Khouw Keng Nio was a colonial

Chinese-Indonesian Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have l ...

heiress and businesswoman, best known as the first woman in both

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

to become a licensed

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

. Born in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

, Khouw came from a wealthy ''Peranakan'' business family. Her father, the entrepreneur Khouw Kim Goan, founded '' N.V. Merbaboe'', a large livestock, milk and beverage conglomerate in late colonial Indonesia; and her mother was an

indigenous Indonesian Native Indonesians, also known as ''Pribumi'' (), are Indonesians whose ancestral roots lie mainly in the archipelago, distinguished from Indonesians of known (partial) foreign descent, like Chinese Indonesians (Tionghoa), Arab Indonesians, India ...

woman. Her better-known brother, Khouw Khe Hien (1907-1938), also a pioneering aviator, initially envisaged air transportation for the company's products as a more efficient alternative to land and sea transportation. This grew into a full-blown obsession, which ended with Khouw's brother causing an international sensation in 1935, when he flew his Indonesian-built aeroplane,

Walraven 2 __NOTOC__ The Walraven 2 was a colonial Indonesian, twin-engine cabin monoplane, commissioned by the Chinese-Indonesian aviation pioneer Khouw Khe Hien, designed by Laurens Walraven, and built by personnel of the Netherlands East Indies Army A ...

, in a 20-day-long journey from

Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

Schiphol Amsterdam Airport Schiphol , known informally as Schiphol Airport ( nl, Luchthaven Schiphol, ), is the main international airport of the Netherlands. It is located southwest of Amsterdam, in the municipality of Haarlemmermeer in the province ...

, Amsterdam, and onwards to other European destinations. Around the same time, Khouw Keng Nio also caused a sensation in the Dutch and Indonesian press by training as a pilot, qualifying in March 1936, thereby becoming both the first Indonesian and the first Chinese woman aviator. When her brother died in a plane accident in

Batavia Batavia may refer to: Historical places * Batavia (region), a land inhabited by the Batavian people during the Roman Empire, today part of the Netherlands * Batavia, Dutch East Indies, present-day Jakarta, the former capital of the Dutch East In ...

in 1938, Khouw Keng Nio took over the reins of N.V. Merbaboe. Under her tutelage, the company maintained its headquarters in Batavia, but expanded, opening branches in

Bogor Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.Bandung Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...

and

Sukabumi , nickname = id, Kota Santri en, City of Learners , image_map = Map of West Java highlighting Sukabumi City.svg , map_caption = Location within West Java , mapsize = , pushpin_map = Ind ...

. Her company employed over 300 workers, and slaughtered between 75 and 80 cows daily to meet the needs of around 40,000 consumers, extending from hotels and restaurants to the colonial shipping fleet and army. Her yearly tax bill amounts to the extraordinary sum of f. 100,000.

References

Khouw Kim Goan family Chinese aviators Indonesian aviators Chinese women aviators Indonesian people of Chinese descent {{Aviation-bio-stub