Guo-Quan Seng, Strangers in the Family: Gender, Patriliny, and the Chinese in Colonial Indonesia. Ithaca, Southeast Asia Program Publications, Cornell University Press, 2023. xvi + 253 p., map, figures, illustrations, index. ISBN: 9781501772504

This book is the result of a diligent reading of the archive of the Chinese Council (Kong Koan ) of Batavia of the 1820s-1890s, the Sino-Malay literature of the late 19thearly 20th centuries, and official records of the Ministry of the Colony (Ministerie van Kolonin) of 1850-1900.Evidently, these materials are in Chinese, Malay, and Dutch.By bringing together these diverse sources, this study investigates how indigenous and creole Chinese women reproduced and resisted traditional Chinese patriliny in colonial Java during the late 19th century to early 20th century, the period of high imperialism.