About

Gedang Meaning Debate refers to a humorous debate between two of the biggest ethnic groups in Indonesia, the Sundanese and Javanese, discussing the real means of "Gedang," which means papaya in Sundanese, while also meaning banana in Javanese. It has also sparked similar word debates that have different meanings in other languages in Indonesia.

Origin

On April 30th, 2019, Indonesian webcomic creator "Goresan Dody" uploaded a webcomic from his Facebook^[1] page depicting a debate about "gedang" means, which shows characters Cepot from puppet show Wayang Golek, representing the Sundanese, presenting the gedang as a papaya, and Bagong from puppet show Wayang Kulit, representing Javanese, responding "it's kates," which means "papaya" in Javanese. He asks Cepot to get a banana. The post received 556 reactions and 753 shares in four years (shown below).

Spread

Starting in the early 2020s, the debate spread between Sundanese and Javanese discussing the real meaning of "gedang." For example, on July 30th, 2020, Facebook^[2] user Faksi Yudi Permana uploaded a screenshot from Google Translate showing "gedang" translating to papaya in Indonesian. The post received 202 shares in three years (shown below, left). On the same day, Facebook^[3] user Lexman Dostoyevsky uploaded an image macro that translates to, "Gedang means banana. You don't accept it? Bring it on Sunda!" The post received 275 reactions and 464 shares (shown below, right).

On July 30, 2020, Facebook^[4] user Nick Andy uploaded a Photoshopped image of papaya inside a banana peel to "solve" the debate. The post received 728 reactions and more than 2,400 shares in three years (shown below, left). On the same day, Facebook^[5] user Aris Setiawan uploaded photo of himself putting a real papaya in a banana peel. The post received more than 2,600 reactions and 1,600 shares (shown below, right).

Additional debates about words having different meanings between dialects began to appear after the gedang debate increased in popularity. For example, on July 30th, 2020, Facebook^[6] Putra Chris uploaded image macro depicting the Javanese and Batak speakers discussing meanings of "manuk," which in Javanese means "bird," and in Batak means "chicken." The post received 382 reactions and 847 shares (shown below, left). On the next day, Indonesian webcomic creator Risa Comics's Facebook^[7] page uploaded similar debate in a webcomic and received more than 1,700 reactions and 563 shares (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References