Bittersweet: the memoir of a Chinese-Indonesian family in the twentieth century

Description

Behind the statistics of migration are the life stories of millions of migrants and their descendants. The movement of people out of China is one of the largest movements of humanity in modern times and large numbers of Chinese emigrated to the colony of the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. While many of them prospered in their new home, it was against a background of uncertainty and a feeling that they were not entirely welcome in their adopted homeland. BitterSweet is the poignant story of one Chinese family's life in Indonesia, and of their eventual emigration to Australia.Anna Tan Sian Nio (later An Utari Sudibjo), whose story this is, sees herself as "just an ordinary individual," and this is part of what makes her story special. There are few published accounts of Chinese life in Indonesia, and fewer still written from the perspective of a woman. In her words, "I have been informed that even common folk may have something to say about the extraordinary times they have...