Mely G. Tan

Tan was born on 11 June 1930 in Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia), Education was important to the family, and her parents hired a governess to ensure the children completed their homework. Tan attended a Hollandsch Chineesche School, where she received high marks, and continued to a Hogere Burgerschool. Tan studied for her bachelor's degree at the Department of Sinology at the University of Indonesia. In her third year, she entered a scientific writing competition that was organized by the Catholic Scientific Circle, winning the competition with her sociological field study. Tan later wrote that that was one of the factors that interested her in studying sociology formally; the contemporary focus on Chinese literature bored her. Tan later graduated from the University of Indonesia in 1959. In January 1959, Tan arrived in Ithaca, New York, to begin her studies at Cornell University. Despite slight culture shock, Tan enjoyed her studies, under the guidance of Skinner and the sociologist Robin Murphy Williams. Tan later described her time at Cornell as "some of the most intellectually and stimulating years" of her life. She received her Master of Arts in sociology in 1961, She later described this period as a time of great anxiety, as the political turmoil that Indonesia was experiencing – including a deteriorating economy and growing communist party – led many students to fear that their fellowships would be cancelled. Tan took her oral examination with Wolfram Eberhard, Herbert Blumer, Robert Blauner, Neil Smelser, and Daniel Lev as her examiners. After passing, Tan began work on her dissertation. Tan wrote her dissertation under the guidance of Eberhard, Blauner, and Lev, with approval given on 13 June 1968. Tan became the first Indonesian to receive a PhD in sociology from Berkeley as well as the first female Indonesian with a doctorate in sociology. Tan noted that the students and professors seemed disinterested in Indonesian studies, and thus she had taken high-school students in San Francisco as her research subjects. ==Academic activities and activism==

In August 1968, Tan returned to Indonesia. Within a few months, she had become head of a subdivision at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. During this period, she also concentrated on advancing the teaching and study of sociology at the University of Indonesia. Afterwards, Tan later took numerous jobs as a lecturer. From 1968 to 1997, Tan taught women's studies at the University of Indonesia. During the same period, she taught at the Jakarta Police Academy. On 15 July 1998, responding to several days of rioting the previous May, Tan – together with activists including Saparinah Sadli, Mayling Oey-Gardiner, and Sinta Nuriyah – spoke with President B. J. Habibie regarding the need to prevent violence against women; the National Commission on Violence against Women was established later that year, Charles Coppel noted that, after the riots and the violence against Chinese Indonesians that resulted, Tan's academic studies of Chinese Indonesians shifted from explorations of assimilation to questions of discrimination. As of 2008, Tan worked as a lecturer on police practices at the University of Indonesia. She was recognized for her scholarship on Chinese Indonesians, social stratification, and gender and development. ==Recognition==

Tan received six honorary medals from the government of Indonesia, including the Satyalancana Karya Satya and Bintang Mahaputra Pratama in 1995 and the Bintang Jasa Nararya in 2000. A festschrift titled Multikulturalisme, Peran Wanita dan Integrasi Nasional (''Multiculturalism, Women's Roles, and National Integration) was dedicated to her that year. In 2009, she received the Nabil Award for her contributions to Indonesian development through her research and publication activities. She was recognized by the newspaper Kompas'' with a Cendekiawan Berdedikasi Award for her dedication to academia in 2010. ==Selected publications==

• The Chinese in Sukabumi (1963) • The Chinese in the United States: Social Mobility and Assimilation (1971) • The Social and Cultural Context of Family Planning in Indonesia (1971) • Golongan Etnis Tionghoa di Indonesia ("The Ethnic Chinese of Indonesia", 1979) • Perempuan Indonesia: Pemimpin Masa Depan ("Indonesian Women: Future Leaders", editor, 1991) • Etnis Tionghoa di Indonesia: Kumpulan Tulisan ("The Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia: Collected Writings", 2008) ==Notes==