A Wayang Potehi Riddle
Originating from southern Fujian in China, potehi—a cloth glove puppet theatre, arrived on the Indonesian island of Java in the 18th century, and soon became a feature of many Sino-Javanese communities. While more traditional temple-based performance persists, much contemporary potehi patronage exhibits the strategies of the mixed-culture non-Chinese-speaking communities of Java to perform a streamlined and loyal Sino-Indonesian identity. But what does this mean for the identity of the art form?