Renata Lumanau
I am a Chinese-Indonesian woman. My name story revolves around my surname, Lumanau, from my dad’s side of the family. Our Hokkien last name Lauw was changed to “Lumanau” during Soeharto’s anti-Chinese rhetoric in 1963-1964. All Chinese-Indonesians were required to change our names to sound more Indonesian. When my dad was born, my great grandfather claimed the goddess Kuan Yin whispered to him that the baby boy should be called Lauw Tjhoe Kiam. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until he was around 5 years old that he had his name changed to Boedian Lumanau. His father felt a lot of grief changing his name to Bud Lumanau. However, it wasn’t until adulthood that my dad fully processed his loss of identity. His attempt to connect with his Chinese heritage was to learn Mandarin, which I remember him doing when I was 4 years old. I was able to learn Mandarin from a young age, but since we lived outside Indonesia since I was 3 years old, I felt disconnected not only from my Indonesian culture, but even more so from my Chinese one. During a lifetime of assimilation, my parents have adopted a ”we are world citizens” mindset, while I was always drawn to family stories that made me feel closer to my roots. I was hesitant to delve into this history since I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with dad but doing so helped me and my dad rebuild a relationship towards each other.
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