Mely G. Tan

Mely G. Tan was a Peranakan who lived briefly in Sukabumi during the Second World War. The Chinese of Sukabumi is based on her study conducted in 1956–1957 while a student at the Sinological Institute of the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. Her research was carried out under the direction of Professor  G. William Skinner, who was then in Indonesia. After completing her research in Indonesia, and following completion of her study at the Sinological Institute, Tan went to Cornell University to do graduate work in anthropology. She was awarded her M.A. degree in 1961. She conducted her doctoral work at Berkeley (1963–1968). Following her return to Indonesia, Miss Tan undertook further field research among the Chinese. She designed and directed a project which studied a number of desa in the Tangerang area (West Java) with special emphasis on the social interaction between Peranakan and indigenous farmers. Writing extensively on economics and Chinese Indonesians, she passed away in Jakarta in April 2024, aged 93 years old.