pilgrimage [feature]
By Audrey Wijono | April 2My grandfather grew up in small-town, middle-of-nowhere East Java, right around the old Dutch sugar plantations.
My grandfather grew up in small-town, middle-of-nowhere East Java, right around the old Dutch sugar plantations.
It is May of 1981. Tempo Magazine, one of Indonesia’s largest weekly newspapers, has just published an article about a wedding. “Their affections for one another are a little excessive, even in front of all their guests,” the author writes, seemingly amused. “Bonnie is pinching their ‘husband’s’ ...
tw: body image, disordered eating/body image, some mention of gender dysphoria
After hundreds of years of disruption, displacement, and colonial violence in Indonesia, I’m learning Dutch. Rudimentary, garbled Dutch, but Dutch nonetheless.
One year, my mother committed herself to scrapbooking my oma’s life. For weeks, she scoured the depths of old boxes and dusty albums, until she’d found records of every pivotal moment of my oma that she could. Sepia, water-stained photos adorned the pages, accompanied by careful captions, dates. ...
cw: homophobic slur, mentions of gender dysphoria
Ratty tempeh is a mortal sin, an unspeakable around these parts; its reputation precedes it. To partake in its horrors is to renounce the very core of one’s humanity, to shirk one’s honor and pride—and God forbid you claim to enjoy it. Brain-like in texture and appearance, the soy-based product ...