Chinese Language Investment: Pesantren and Social Reproduction Challenges

Pesantren, the most dominant Islamic educational institution, has existed long before Indonesian independence. To answer the challenge of modernity, many pesantrens reform their curriculum. A pesantren, Nurul Jadid, follows this step by offering foreign languages, besides Arabic. Inspired by China’s economic rise, Nurul Jadid includes Chinese in its curriculum. This study investigates how Nurul Jadid promotes Chinese among pesantren students so that they invest in the language. This study employs a qualitative research design and draws on the concept of global language (Crystal 2003), Bourdieu’s cultural capital and social reproduction theory (Bourdieu and Passeron 1990). Data are obtained through in-depth interviews with 13 participants. The findings show that Nurul Jadid promotes Chinese through the creation of the school’s image and the use of religious guidance. These efforts transform Chinese into a cultural capital its students can accumulate for the sake of their mobility. In so doing, the students, most of whom come from working-class background, invest in Chinese, which then functions as a symbolic capital that helps them challenge social reproduction. Keywords: Language Investment, Pesantren, Social Reproduction.