one million of their neighbors?  Tommy is betrayed and thrown into prison. 

Latest Articles

Sukarno's Indonesia as seen from Yogyakarta

Jan 06, 2025 - MARK WOODWARD

Sukarno's dedication to the arts and obsession with creating a nationalist ideal live on in luxury hotels he built in the 1960s

Essay: Beyond cultural awareness

Dec 31, 2024 - VICTORIA WINATA

What is cultural awareness? Is it about knowing the habits and languages of other people? These are good intentions, but there is a lot more work to be done

Tetangga: These are the stories of our neighbours

Oct 23, 2024 - ASHLYNN HANNAH & SOFIA JAYNE

Introducing a new podcast series

Obit: Adrian Horridge, 1927-2024

Oct 22, 2024 - JEFFREY MELLEFONT

From distinguished neurophysiologist to maritime historian

Book review: The Sun in His Eyes

Oct 07, 2024 - RON WITTON

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A selection of stories from the Indonesian classics and modern writers, periodically published free for Inside Indonesia readers, courtesy of Lontar.