After 70 years of ties, China and Indonesia have a fruitful, complicated relationship

Freelance writer Sylvie Tanaga, 33, has been learning Mandarin since she was a little girl – but her first lessons were held secretly in a church in Bandung, as Indonesia’s second president, Suharto, had for decades banned Chinese Indonesians from publicly expressing their culture.Tanaga’s paternal grandfather and her maternal grandparents were born in China before migrating to Indonesia, which inspired the family to make sure she kept learning the language.Her fascination with China and…