Hahahaha ..... How can it be ?
I am affraid that Indonesia will need to import Gamelan, Wayang Kulit, Keris, Angklung etc from China soon ....

I think this is kind of a normal phenomenon. It was a huge thing in Italy about importing Italian cheese from China. They put on all the different types of cheese on this show and showed that their labels and packaging were Chinese, but they were still nevertheless Italian cheese. Even if it is normal, it doesn't mean that we should do nothing about it. From the economics perspective, I propose that we just compete and try to thrive to make both the foreign and domenstic market buy Batik produced in Indonesia by producing better Batik, just like producing better of any other goods. And buyers should buy the Batik on the basis of quality, taste, price, etc, and not where it was produced. Who knows, maybe they have a economic advantage that we don't in producing it. Similarly Indonesia could one day start selling Mahjong boards, Chinese tea or traditional Chinese carvings (who knows...) This is the economics perspective so take away all your emotions when reading this.

From the social/cultural perspective, I believe that we need to distinguish between what is traditional and what is new-creational, because Batik is also our identity as Indonesian and we don't want our identity to stretch as how companies would like to by looking for what's 'in'. So... this is my opinion

all imported batik is printed . (not single one is handmade)
and the qulaity is lower of course.

for some people it might worthed than the original/

Its made in China machine-printed batik....
They just copy the pattern, put it to mass productions in their factory. Voila.., you got flooded by Chinese mass production batik.
Its NOT true Batik....

Batik has something to do with applying wax onto fabric to prevent coloring during dyeing. Multiple coloring, and special pattern with meanings.
And in Indonesia batik is considered as the national artform.





We must educate people here in Indonesia, not to buy this made in China fake Batik, coz it can hurt Indonesian traditional batik industry.

Well if it is not True Batik we should tell the world then ????

Let the world knows, we can't keep it in ourselves, it would damage our profits..It's better for a competitor to suffer than yourself....We need to tell the world about this, to keep our customers.

This is the example of the horror lies within global free trade.

The chronology is like this:

Indonesians become more aware and awakened of our own cultural richness. Actually because we learn it in hard way... We were took by surprise when our neighbour (I think you all know which one) started to claims many artforms, textiles, culinary arts, dances, and songs that originally came from Indonesia. This "national awakening" and "cultural concern" led to heaten relationship with our dear neighbour.

But the positive blessing in disguise appears; Indonesians become more aware of our heritage, and this concern and sentiments leads us to appreciate, love, and promote batik. By wearing batik to many occassions, it serve as an elegant "slap to the face" for those copycatters: "Batik is Ours!". As the result Batik is hip and In again in Indonesia. Its really heartwarming to see Indonesian dressed proudly in batik to work or for many occassions. In my office there's "unnofficial" consent among us to wear and dress in Batik every Friday. This also meant to support our local traditional Batik industry that has been strife to survive after suffering the blow from industrial machine-print Batik (local). Soo I got myself 3 new suit of batik shirts for addition of my 2 old batik. Also bought a Red Lasem Batik for Sarong (I must admit, I look sexy in it... ).

Suddenly In Indonesia Batik is in high demand, hip, popular, cool, etc. Youth doesn't felt old or uncool wearing Batik. Local traditional batik production houses were alive and well again.

But then this high demand made handprint and traditional blockprint batik more expensive (originally Batik IS expensive, it was the fabric made for King, Queens, nobles and riches, made with diligent and careful care, and even originally; chant pray on each stroke of cantings).
Then the machine-print Batik become an alternative for tight-budget Indonesians.

Then it get worsen when Batik from China begun floding Indonesian market.
The mechanism was like this:
Anticipating the latest trends in Indonesia's large textile markets and high demand in Batik, many textile company and large traders that have ties of trade and production with their China counterparts begin to posts demand in Chinese Batik-Machine-Print. Include provide many popular Indonesian Batik pattern for China to Copy. Mass production make this made in China Batik as cheap as $hit.

I don't wanna to sounds racist, but most of them are Indonesian Chinese textile traders that naturally have relationship with their mainland Chinese counterparts: Chinese factory. They only saw opportunity to make quick cash out of latest trends, blinded by profit without considerations that this Chinese Batik flood could kill our traditional local Indonesian Batik production houses.

Soo for all of you guys, please be picky and careful on choosing your Batik purchase. Examine the label and make sure it was traditionally made in Indonesia. So we can do our share on saving our just thriving Batik industry from this global free-trade nightmare...

In the Pasar malam besar 2007, a big event in the Netherlands, they talked about making Batik hip in Indonesia and here in the Netherlands. It is not really happening here in the Netherlands, but the numbers they showed proved it was in Indonesia.

Also, in case you did not know this, i saw many many many Batik shops in Sri Lanka. They make it the same way. Got pictures somewhere if you want it.
It is a very big thing there. Proof as back up: http://www.lakpura.com/sri-lankan-batiks.html

Then what's the advantage of buying it from jakarta or from malaysia? Sad....

Probably I should just change the info of my blog to some chinese blog -.- or indian one....

^Welcome, nice blog there, quite informative.

These batik-importers/smugglers has to be punished like drugs-smugglers! Rewarding the chinese to steal OUR culture/heritage is also a crime.

I don't think that's the case. It's not like they were stealing our heritage....
It's just business. The only thing for us to do is to keep up with competition (it's not going to be easy, though).
And maybe we should do something like what Malaysia does. We should ban Batik from other countries from entering our country.

is the word batik ,javanese or sanskrit ?

Javanese