Lie Kim Hok was a peranakan Chinese teacher, writer, and social worker active in the Dutch East Indies and styled the "father of Chinese Malay literature". Born in Buitenzorg, West Java, Lie received his formal education in missionary schools and by the 1870s was fluent in Sundanese, vernacular Malay, and Dutch, though he was unable to understand Chinese. In the mid-1870s he married and began working as the editor of two periodicals published by his teacher and mentor D. J. van der Linden. Lie left the position in 1880. His wife died the following year. Lie published his first books, including the critically acclaimed syair (poem) Sair Tjerita Siti Akbari and grammar book Malajoe Batawi, in 1884. When van der Linden died the following year, Lie purchased the printing press and opened his own company.
Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang is a 1927 vernacular Malay-language novel written by Kwee Tek Hoay. The seventeen-chapter book follows a plantation manager, Aij Tjeng, who must leave his beloved njai (concubine) Marsiti so that he can be married. Eighteen years later, after Aij Tjeng's daughter Lily dies, her fiancé Bian Koen discovers that Marsiti had a daughter with Aij Tjeng, Roosminah, who greatly resembles Lily. In the end Bian Koen and Roosminah are married.
Tio Ie Soei was a peranakan Chinese writer and journalist active in the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia. Born in the capital at Batavia, Tio entered journalism while still a teenager. By 1911 he had begun writing fiction, publishing Sie Po Giok – his first novel – that year. Over the next 50 years Tio wrote extensively in several newspapers and magazines, serving as an editor for some. He also wrote several novels and biographies, including ones on Tan Sie Tat and Lie Kim Hok.
Tjerita Sie Po Giok, atawa Peroentoengannja Satoe Anak Piatoe is a 1911 children's novel from the Dutch East Indies written by Tio Ie Soei in vernacular Malay. It tells the story of Sie Po Giok, a young orphan who faces several challenges while living with his uncle in Batavia. The story, which has been called the only work of children's literature produced by Chinese Malay writers, has been read as promoting traditional gender roles and questioning Chinese identity.
Tjerita "Oeij-se": Jaitoe Satoe Tjerita jang Amat Endah dan Loetjoe, jang Betoel Soedah Kedjadian di Djawa Tengah is a 1903 Malay-language novel by the ethnic Chinese writer Thio Tjin Boen. It details the rise of a Chinese businessman who becomes rich after finding a kite made of paper money in a village, who then uses dishonesty to advance his personal wealth before disowning his daughter after she converts to Islam and marries a Javanese man.
Tan Boen Soan was an ethnic Chinese Malay-language writer and journalist from Sukabumi, Java. He was the author of works such as Koetoekannja Boenga Srigading (1933), Bergerak (1935), Digdaja (1935) and Tjoban (1936). He later wrote for the Sunday Courier of Jakarta.
Djawa Tengah was a major Malay-language peranakan Chinese daily newspaper in Semarang, Dutch East Indies from 1909 to 1938. It is said to have been the first Chinese newspaper in Semarang.
Betsy Thung Sin Nio was an Indonesian-Dutch women's rights activist, physician, economist and politician. Born into a wealthy and progressive Peranakan family of the 'Cabang Atas' gentry in Batavia, she was encouraged to obtain an education, which was unusual for Indonesian women at the time. After completing high school, she qualified as a bookkeeper, but – because social norms prevented women from doing office work – she became a teacher. After teaching briefly in an elementary school, in 1924 Thung enrolled at the Netherlands School of Business in Rotterdam to study economics. On graduating, she went on to earn a master's degree and a doctorate in economics. In 1932, she enrolled at the University of Amsterdam to pursue her medical studies.
Siem Piet Nio, who wrote under the pen name Hong Le Hoa, was an Indonesian language writer, magazine editor, journalist and Women's rights advocate from the Dutch East Indies who was active during the 1920s and 1930s.
Njonja Tjoa Hin Hoei, who was born Kwee Yat Nio and was also known by the Buddhist name Visakha Gunadharma, was a Chinese Indonesian journalist, writer, Buddhist figure, and political activist during the late colonial and early independence periods. She was especially known for being publisher and editor of a women's magazine Maandblad Istri which ran from the 1930s to the early 1950s.
Nyonya The Tiang Ek, whose real name was Lie Djien Nio, was a Chinese Indonesian journalist, writer, and translator who was active in the late colonial period in the Dutch East Indies. She was part of a small cohort of Chinese Indonesian women novelists and short story writers publishing during that time which included Khoe Trima Nio, Tan Lam Nio, and Yang Lioe, and translators such as Lie Loan Lian Nio. She was known for translating detective and cloak-and-dagger stories and was interested in women's liberation and increased freedom for Chinese Indonesian women in particular. She was one of only a handful of documented Chinese Indonesian women translators in the Indies.
Khoe Trima Nio, who published under the pen names Aster and L. S. G., was a Peranakan Indonesian language writer and journalist active in the Dutch East Indies during the 1930s. She was part of a small cohort of Chinese Indonesian women novelists and short story writers publishing during that time which included Nyonya The Tiang Ek, Tan Lam Nio and Yang Lioe.
Nona Tan Tjeng Nio was a Peranakan Malay language poet active in the 1890s. She was one of the earliest known Chinese Indonesian women writers to be published in the Indies; her poems are considered to have surprisingly modern themes and ideas for their time.
Phoa Tjoen Hoay, who sometimes published as T. H. Phoa Jr., was a Chinese Indonesian, Malay language journalist, translator, and newspaper editor active in the Dutch East Indies in the early twentieth century. He translated a number of Chinese and European works into Malay, including seven volumes of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Lie Sim Djwe, who also published under the name Lie Sien Djioe, was a Chinese Indonesian writer, journalist and translator active in the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia from the 1910s until the 1950s. His major contribution was the translation of Chinese-language novels into Malay.
Lie Loan Lian Nio was one of the earliest known woman translators of Chinese language novels into Malay in the Dutch East Indies. She was active in the 1920s and mostly translated for the magazine Tjerita Baroe.
Penghidoepan was a monthly Peranakan Chinese, Malay-language literary magazine published in the Dutch East Indies from 1925 to 1942. It was one of the most successful literary publications in the Indies, publishing more than 200 novels and short stories during its run. Among its authors were many of the notables of the Chinese Indonesian literary world including Njoo Cheong Seng, Tan Hong Boen, and Tan Boen Soan.
Tjerita Roman was a monthly Peranakan Chinese, Malay-language literary magazine published in the Dutch East Indies from 1929 to 1942. It was one of the most successful literary publications in the Indies, publishing hundreds of novels, plays, and short stories during its run. Among its authors were many of the notables of the Chinese Indonesian literary world including Njoo Cheong Seng, Pouw Kioe An, Tan Boen Soan, and Liem Khing Hoo.
Sinar Sumatra was a Malay-language newspaper published in Padang, Dutch East Indies from 1905 to around 1941 or 1942. It is generally considered a Peranakan Chinese publication, although it had European publishers and Minangkabau editors as well. During the pre-World War II period it was one of the most widely-read Malay language newspapers in Sumatra.
Pouw Kioe An was a Peranakan Chinese journalist, novelist, newspaper editor and translator from the Dutch East Indies who was active from the 1920s to the 1950s. He worked for most of the main Chinese Indonesian newspapers in Java during that time and published original novels and translations prolifically.
