Javanese people used to call Chinese people as "Babah". According to folklore from East Java, the origin of the word Babah comes from the word "Mbabah" which means to find a way. That said, this fairy tale was made up by ethnic Chinese in Indonesia to keep a distance from the ethnic Javanese. Here's the story:
The Prophet Adam, the ancestor of humans, had four children, two sons and two daughters. One man is handsome and another is ugly. The same is true for women, one woman having a beautiful face and another having an ugly face.
After the four children grew up, the Prophet Adam wanted to marry his sons and daughters. To be fair, a good-looking son will be married to an ugly daughter. Vice versa, his ugly son will be married to his beautiful daughter. The desire of the Prophet Adam was opposed by his handsome son and beautiful daughter. They reasoned that the good-looking must marry the good-looking one too and the ugly one must marry the bad-looking one too. But the Prophet Adam remained in his decision.
Unable to accept his father's decision, one night, the handsome son of the Prophet Adam with his beautiful daughter decided to flee together. They went through the "mbabah" wilderness of the road. Mbabah means finding a way.
The word Babah comes from the word mbabah. According to the Chinese, the handsome and beautiful sons and daughters of the Prophet Adam were the ancestors of the Chinese people. That is why Chinese people are beautiful and handsome while Javanese are not. Javanese are prohibited from marrying Chinese women on the grounds that they will later be married to "older siblings". While Chinese people are allowed to marry Javanese women because they are considered "young brothers".
That's the origin of the word Babah fable. Of course this is just a fairy tale, so there is no need to be trusted. Because in reality some Javanese are beautiful and some are not, and so are the Chinese. Regarding marriage, today people are free to marry anyone, the important thing is to love each other.
More folklore on East Java:
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