Creative Economy; Nationalism Booster among Indonesian Youngsters

By : Raditya Putranti Darningtyas

    The improvement of education and health in many countries around the world has raised people’s living standard, thus causes changes in how people seeing their life. Interconnection and internationalization has also influenced human life motivation. According to Maslow’s theory of human motivation, once a person has surpassed fulfilling their basic physical needs, he will try to fulfill his needs on the next level such as social or esteem needs and self-actualization. He won’t buy things to merely satisfy his functional needs only, but he would also looking for products that can give him an identity and bring him respects from others. We can call these things as prestigious products. Hence, this initiates transformation in people consuming behavior as well as the market situation. All these reasons resulted in what we call Creative Industry and nowadays as Creative Economy.

Creative economy is an evolving concept that put knowledge and creativity as the main asset in generating economic growth and development. This concept stirred up interests of many countries including Indonesia. Our government realized that we can no longer fully depending on non-renewable natural resources like we used to be since their scarcity is something we would face in the future. In order to reach our goal to become a developed country, we need to promote new kind of products that both use renewable sources and trigger human resources improvement. Therefore, creative economy seems like the feasible way out.

Indonesian government created The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy to support its development in our country since this sector also has a significant contribution to Indonesia’s economy. To make the best use of it, Indonesia government established 15 sub-sectors as follow; Architecture, Design, Fashion, Film Video and Photography, Crafts , Culinary, Computer Service and Software, Music, Art & Antiques Market, Publishing, Advertisement, Interactive Leisure Software, Research and Development, the Performing Art, Television and Radio.

The positive results of creative economy so far has reinforced its importance in many aspects of our life. According to Mapping Study of Indonesian Trading Department, in 2007 creative industry in Indonesia has contributed 6.28 % of our total GDP and the one responsible in creating positive business climate. Beside in economical point of view, creative industry is also widely accepted as a decent tool in strengthening national’s branding and identity. Domestically, it wills further incites nationalism among Indonesians which I personally think Indonesian’s youngsters are still lacking.

Despite the prominence of our cultural heritage, some of our young people especially teenagers still cannot get enough sense of pride in being an Indonesian. This is caused by the fact that teenagers nowadays are far more enhanced from teenagers in the past. Moreover, all these modernization has modified our taste, preference and lifestyle. Our country needs to offer youngsters more than just an ordinary ‘traditional stuffs’ since teenagers are also affected by global change in consumer’s behavior as I mentioned before. Today, when being offered two choices, a seventeen year old girl would most likely prefer a branded and internationally recognized clothes as birthday present compared to a random unknown clothing pieces.

When asked to talk about domestic goods and products, unfortunately youngsters still assume that our country is still incapable of producing eminent stuff they deem meet their taste. They still think that imported goods always have better quality. While in fact, the progress in applying Creative Economy has finally come into sight. Most people have not realized that there are so many high quality goods that are actually produced by Indonesian without our knowing. Nowadays, there are many success stories of a talented Indonesian who seize international attention with their works, products, and ideas. I have thoroughly compiled a best few stories that I believe will prompt sense of pride and nationalism among Indonesian. Since our concern here is youngsters, I will take examples from Fashion, Film Video and Photography, Culinary, Music, Art Performances, Interactive Leisure Sofftware

1.      Fashion

a.       Tex Saverio

International fashion world has been smoldered by the cool costume worn by The Hunger Games Catching Fire star Jennifer Lawrence in the movie released posters. While many assumed that Katniss' wedding gown came from Alexander McQueen , the crystallized organza and abstract metal flames wedding dress was actually created by young and talented Indonesian designer Tex Saverio. This isn't Saverio's first time in the limelight. Lady Gaga wore one of his gowns named La Glacon in Harper's Bazaar in 2011. And Kim Kardashian is wearing one of Saverio's hand-embroidered gowns in the March issue of Elle in a shoot that was styled by Gaga fashion director Nicola Formichetti. Having planned to study abroad, yet decided not to go due to his busy schedules, made him proudly say that he is 100% local product.

b.      Nancy Go

Nancy Go was originally founded a company with her husband Bert Ng in May 2000. It focused on export bag named Bagteria. Her bags began its international success when Nancy Go went to the show at Fashion Week in the United States. At that time, Paris Hilton fell in love with one of bag design of Nancy Go. Besides Paris Hilton, some celebrities who also wore Bagteria are Emma Thompson, Anggun and Princess Zara Phillips.

