In most countries in Southeast Asia, writers, artists, and
composers are attempting to synthesize international
styles and themes with local tradition and experience.
The novel has become increasingly popular as writers
seek to find the best medium to encapsulate the dramatic
changes that have taken place in the region in recent
decades.
The best-known writer in postwar Indonesia—at least
to readers abroad—is Pramoedya Toer. Born in 1925 in
eastern Java, he joined the Indonesian nationalist movement
in his early twenties. Arrested in 1965 on the
charge of being a Communist, he spent the next fourteen
years in prison. While incarcerated, he began writing his
four-volume Buru Quartet, which recounts in fictional
form the story of the struggle of the Indonesian people for
freedom from colonial rule and the autocratic regimes of
the independence period.
Among the most talented of contemporary Vietnamese
novelists is Duong Thu Huong (b. 1947). A member
of the Vietnamese Communist Party who served on the
front lines during the Sino-Vietnamese war in 1979, she
later became outspoken in her criticism of the party’s failure
to carry out democratic reforms and was briefly imprisoned
in 1991. Undaunted by official pressure, she has
written several novels that express the horrors experienced
by guerrilla fighters during the Vietnam War and
the cruel injustices perpetrated by the regime in the cause
of building socialism.
Some popular musical styles have evolved out of Indonesia’s
growing familiarity with the West. Like young
musicians in Africa, the rock group Slank, for example,
uses music to attack corruption and social inequality.
Shocked at the recent violent acts committed by Islamic
fundamentalists, such as the 2002 bombing of a nightclub
in Bali, the group promotes a nonviolent message of hope
and tolerance for Indonesia’s diverse ethnic and religious
groups.
World History
