The Tan-Schepers Letters website presents the online publication of over 600 letters sent from the Netherlands Indies to Holland by Eida Tan-Schepers and her husband Tan Sin Hok between 1929 and 1946.

Polarities

At first glance the collection recounts the story of two young spouses building a new life in the latter days of the Netherlands Indies. However, as we immerse ourselves in the material, the letters reveal a world of complex polarities: a marriage that both unites and confronts European and Asian cultural backgrounds, the Dutch milieu in Bandung that is beginning to come apart at the seams after three centuries of colonization, the distance from loved ones 'at home' in Holland and world politics gradually permeating daily life. The beginning of the war in the Pacific in December 1941 marks the end of an era, for the Tan-Schepers family no less.

Bearing witness

Based on the firm belief that the letters constitute an exceptional testimony embedded in a rich context of sources and witness accounts, the Tan-Schepers Letters Foundation (SBTS) endeavours to publicize the entire collection and provide the reader with an up-to-date digital environment. In their present form, the letters not only bear witness as a testimony of literary value, but they also form an important source for specialists, researchers, educational institutes and the generally interested.