本文以一則關於當代印華跨族群僱傭情境的口耳消息為引,結合田野調查與口述歷史資料,描繪印尼棉蘭地區家務親密勞動關係裡的回憶與差/異政治。透過兩組在歷史時間上有所承接,在形式與內容上相互對照的口述歷史資料,本文呈現出同屬印尼華人的敘事主角們,在口述自身家務親密勞動故事時所展演的階級與種族認同,及其相隨的矛盾與不安。視回憶(remembering)為一種詮釋的勞作(interpretive labor),本文希望帶領讀者進行文字與感官經驗的想像與交換,捕捉家務親密勞動關係中一些隱而不察的面向,並為僱傭依賴關係裡主體認同情境的分析提供一個更寬廣的詮釋脈絡與生命史的縱深。
Blending oral and written history, this article portrays politics of difference and memory found in intimate domestic service relationships in the North Sumatran city of Medan, Indonesia. By examining two sets of oral histories as told by former employer and domestic workers, this article demonstrates how these narrators perform class and racial identities via processes of remembering and story-telling. It also shows how memory production through food and other tactile memories provides an inroad to the history of the construction of Chinese Indonesian identity in Medan. In sum, seeing remembering as an interpretive labor, this article examines the intimate relations between history, personal memory, class and racial formation, and thus provides a multi-layered interpretive framework for the studies of intra-household dependency and domestic work.