The Cultural (Re)production of Masculinities

Abstract

In Asian societies, the framing of contemporary masculinities and femininities remains under-theorised. This article critically examines the interplay between schooling, Indonesian Chinese ethnicity and the (re)production of male entrepreneurial masculinities manifested in teenage boys’ sexual/gender subjectivities and identity formation. The qualitative data obtained from an anonymous Chinese-Christian majority international school in Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta, illustrate how patrimonial practice, in conjunction with repudiations and identifications in an elite educational environment shape gender and specific ways of being male that also “speak” Chineseness. This exploratory case study aims to contribute a theoretically-led empirical intervention which locates Chinese ethnicity and masculinity within their socio-cultural schooling specificities as a prelude to discussing new directions for researching gendered ethnicity and education in Indonesia.