Lie Kim Hok

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 mid1870s 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 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.

Lie was born in Buitenzorg , West Java, onNovember 1853, the first child of seven born to Lie Hian Tjouw and his second wife Oey Tjiok Nio. The elder Lie had four children from a previous marriage, with Lie Kim Hok his first child from the new marriage. The welltodo peranakan Chinese couple was living in Cianjur at the time but went to Buitenzorg, Lie Hian Tjouws hometown, for the birth as they had family there. The family soon returned to Cianjur, where Lie Kim Hok was homeschooled in Chinese tradition and the local Sundanese culture and language. By age seven he could haltingly read Sundanese and Malay.

Source: Wikipedia