Mely G. Tan
Indonesian sociologist
Mely Tan Giok Lan (11 June 1930 – 30 April 2024), professionally known as Mely G. Tan, was an Indonesian sociologist. Tan obtained her bachelor's degree from the University of Indonesia, later receiving a scholarship to study at Cornell University. After finishing her doctorate at University of California, Berkeley, Tan returned to Indonesia and wrote extensively on economics and Chinese Indonesians. She was a founding commissioner of the National Commission on Violence against Women.
Early life and studies
Tan was born on 11 June 1930 in Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia), to a "probably fifth generation" Chinese father and second generation mother; she was the third of five siblings. As a child and teenager, she studied foreign languages, including Dutch, English, French, and German, speaking Dutch with her father and Indonesian with her mother. 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.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12497962. VIAF identifies the subject as 38158191. The Library of Congress control number is n50009549. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930 and 2024.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mely G. Tan” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.