Kho Ping Hoo

Kho Ping Hoo or Asmaraman Sukowati Kho Ping Hoo (born in Sragen, 17 August 1926 - died in Solo, 22 July 1994, Chinese: 許平和; pinyin: Xǔ Pínghé) is an Indonesian author of Chinese ethnicity. He is well known in Indonesia for his martial art fiction set in the background of China or Java. During his 30 years career, at least 120 stories has been published (according to Leo Suryadinata).^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Despite the fact that most of his stories were based on Chinese martial art genre, Kho Ping Hoo never actually learned Chinese. He had his inspirations from Hong Kong and Taiwan kung fu films. He made a significant contributions to Indonesian colloquial literature. The novels also introduce many Chinese terms in Hokkien dialects to Indonesian terms.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

Within Indonesia, Kho Ping Ho's readership is uncomparable to the famous authors of similar genre from Taiwan and Hong Kong like Chin Yung and Ku Lung.^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Famous Indonesian Chinese
• Indonesian Chinese
• Martial arts

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)