The Rose of Cikembang

Book excerpt: First published in 1927, "The Rose of Cikembang" is an excellent example of the so-called peranakan literature of the Netherlands East Indies, a literary form that was written in a variant of the Malay language then prevalent in the urban centers of the Indies and a forerunner of today's Indonesian. Peranakan literature was created by writers and publishers of largely Chinese descent and flourished between 1900 and the Japanese Occupation beginning in 1942. "The Rose of Cikembang" was one of the most beloved novels of popular and prolific writer Kwee Tek Hoay. Highly sentimental, this story is rich in many of the often controversial themes he was famous for: interracial love and the lives of its offspring, fate and karma, and mysticism and reincarnation. "The Rose of Cikembang" was reprinted twice and twice made into a movie, including one of the East Indies' first talking picture shows.