Danandjaja, James

James Danandjaja, born Tan Soe Lien (Chinese: 陳士林; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tân Sū Lîm; 13 April 1934–21 October 2013) was an Indonesian anthropologist known as the foremost scholar on Indonesian folklore. He was a professor of anthropology at the University of Indonesia for nearly twenty years, establishing the field of Indonesian folkloristics. He studied under the eminent anthropologist Koentjaraningrat and renowned folklorist Alan Dundes. Danandjaja's contributions to the fields of cultural anthropology and folklore studies have been recognized by the Indonesian government, which awarded him the Medal for Service in National Culture in 2002. Despite the University of Indonesia not having a folklore program, he taught folkloristics to many of his students and supervised their doctoral dissertations. Those students, in turn, disseminated his teachings throughout Indonesia. In 1984, he published Indonesian Folklore, which won the Best Book Award from the Foundation for Fine Books. Many of his writings, however, are not accessible in the English-speaking world. He was the child of ethnic Chinese parents. Following the May 1998 riots of Indonesia, he became an outspoken critic of country's authoritarian New Order government and its policies discriminating against Chinese Indonesians. He published Chinese Folklore in 2007 as an attempt to cure a cultural "amnesia" in the community caused by the government suppression of Chinese folklore.