Sie Hian Ling (d. 1928), who sometimes signed his works H.L. Sie, was a

Peranakan The Peranakans () 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 Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, th ...

Chinese journalist from

Semarang Semarang ( jv, ꦏꦸꦛꦯꦼꦩꦫꦁ , Pegon: سماراڠ) is the capital and largest city of Central Java province in Indonesia. It was a major port during the Dutch colonial era, and is still an important regional center and port today. ...

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 ...

(now

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 ...

). He was one of the first Chinese journalists in the Indies and an early translator of Chinese novels. Earlier in his career he worked for the

Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Rejang script, Rencong: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spo ...

newspaper Slompret Melajoe as well as ''Tamboer Melajoe'', which he became editor of in around 1888. Apparently a Chinese editor was still unusual at that time as some

Eurasian Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Ja ...

editors expressed unhappiness that the position had not been given to one of them, as was customary. The paper mostly reprinted news from overseas Chinese and European papers, and the paper did not do well and closed in 1889. After that he was also editor of other papers, such as ''Pembrita Semarang'' and later ''Bintang Semarang''. In around 1899 or 1900 he founded his own paper Sinar Djawa (which after 1917 became a mouthpiece for the

Communist Party of Indonesia The Communist Party of Indonesia (Indonesian: ''Partai Komunis Indonesia'', PKI) was a communist party in Indonesia during the mid-20th century. It was the largest non-ruling communist party in the world before its violent disbandment in 1965. ...

). In 1902 he was also made an official interpreter of Chinese at the Dutch court (''Raad van Justitie'') in Semarang and in this capacity, in 1904 he was made a '' Luitenant der Chinezen'' on an honorary basis by the

government. He was also apparently a Christian, somewhat unusually for

Peranakan Chinese The Peranakans () 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 Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, t ...

at the time. After 1910 he started writing fictionalized novels based on current events (a popular genre of literature among

Chinese Indonesians 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 ...

at the time). In 1913 he sold his newspaper Sinar Djawa to the early Indonesian nationalist organization

Sarekat Islam Sarekat Islam or Syarikat Islam ( 'Islamic Association' or 'Islamic Union'; SI) was an Indonesian socio-political organization founded at the beginning of the 20th Century during the Dutch colonial era. Initially, SI served as a cooperative of ...

. He died in

in 1928.Salmon, Claudine. Literature in Malay by the Chinese of Indonesia: a provisional annotated bibliography. Vol. 3. Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 1981. p.300

References

Kapitan Cina Indonesian people of Chinese descent Indonesian Hokkien people Indonesian writers People from Semarang Indonesian newspaper editors Newspaper editors from the Dutch East Indies 19th-century births 1920s deaths Year of birth unknown Year of death uncertain Journalists from the Dutch East Indies {{Indonesia-bio-stub