After Muslim-majority Indonesia threw off authoritarian rule, the minority group which had played little role in the country's political life began to win more freedoms and greater acceptance.
Sixteen years after watching anti-Chinese rioters loot and burn Jakarta as Suharto's 32-year rule came to a chaotic end, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama is now set to take over as the leader of the capital.
His ethnicity is not the only thing that sets him apart from the majority of Indonesians -- Purnama, currently Jakarta's deputy governor, is also a Christian.
Purnama, known by his nickname Ahok, will automatically become governor in the coming weeks when Widodo steps down.
"Indonesia has undergone extraordinary progress since the Suharto days," Benny Setiono, co-founder of the Chinese-Indonesian Association, one of the main group's representing the minority, told AFP.
"Who ever thought that a Chinese and Christian man like Ahok could become Jakarta governor?"
His minority status makes him a political outsider like Widodo, a former furniture exporter who is Indonesia's first leader without deep roots in the autocratic Suharto era.
He makes no apologies for his hard-nosed attitude and his supporters believe he can shake up a notoriously bloated, inefficient bureaucracy.
Despite some suspicion towards a non-Muslim figure when he was elected deputy governor in 2012, Purnama's tough style and his campaign for transparency in a graft-ridden nation has helped him win strong public support.