From Sensation to Oblivion: Boven Digoel in Sino-Malay Novels

Abstract

Abstract The so-called ‘Sino-Malay literature’ has often been characterized as literary publications that were commercial and very rarely political. This essay however draws attention to three novels written by prominent Indies Chinese authors on the colonial internment camp for communist activists, Boven Digoel. Written in three different decades, Kwee Tek Hoay’s Drama di Boven Digoel (Drama in Boven Digoel, 1928-1932), Liem Khing Hoo’s Merah (Red, 1937), and Njoo Cheong Seng’s Taufan gila (Mad typhoon, 1950) reflect not only individual journeys of Digoel-bound activists, but also the political landscapes in which they were written.