Tjerita Roman ("novel story" in Malay; Perfected Spelling Cerita 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.
Tjerita Roman was founded in Surabaya, East Java, Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in late 1929 by Ong Ping Lok and others from the editorial team behind the successful magazines Penghidoepan and Liberty. [1] [2] [3] At first, it was printed by the firm Hahn & Co. in Surabaya, with capital provided by a businessman named Han Sing Thjiang, who was the owner of Liberty magazine. [2] As in Penghidoepan, each issue usually featured an original or translated novel, sometimes followed by a short play, poem, or story. [2] Ong Ping Lok, who in addition to being an editor wrote fiction under the pen name Monsieur Novel, often printed his pieces in the magazine. [1] The covers were often illustrated by Malang-based artist Tan Liep Poen, who also did most of the covers for Penghidoepan. [4] The magazine quickly rose in popularity to surpass Penghidoepan and Liberty.
The contents of the magazine also reflected shifting tastes among Chinese Indonesian readers; while publications of the 1910s had often consisted of historical martial arts or cloak-and-dagger stories set in China, Tjerita Roman mainly printed stories written and set in the contemporary Dutch East Indies. [5] The magazine also sometimes printed stories or novels by women authors, which was unheard of before the 1920s in the Indies; these included Nyonya The Tiang Ek and The Liep Nio. The magazine is considered to be an important part of the golden age of Peranakan Chinese literature. [6]
At some point, another printing firm, Kwee Sing Tjhiang's Paragon Press in Malang, took over the publication of the magazine from Hahn & Co. [2] [7] Liem Khing Hoo, who published under the pen name Romaro, was also the editor of Tjerita Roman for a time and published many of his novels on its pages. [8] Soe Lie Pit was another novelist who was editor of Tjerita Roman for a time in the mid-1930s. [9]
Later the magazine switched printers once again to Niro-Thaysiang in Surabaya. [2]
The magazine's run ended in 1942 with the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies. It was re-launched in January 1949 as Tjilik Roman's (Romance Youth). [3]
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.
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.
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.
Kwee Hing Tjiat was a Chinese-Malay journalist and a leading peranakan Chinese intellectual of the late colonial era.
Sin Po was a Peranakan Chinese Malay-language newspaper published in the Dutch East Indies and later Indonesia. It expressed the viewpoint of Chinese nationalism and defended the interests of Chinese Indonesians and was for several decades one of the most widely read Malay newspapers in the Indies. It existed under various names until 1965.
Tjhoen Tjhioe was a Malay language Peranakan Chinese newspaper from Surabaya, Dutch East Indies catering mainly to the Chinese population. The full title of the paper was Tjhoen Tjhioe: Soerat kabar dagang bahasa Melajoe jang moeat roepa kabar penting bagi bangsa Tionghoa. Although the paper only existed for a short time, during that time it was recognized as one of the top Chinese newspapers in the Indies, alongside Sin Po and Perniagaan.
Tjoe Boe San was a Chinese nationalist, translator and newspaper editor in the Dutch East Indies, most notably editor and director of the influential Indonesian Chinese newspaper Sin Po until his death in 1925. Along with Kwee Kek Beng, he was a key member of the "Sin Po Group" which was a political faction of the Indonesian Chinese which believed that they should stay out of Dutch colonial politics and remain focused on China.
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.
Injo Beng Goat was a Chinese Indonesian journalist, lawyer, and political activist of the late Dutch East Indies and early independence era in Indonesia. He was editor-in-chief of Keng Po, one of the largest newspapers of the early independence period, until 1958.
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.
The Liep Nio was a Chinese Indonesian writer and playwright active in the 1930s in the Dutch East Indies. Little is known about her life aside from the fact that she was a Peranakan Chinese woman from Purbalingga in Central Java; she was probably born in the early twentieth century. She was part of the first generation of Indonesian women who to appear in print, which was almost unheard of before the 1930s; the first short writings by Native Indonesian and Indonesian Chinese women are thought to have appeared in newspapers in the 1910s and 1920s, but few were published in book form until the 1930s. The Liep Nio published poems, novels, plays, and short stories in literary magazines such as Tjerita Roman, Liberty, and Djawa Tengah Review.
Tan Hong Boen, commonly known by his pen name Im Yang Tjoe, was a Chinese Indonesian writer, journalist, and translator active in the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia from the 1920s to the 1950s. He also published occasionally under the pen names Madame D'Eden Lovely for romantic novels, Kihadjar Dharmopralojo for historical novels, and Kihadjar Soekowijono for Wayang stories. In 1933 he published a biography of Sukarno, whom he had shared a jail cell with in 1932; it seems to be the earliest known biography of Sukarno.
Oen Tjhing Tiauw was a Chinese Indonesian writer, politician and cultural figure active in the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia from the 1920s to the 1970s. From the 1930s onwards he was sympathetic to Indonesian nationalism and worked towards independence from the Dutch as a member of the Partai Tionghoa Indonesia and later the Socialist Party of Indonesia.
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.
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.
Kho Tjoen Wan, sometimes spelled Kho Tjoen Gwan, was a Chinese Indonesian journalist, writer and political activist active mainly from the 1910s to the 1930s in the Dutch East Indies. He was involved with the Communist Party of Indonesia in the 1920s and may have been its first ethnically Chinese executive member.
Lie On Moy (1884–1951) was a Peranakan Chinese journalist, writer and translator in the Dutch East Indies. She is thought to have been one of the first Peranakan women journalists and published writers in the Indies.
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.