BitterSweet — (2008)

The Memoir of a Chinese-Indonesian Family in the Twentieth Century

By Stuart Pearson

Millions of Chinese have left the mainland over the last two centuries in search of new beginnings. The majority went to Southeast Asia, and the single largest destination was the colony of the Dutch East Indies, now known as Indonesia. Wherever the Chinese landed they prospered, but in Indonesia, even though some families made fortunes, they never felt they quite belonged.

BitterSweet is the account of one Chinese-Indonesian family whose story stretches over the generations as their fortunes waxed and waned through revolution, riots, war, depression, occupation, and finally emigration to yet another country—Australia.

BitterSweet offers a unique insight into a world rarely seen before. An Sudibjo’s memoir, written from a woman’s perspective, is a valuable resource for anyone studying Indonesian history or the Chinese Diaspora.




An Utari Sudibjo (b. 1912) was a fifth-generation Chinese resident of the Netherlands East Indies. In 1967, after a distinguished career as a senior civil servant in the Dutch colonial and then the Indonesian Education Department, she and her husband emigrated to Australia where they operated a restaurant for the next 30 years. She lives in a nursing home in Sydney, aged 95.