And so it seems that there are now skinheads in Asia. Indonesia specifically. And before we marvel at the inherent irony of such a situation, no, they are not racist skinheads, but 1980's-London-working-class skinheads.
The working class skinheads, from whom all skinheads can attribute their mitochondrial DNA (not really), were essentially started by the gruff and disenfranchised British working class of the 70s and 80s and like all trends, snowballed into something notorious when some members of their ranks took to blaming immigrants for a lot of their problems and set out to "change their minds" about staying in the UK. This aggressive image that became associated with them led to racists and neo-nazis in North America adopting the skinhead style, which they used to intimidate. Anyway, one thing led to another and now they're gearing up for a racial holy war or something equally tacky.
Even then, it seems a little strange, considering how new Indonesia is to this whole popular culture thing. But I guess that in being young and disenfranchised while being introduced to movies and television from bygone eras that feature characters in the same predicament, the Indonesians found something they could understand and identify with. In general, the skinhead archetype looks and even sounds pretty cool (original form only), but like everything known by more than two people, it has be warped.
Anyway, read the original article that started me on this tangent.
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