The Liep Nio was a

Chinese Indonesian Chinese Indonesians (), or simply ''Orang Tionghoa'' or ''Tionghoa'', are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese Indonesians are the fourth largest community of Overseas Chinese in th ...

writer and playwright active in the 1930s in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

. Little is known about her life aside from the fact that she was a

Peranakan Chinese The Peranakan Chinese () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British, Portuguese, and Dutch colonial ports i ...

woman from

Purbalingga Purbalingga ( Javanese: ꦥꦸꦂꦧꦭꦶꦁꦒ) is a town and district in Central Java Province of Indonesia and the seat of Purbalingga Regency. Villages The district includes 11 urban villages (''kelurahan'') and 2 rural villages (''desa' ...

Central Java Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogya ...

; 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 Native Indonesians, also known as ''Pribumi'' () are Indonesians whose ancestral roots lie mainly in the archipelago and consist of various ethnic groups, predominantly of Austronesian and Melanesian descent. In contrast are Indonesians of know ...

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''. Her best known work is her 1931 novel (God's torment), which appeared in the

Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...

literary journal . The novel was a moralistic story about a Peranakan couple who married without the approval of their parents, which caused their downfall. In the novel, the husband Siok Tjwan, son of a contractor, marries Liang Nio, daughter of a rich merchant from Kediri. They move to

Surakarta Surakarta (Javanese script, Javanese: , Pegon script, Pegon: ), known colloquially as Solo (Javanese script, Javanese: ; ), is a major List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in Central Java, Indonesia. The city adjoins Karanganyar Reg ...

and then to

and are unable to make any connections in Chinese business communities and Liang Nio supports them by baking cakes and sewing. Eventually Siok Tjawn sells Liang Nio to a rich merchant who mistreats her; their daughter Liesje becomes a sex worker and outcast from polite society. The novel could be interpreted as a critique of the rigidity of the colonial Chinese society which gave no place for children born out of wedlock or for people who choose their own path in life; however, it is essentially written in the format of male Chinese novelists who warned of the fate of fallen women. In the late 1930s, she published poetry in ''Liberty''; at that time she was apparently living in

Tasikmalaya Tasikmalaya (also known as Tasik) is a landlocked city in West Java, Indonesia. The city is sometimes dubbed ''kota santri'' (city of religious learners) or "the City of a Thousand Pesantrens" for its abundance of Islamic boarding schools. Locat ...

, West Java.

Selected publications

* (1931, short story printed in ''Liberty'') * (1931, novel printed in ) * , (1934, a play serialized in ''Djawa Tengah Review'')

References

{{Authority control Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown People from Probolinggo 20th-century Chinese women writers 20th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Dutch East Indies people Indonesian people of Chinese descent 20th-century Indonesian women writers