2.      Film, Video & Photography

a.       Mouly Surya (What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love)

Writer &Director Mouly Surya’s second movie; What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love has set its record as the first Indonesian film to play at International Sundance Film Competition. This movie involves several Indonesian well known actors and actresses like Nicholas Saputra, Ayushita etc. It portrays the relationships between blind and deaf young adults at a school for the visually impaired. Few weeks after that, it won Best Asian Long Movie NETPAC Award in International Film Festival in Rotterdam, again as the first Indonesian movie to win that award.

3.      Culinary

a.       Johnny Andrean (J.CO Donuts & Coffee, BreadTalk, Roppan)

Many people assumed that the familiar J.CO Donuts & Coffee that we often see in malls around Indonesia also Singapore, Malaysia, Shanghai and Philippine is owned by a foreigner entrepreneur. But actually the owner of J.CO and also the infamous bakery BreadTalk is none other than Johnny Andrean. We first knew him as a successful hair stylist who owns many chains of barbershops in Indonesia. He found his creative ideas for business through his travelling hobby and one of them is being a franchise master of BreadTalk based in Singapore. Andrean went to Singapore for months in order to pursue a breadmaking study before finally on March 2003, BreadTalk officially opened in Indonesia.

After his triumphant success with J.CO and BreadTalk, in early 2011 Andrean created another International scaled franchise called Roppan. The name ‘Roppan’ comes from an area in Japan called Roppongi which is famous for its restaurants who sell various foods especially pan or bread. Roppan’s most celebrated product is Japanese Honey Toast, thick bread which soft inside and crispy in the outside. Then, poured by honey and ice cream topping with various optional flavors. What makes his franchise worthy of note is that its kitchen is located in the front part of the shop so customers are able to see the baking process in person.

4.      Music

a.       Nidji for Heroes’ soundtrack

This band never ceased to bring happy news. One of their singles, Shadow was chosen by Television Networks Star World as theme song for HEROES Serial season 3 in Asia. This is the second time their song being used for HEROES’ theme song after their single Heaven in the previous season. Shadow and this serial will be aired in several countries in Asia such as Indonesia, Singapore, Philippine, and Malaysia. Heroes is a drama serial by Tim Kring. Since its first broadcast on NBC in 2006, Heroes becomes a most favored program and it had always managed to get a high rating.

5.      The Performing Art

a.       Emha Ainun Najib and Kiai Kanjeng Musical Group

Emha Ainun Najib, also known as the ’renaissance figure of Indonesian Culture’ did not think twice about accepting when a group of priests from the Dutch Protestant Church asked the renowned poet and Muslim scholar to stage a performance of his musical band Kiai Kanjeng in The Netherlands. His musical group was embarking on a tour in numerous cities in The Netherlands; Rotterdam, The Hague, Zwolle, Leeuwarden, Deventer, Nijmegen, Amsterdam, and Etten-leur. Kiai Kanjeng performed several songs including the infamous Lir Ilir and gained delightful appreciations from the audience. Emha also held dialogues with various religious communities during his cultural tour there.

6.      Interactive Leisure Software

a.       Alegrium (Icon Pop Quiz Game)

After the first release in 2012, The Icon Pop Quiz, an android based operational game which was developed by four Indonesians who name themselves Alegrium. This game has been downloaded by at least 11million in Apple Store and 2 million downloads in Google Play Store. According to AppAnnie, the game hit the second spot in the games category and eighth in the overall category in Indonesia’s free iPhone app rankings. In Singapore, it was ranked ninth and 20th in the same categories. Icon Pop Quiz was also ranked first in Word and Trivia categories in both countries. The fact that most of the downloader comes from English speaking country is a concrete evidence that their game has won global gamers’ likings. Icon Pop Quiz is a game in which users have to guess the correct answers from the given pictures and the topic is famous shows and characters. Alegrium even got unexpected props from world’s renowned Korean Star PSY when he uses particular avatar on his twitter account that was designed by them.

         As the nature of being a teenager, we would always try to copy and resemble somebody until we can shape the one identity we deem fit us the best. Teenagers are mostly driven by the majority or what is used as the criteria in order to be accepted in a society. Thus, when youngsters are given the fact that some of worldly famous public figures or even majority of world citizens also acknowledge the eminent quality of Indonesia’s creative economy’s products, this will cause their sense of pride in being Indonesian to inflame. They will learn to appreciate the domestic products more and this will trigger them to actually prefer local products. Along these lines, youngsters will possess greater nationalism in their heart. Then, they’ll try to be one of the next creative thinkers who continue making our country shine in the world.