ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how they respond to challenges to their identities which arise in the wake of their move to Indonesia. In a fundamental sense, identities depend on the creation of boundaries insofar as they mark out what is regarded as self and other, and representations play a key role in this process. The monthly coffee morning of the German Women's Association is held in a well-known hotel in the city center. They also provide a habitual target for ridicule within a popular male discourse on expatriate wives. The chapter suggests that the refreshments served at these coffee mornings are a significant part of the performance of national identities. At the British women's coffee mornings. The chapter discusses an occasion which concerns the national community as a whole, namely the celebration of national days. As importing German beer would have been rather expensive, an Indonesian company had been chosen to sponsor the occasion by providing the locally brewed Bintang beer.
