Oey Kim Lian, also known as Widianti Wijaya, is a batik artisan and owner of the Oey Soe Tjoen Batik House. Kim Lian is the third descendant of Oey Soe Tjoen, a batik artisan who produced the best Peranakan batik in Indonesia from Kedungwuni, Pekalongan, Central Java. 

 

As the third generation of Oey Soe Tjoen batik, Kim Lian tries to maintain the sustainability and originality of the batik she produces. Her efforts include preserving the batik house’s typical batik motifs and patterns. She also keeps the manual batik process using canting and the traditional dyeing method for the coloring process. She also participates in several batik processes that are considered the key to the production of batik Oey Soe Tjoen, which is famous for its intricate details and distinctive coloring. Kim Lian directly designs batik motifs and patterns before entering the canting process. She also performed quality control on the finished fabric in the canting process. Finally, she did the coloring process, assisted by her personal assistant. Hard work, perseverance, and earnestness by Oey Kim Lian is a character that has become a role model for all of us. 

 

This article had been participated in INACADE 2022 as photo series. Please visit https://sod.binus.ac.id/inacade/gallery/183/the-guardian-of-peranakan-batik-from-the-north-coast-of-java for the official site.