I guess all my life I’ve always been a minority. It wasn’t really a problem until the 1998 Indonesian massacre stories became all too familiar. It has scarred probably the entire Chinese population living in Indonesia at the time. Of course, I was too little to comprehend the situation, but even then I knew it had a huge impact on my life. All of a sudden, I grew up learning that I should never let my guard down. I grew up knowing that crimes are common, and that I could easily be a target. The list goes on and on. The Chinese – Indonesian tensions have definitely gotten a lot better now, but the stigma that people had was so much a part of how I was brought up because, well, 1998 isn’t that long ago.

 

我想我一直屬於少數那一群。

在1998年發生的那場印度尼西亞大屠殺，

一夜間，震驚了當時居住在印度尼西亞的整個中國人口。

當然，當時還年幼的我還未能完全了解這事件，卻依稀感覺到它將影響我日後的人生。

突然，我在成長中必須學會，自己要無時無刻保持戒心。

突然，我在成長中必須知道，罪案是普遍的，而我，很容易會成為目標。

在這個社會中長大，我需要學會的，是一張很長很長的清單。

華裔和印度尼西亞人民的關係在改善，

但他們對我的標籤，卻是個烙印，在我的人生中，清晰可見。

始終，1998年，並不久遠。