Sport, politics and ethnicity: playing badminton for Indonesia

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the role that badminton has played in Indonesia. It focuses in particular on the ethnic aspect of the sport: ethnic Chinese are represented at the top levels of the game way out of proportion to their presence in the general population. It also examines the political context of badminton, both in terms of its contribution to Indonesian nationalism and a sense of nation, and the ways in which it might have impinged on Indonesia's domestic and foreign politics.