This study is concerned with the presentation, construction, and implications of Indonesians' perceptions of the PRC between 1949 and 1965. By extensively employing primary materials in Indonesian and Chinese, it addresses three central questions: What were the substance and variations of Indonesians' views of China? What were the key explanatory factors (socio-political, intellectual, ethnic, and diplomatic) that shaped the specific images of the PRC and transformed the China perceptions into the China metaphor? How did this "China metaphor" affect Indonesians' political and cultural thinking?;The first section documents Indonesian intellectuals' largely favorable, and sometimes ambivalent, attitudes toward China's socio-political and cultural change. It finds that their perceptions were consistently characterized by the inclination to interpret China as a nationalistic and populist experiment and to separate China from Communism. The attraction to and fascination with China's powerful administration, orderly social system, and rapid economic growth were typically mixed with the disdain for her denial of religious freedom and social regimentation.;The second section explores the multi-dimensional process in the making of Indonesians' perceptions of China, which were molded not only by their predispositions about Indonesia and the Chinese minority, but also by the PRC's deliberate endeavors in formulating a hopeful self-image. Amidst the frustrating nation-building process at home, Indonesians utilized China as a political strategy and a cultural device to justify or reject certain domestic agendas. By creating a China in their own image, they transformed their China perceptions into the China metaphor, a reflective mirror that revealed more the complex nature of Indonesian political and cultural intellectuals than Chinese realities.;The third section focuses on the views of China espoused by President Sukarno and the writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer. It contends that their admiration for China helped reformulate their visions for Indonesia, which in turn contributed to the political populism and cultural radicalism of the Guided Democracy era (1959-65). The concluding chapter is an experimental comparison of the Indonesian case with the presentations of China's images by intellectuals in the West. It suggests that there existed remarkable similarities with respect to the creation, substance, and implications of the China perceptions, which displayed the familiar themes of idealization of and romanticization with an imagined China.
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