Si Ronda is a 1930 silent film from the Dutch East Indies, directed by
Lie Tek Swie and starring Bachtiar Effendi (pictured). It was adapted
from a lenong (a Betawi oral tradition similar to a stage play) that was
popular with ethnic Chinese and native audiences of the time.
Adaptations of the genre, manifested as bandit films, appeared in
domestic cinema following the release of Si Tjonat by Batavia Motion
Picture in 1929. The Ronda stories follow the Betawi bandit of the same
name, who is skilled at silat (traditional martial arts) and reputed to
take from the rich to give to the poor. The Indonesian film scholar
Misbach Yusa Biran suggests that Ronda was selected for adaptation
because of its action sequences. In the domestic cinema, such sequences
had generally been inspired by American works and been well received by
audiences. The production, now thought lost, was one of a series of
martial arts films released between 1929 and 1931. Si Ronda received
little coverage in the media upon its release. A second adaptation of
the tale, Si Ronda Macan Betawi, was made in 1978.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_Ronda>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1541:
After three years of exile, John Calvin returned to Geneva to
reform the church under a body of doctrine that came to be known as
Calvinism.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvinism>
1899:
An expedition led by Halford Mackinder made the first ascent of
Mount Kenya, the second-highest mountain in Africa.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Kenya>
1933:
Elizabeth McCombs became the first woman elected to the
Parliament of New Zealand.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_McCombs>
1971:
Following a failed coup attempt, Mao Zedong's second-in-command
Lin Biao died in a plane crash while attempting to flee the People's
Republic of China.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin_Biao>
2007:
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, setting out the individual and
collective rights of indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to
culture, identity, language, employment, health, education and other
issues.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_on_the_Rights_of_Indigenous_Peoples>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
contemporaneous:
Existing or created in the same period of time.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/contemporaneous>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
"The matter with human beans," the BFG went on, "is that they is
absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually
seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles."
--Roald Dahl
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl>
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