Tens of thousands of Indonesia's overseas Chinese openly celebrated the traditional holiday Spring Festival in Indonesia for the first time in more than thirty years.

On January 17, the new government under Abdurrahman Wahid lifted the ban imposed on Chinese New Year in 1967. Then President Suharto banned Spring Festival as part of a policy of repressing ethnic identities in the nation of 210 million. Other parts of that policy included closing down Chinese schools, forbidding the use or teaching of Chinese, forbidding Chinese to join Indonesia's military or government.

Today, the Indonesian government and ethnic Chinese groups have collaborated to organize activities such as lion dances and dragon dances to celebrate the new year. This shows that Chinese culture has been accepted as part of Indonesia's culture.