Kho Ping Hoo or Asmaraman Sukowati Kho Ping Hoo (born in Sragen, 17 August 1926 - died in Solo

Surakarta

Surakarta, also called Solo or Sala, is a city in Central Java, Indonesia of more than 520,061 people with a population density of 11,811.5 people/km2. The 44 km2 city adjoins Karanganyar Regency and Boyolali Regency to the north, Karanganyar Regency and Sukoharjo Regency to the east and...

, 22 July 1994) is an Indonesian author of Chinese

Overseas Chinese

Overseas Chinese are people of Chinese birth or descent who live outside the Greater China Area . People of partial Chinese ancestry living outside the Greater China Area may also consider themselves Overseas Chinese....

 ethnicity. He is well-known in Indonesia for his martial art fiction set in the background of China or Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

. During his 30 years career, at least 120 stories has been published (according to Leo Suryadinata

Leo Suryadinata

Leo Suryadinata , is a Chinese Indonesian sinologist.-Biography:...

). However, Forum magazine claimed at least Kho Ping Hoo had 400 stories with the background of China and 50 stories with the background of Java.

Despite the fact that most of his stories were based on Chinese martial art

Wuxia

Wuxia is a broad genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists. Although wuxia is traditionally a form of literature, its popularity has caused it to spread to diverse art forms like Chinese opera, manhua , films, television series, and video games...

 genre, Kho Ping Hoo never actually learned Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

. He had his inspirations from Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 and Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

 kung fu films. He made a significant contributions to Indonesian colloquial literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

. The novels also introduce many Chinese terms in Hokkien dialects to Indonesian terms.

Because of his illiteracy in Chinese languages, his writings contain various errors regarding historical and geographical reality of China. However, the inaccuracies does not affect the popularity of Kho Ping Hoo. The novels themselves never reached China or the wider Chinese speaking population.

Significance of novels

Kho Ping Ho's works mean a great deal for generations of Chinese descent growing up in Indonesia. During the Suharto's regime, teaching of Chinese languages, history and culture were banned. Kho Ping Ho's work became a last resort of Chinese Indonesians in salvaging any cultural identity and values they had left.

Within Indonesia, Kho Ping Ho's readership is uncomparable to the famous authors of similar genre from Taiwan and Hong Kong like Chin Yung

Jinyong

Louis Cha, GBM, OBE , better known by his pen name Jin Yong, is a modern Chinese-language novelist. Having co-founded the Hong Kong daily Ming Pao in 1959, he was the paper's first editor-in-chief....

 and Ku Lung

Gu Long

Xiong Yaohua , better known by his pen name Gu Long , was a Chinese novelist and screenwriter. Xiong is best known for writing wuxia novels and novel series, which include: Juedai Shuangjiao, Xiaoli Feidao Series, Chu Liuxiang Series, Lu Xiaofeng Series and Xiao Shiyilang...

.

External links

• (id) Kho Ping Hoo (1926–1994) Legenda Cerita Silat (http://www.tokohindonesia.com/ensiklopedi/k/kho-ping-hoo/index.shtml)
• (id) Penulis Takdir Pesilat Cina (http://www.suaramerdeka.com/cybernews/layar/tokoh/tokoh6.html)