Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

74 CONSUMPTION AND SELF-DEFINITION
In Jakarta, for example, one could contrast the exclusivity of Plaza Indonesia with
the more diverse middle-class multi-storey mall at Mangga Dua, or the inner
suburban mall at Plaza Arion, Rawamangun. Yet, having allowed for the variation
in social range from one mall to another, it is also true that the spectrum of visitors
within them is wide–more extensive, certainly, than the list of tenants would lead
one to expect. That is part of the sociological interest in these places. They serve to
educate many more categories of people than those who can afford to shop there
regularly. Having observed that, there clearly are significant numbers of city dwellers
who don’t go to malls, unless it is to deliver goods, clean and otherwise service the
operation of the complexes.
Those city dwellers who do regularly visit malls, however, are a diverse and
interesting range of people. A practised sociological eye can soon identify who is
who among the apparently casual and variegated visitors. 20 The staff, and indeed
the regulars themselves, become no less adept at classifying people and their
activities. The small numbers of regular customers who compensate for the
frequent emptiness of fashion boutiques by the frequency of their visits (almost
daily according to Chua (1992)!) have no need of display except to their peers.
They are the bearers of international taste and manners since they shop with
equal ease in America, Europe and other parts of Asia. Aside from this group,
however, there are many who come to be seen, as well as to shop and consume. They
not only seek recognition and acceptance by their peers but also like to set
themselves off from the rest. The potential taxonomy of the evanescent, but
constantly renewed, groups that congregate in malls is in fact very complex.
It is doubtful whether the regulars in Pondok Indah or Sarinah display the kind
of behavioural cohesiveness suggested by the term ‘tribe’ which is used by Shields
(1992:108, 14) to characterise spontaneous group formation in malls. 21
Nevertheless, a wide range of recognisable middle-class groups are there to be
seen. It is at this level of analysis that broader social constants manifest themselves
as well. There are, for example, observable differences in the predominance of
ethnic Chinese customers at certain malls, while civil servants, expatriate residents
and other groups tend to favour certain malls over others. The presence of some
groups is sometimes little more than accidental where a mall happens to be
adjacent to civil service offices or schools, near military headquarters, major
religious centres and so on. There is a fair representation of those who serve the
middle classes too–minding children, buying goods in the supermarket and so on.
The malls are places for young people to meet and be seen. They even serve as
places where attractive young singles might meet eligible partners from a good
family. High-school children come to buy books, eat in the stalls or franchised food
outlets, or just to be seen, and to learn. At the margins are all sorts of interesting
people, some with less than honourable intentions, but most eager to participate in
learning the ways of the successful in the modern world, to show that they are part
of it too.
As social rank decreases, there is a lack of congruence between the experience
and practices of the mall and the rest of daily experience in the home,