Gastronomic Tourism and the Politics of Identity: How ‘Pecinan’ Bogor (Chinatown) Fosters Interethnic Cohesion in a Multicultural Community?

Abstract

Urban Chinatowns in Southeast Asia are often framed as heritage tourism enclaves, commodified for cultural consumption while their contemporary social functions remain underexplored. This article addresses this gap by examining Pecinan Bogor (Chinatown), Indonesia, not merely as a heritage destination but as a lived urban space where gastronomic tourism mediates interethnic and interfaith relations. The study investigates how culinary encounters within this historic district foster social cohesion and enable the negotiation of identity and belonging in a multicultural urban community. Drawing on the conceptual frameworks of contact zone and the politics of belonging, this research employs qualitative discourse analysis, digital ethnography, and document analysis. Data are derived from tourism promotion materials, social media content, visitor reviews, and municipal policy narratives that construct Pecinan as a culinary destination. The findings reveal that gastronomic tourism in Pecinan Bogor functions as a symbolic social interface where diverse groups, including Chinese Indonesians, Sundanese Muslims, and visitors from varied backgrounds, engage in everyday practices of tolerance, cultural exchange, and negotiated coexistence. Culinary representations in digital and promotional spaces frame the district as a site of harmony while simultaneously serving as an arena for identity negotiation and the production of shared urban belonging. This study contributes to debates on tourism and urban diversity in the Global South by demonstrating that gastronomic tourism can operate as an infrastructure of social cohesion rather than merely a form of cultural commodification. By foregrounding Pecinan Bogor as a digitally mediated contact zone embedded in everyday urban life, the article advances a nuanced understanding of how tourism practices reshape pluralism and reconfigure the politics of identity in contemporary Indonesian cities.