Many Indonesians have visited the American cultural center known as @america since it opened in December as an endeavor in public diplomacy.
JAKARTA, Indonesia — On the third floor of a shopping mall here, around the corner from a Gap Kids and a Wedgwood china outlet, a new tenant is busily promoting what is perhaps the world’s biggest brand: America.
The tenant, called @america, represents the United States government’s first attempt at creating a full-fledged cultural center since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A high-tech, interactive operation heralded as the digital-age successor to the venerable American Cultural Center, it is also American public diplomacy’s latest effort to win over young foreigners, especially in Muslim countries.
Thousands of high school and college students have been bused in from schools in Jakarta, the capital, and its outskirts since @america’s opening in December. Just before five members of Congress dropped by recently, the center was filled with 118 students from Islamic Senior High School No. 4. The technology on display — a giant, supercharged version of Google Earth called Liquid Galaxy, scores of iPads that are available to test, interactive monitors explaining Black History Month — thrilled the teenagers.
It was unclear whether the center had changed their perceptions of the United States, though.
“It doesn’t matter what they think of the United States — ‘Do you hate us? Do you love us? Are you somewhere in between?’ — we want as many people as possible to visit this place,” said Matt McGowan, 36, an American from upstate New York whose company, PT Ganesha Aggies Jaya, has been contracted to run the center.
The State Department’s under secretary for public diplomacy, Judith A. McHale, described @america as the “first of a new generation of American cultural centers.” Scot Marciel, the American ambassador to Indonesia, said the center “was not necessarily meant to push a particular message.”
“Frankly, one of our big challenges here is that many Indonesians are a little bit wary,” he said. “They’re not quite sure what to expect about the United States. So the more we can expose them to the reality of the United States, including its flaws, I think that helps change perceptions in a positive way.”
For generations, American Cultural Centers provided comfortable settings where foreigners, especially those in the capitals of developing nations, could leisurely read their first American newspaper, learn about American college campus life or meet a visiting member of Congress.
But even as American embassies worldwide have been transformed into bunkers, security worries have also shuttered many cultural centers, often in the very places where skepticism toward the United States runs deepest. Jakarta, the capital of a country of nearly 240 million people and the target of anti-American terrorist attacks over the years, has not had a cultural center since the mid-1990s. The number of American Cultural Centers worldwide has fallen to 39, down from more than 300 in the early 1970s, with most of the closings occurring since 1999.
After the Sept. 11 attacks, the State Department, fearing that American government facilities would become targets, teamed up with foreign universities and other institutions to establish modest “American Corners” with information about the United States.
Searching for new ways to reach out to people, the embassy here pitched the idea of a high-tech cultural center set in a shopping center — a logical choice in this mall-centric city.
Anger at American foreign policy, especially over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, often rises to the surface in Indonesia, which has the world’s largest Muslim population. Feelings are far less intense here, though, than in the Middle East.
With a start-up cost of $5 million and an estimated annual budget of $3 million, @america is aimed at visitors 15 to 30 years old — the group that has turned Indonesia into one of the world’s heaviest users of Facebook and Twitter. Screens with constantly changing content blanket the center’s walls, and interactive monitors are planted throughout the site, asking questions like “What is the name of the U.S. national anthem?” Young English-speaking Indonesians called “e-guides” offer assistance.
“This shows that America is an open place because they invited us, students from an Islamic school,” said Ipan Jaenul Aripin, 23, who is studying Islamic law at a college in Bogor, just south of here, and was attending an event on biodiversity.
Eva Zahrowati, 34, an English teacher at Islamic Senior High School No. 4, said her students had picked up bits of American history during their visit.
She added, however, that the center’s location — in Pacific Place, one of Jakarta’s most luxurious and tightly guarded malls, next to the stock exchange — created “obstacles” for Indonesians like her students. Visitors must undergo body scans and deposit their bags in a corridor between two huge doors to enter @america, and the heavy security had left a bad taste. “Is America afraid of us?” Ms. Zahrowati asked.
Jennifer Jovana, 19, a student at Binus University, said, “I guess we have to leave our bags so that we won’t steal the iPads.”
The tension in American public diplomacy — the desire to reach out versus the fear of becoming a target — was evident in @america’s entrance: located in a discreet corner of the third floor, it offered no spot to peek into what lies inside.
“It still needs some work,” Mr. Marciel, the ambassador, said.
Not surprisingly, walk-ins have accounted for only a small fraction of the 5,000 visitors each month, said Mr. McGowan, whose company runs the center. Renovations to the security corridor, including soft lights and a digital picture of the Statue of Liberty, are being planned.
The technology used by @america impressed Annisa Mutiara, 16, a student at Islamic Senior High School No. 4. Annisa — who loves the singers Mike Posner and Rihanna and the band Paramore — said her dream was to go to an American university like “Harvard, Stanford, Princeton or Columbia.”
But Annisa was not swayed by what she assumed was the motivation behind the invitation to her school.
“I believe that America hates Muslims, and I’m a Muslim,” she said. “I still believe that after coming here.”
Mr. Marciel said he had heard similar comments at an education fair. A woman interested in studying in the United States “wondered whether she would need security because she’s a Muslim woman.”
It is too soon to say how @america will change young Indonesians’ perceptions of the United States, Mr. Marciel said, adding: “I think it can help, but the fact is, a lot of Indonesians are still a little bit skeptical of the United States, and that’s built up over many years. And our challenge is to steadily chip away at that.”
© 2011nytimes.com
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