Since 1967, based on the “Presidental Cabinet Decision No 127/U/Kep/12/1966” I was made to give a testimony of my own will towards changing my Tionghoa name to an Indonesian one. According to this letter of mandate, every Indonesian citizen of Tionghoa descent is ‘advised’ (read: forced) to change their original names to the names that an ‘authentic’ Indonesian person should have.

My 18 year old self was subject to this new regulation. I was then named Franciscus Harsono. Franciscus was my baptized Catholic name, which was given by my mother. Harsono was a name that I found for myself.

Since the fall of that government, reformations occurred in all aspects of life, especially in politics. In 2002, the then president Abdurrahman Wahid oversaw significant changes.

Ever since then I continued to look back at my own history, my family’s history and the history of the Chinese from my birth town, Blitar. The memory of my own Chinese name that hasn’t been used since 1967 returned. I tried to remember and to scroll this name down. Remembering my ancestral history, remembering my own name was an effort to grapple with identity and to dig deep for cultural roots that have been yanked out for 35 years. This effort was the source of my inspiration in creating my work.