Wikipedia:Today's featured article/July 18, 2013

Sair Tjerita Siti Akbari is an 1884 Malay-language syair (poem) by Lie Kim Hok. Adapted from the Sjair Abdoel Moeloek, it tells of a woman who passes as a man to free her husband from the Sultan of Hindustan, who had captured him in an assault on their kingdom. Written over a period of several years and influenced by European literature, the work differs from earlier syairs in its use of suspense and emphasis on prose rather than form. It also incorporates European realist views to expand upon the genre while maintaining several of the hallmarks of traditional syairs. Critical views have emphasised various aspects of its story, finding in the work an increased empathy for women's thoughts and feelings, a call for a unifying language in the Dutch East Indies, and a polemic regarding the relation between tradition and modernity. A commercial and critical success, Siti Akbari was twice reprinted; in 1940 it was adapted to film. When Sjair Abdoel Moeloek's influence became clear in the 1920s, Lie was criticised as unoriginal. However, Siti Akbari remains one of the better known syairs written by an ethnic Chinese author, and Lie was later styled the "father of Chinese Malay literature". (Full article...)

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