More books on Indonesia

We had a recent post listing several book on Indonesia. Those books were mostly serious academic works. This time around, we thought we would list several books that similarly address important and contentious issues in Indonesian society and politics, but are somewhat lighter and more accessible.

• Bittersweet: The Memoir Of A Chinese Indonesian Family In The Twentieth Century by Stuart Pearson. Many sidelights onto social and political developments are shed in this family biography/memoir which centres on the life of Chinese Indonesian Anna/An Sudibjo (b.1912). She is a 5th-generation Indonesian Chinese and had a distinguished career in the Dutch and then Indonesian Education Department.

• Family Business: A Case Study Of Nyonya Meneer, One Of Indonesia's Most Successful Traditional Medicine Companies by Asih Sumardono and Mark Hanusz. The inside story of the now-internationally known Nyonya Meneer business, which produces and markets jamu, traditional Indonesian medicines. Founded by Nyonya Meneer (Lauw Ping Nio, 1895-1978), the family firm grew from its Semarang beginnings to become a nationally and internationally significant company. This account of Nyonya Meneer and the family conflicts which have dogged the company's development offers insights into some of the realities of traditional and modern ways of doing business.

• On Feminism And Nationalism: Kartini's Letters To Stella Zeehandelaar, 1899-1903. Translated by Joost Cote. Raden Ajeng Kartini (1880-1904) was born into an aristocratic Javanese family and despite the shortness of her life, is widely known and respected as the founder and inspiration of Indonesia's Women's Movement. These letters to a Dutch pen friend she had never met were written 1899-1903. They show the clear educational and reform ambitions maintained by Kartini who, by enforced custom, had left school at the age of 12, but who continued to read, study and develop nationalist and feminist ideas. These she shared with reform-minded contacts. Her arranged marriage was followed by her death shortly after childbirth.