Sair Tjerita Siti Akbari is an 1884 Malay-language syair (poem) by Lie
Kim Hok. Adapted from the Sjair Abdoel Moeloek, it tells of a woman who
passes as a man to free her husband from the Sultan of Hindustan, who
had captured him in an assault on their kingdom. Written over a period
of several years and influenced by European literature, the work differs
from earlier syairs in its use of suspense and emphasis on prose rather
than form. It also incorporates European realist views to expand upon
the genre while maintaining several of the hallmarks of traditional
syairs. Critical views have emphasised various aspects of its story,
finding in the work an increased empathy for women's thoughts and
feelings, a call for a unifying language in the Dutch East Indies, and a
polemic regarding the relation between tradition and modernity. A
commercial and critical success, Siti Akbari was twice reprinted; in
1940 it was adapted to film. When Sjair Abdoel Moeloek's influence
became clear in the 1920s, Lie was criticised as unoriginal. However,
Siti Akbari remains one of the better known syairs written by an ethnic
Chinese author, and Lie was later styled the "father of Chinese Malay
literature".
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sair_Tjerita_Siti_Akbari>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1290:
Edward I issued an edict expelling all Jews from England.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Expulsion>
1863:
American Civil War: Led by Union Army Colonel Robert Gould
Shaw, the 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first
formal African American military unit, spearheaded an assault on Fort
Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/54th_Regiment_Massachusetts_Volunteer_Infantry>
1969:
After a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts, United
States Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car off a wooden bridge into a
tidal channel, killing his passenger Mary Jo Kopechne, a former campaign
worker.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident>
1976:
At the Olympic Games in Montreal, Nadia Comăneci became the
first person to score a perfect 10 in a modern Olympics gymnastics
event.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadia_Com%C4%83neci>
2005:
In a joint statement, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
U.S. President George W. Bush announced the U.S.–India Civil Nuclear
Agreement, a bilateral treaty on civil nuclear cooperation between their
two respective countries.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S.%E2%80%93India_Civil_Nuclear_Agreement>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
disinter:
1. To take out of the grave or tomb; to unbury; to exhume; to dig up.
2. To bring out, as from a grave or hiding place; to bring from obscurity
into view.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disinter>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of
the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have
fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a
democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in
harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to
live for. But, my lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am
prepared to die.
--Nelson Mandela
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela>