The book is a biography of Dorce Gamalama, a legend of the Indonesian transgender community, prominent transgender entertainer, singer, talk show host, comedienne, and celebrity, that passed away on 16 February 2022.
According to the University of Melbourne's website: "Dorce was born in Solok, West Sumatra, in 1963. She began her career as a member of an all-trans-women dance group known as The Fantastic Dolls, eventually leading to her first national television appearance in 1989, for the 27th-anniversary celebrations of state television station TVRI.
She came to wider public prominence with further television appearances and the release of the films Dorce Sok Akrab (Dorce Up Close) in 1989 and Dorce Ketemu Jodoh (Dorce Meets Her Match) in 1990. She was a prolific recording artist, too, at one point recording nine albums over a period of just five months.
But it was her five-year run as host of talk show The Dorce Show on Trans TV from 2005-2009 that saw her beamed into the homes of Indonesians across the country.
Dorce presented herself as a pious and maternal figure, and was commonly called “Bunda Dorce” (Mother Dorce). She went on the hajj in 1990 and 1991, adopted three children, and founded a charitable organisation to care for orphans and other vulnerable children.
The fact that she was transgender did not seem to matter. In fact, after Dorce had sex reassignment surgery in 1983, and the government legally recognised her as a woman in 1988, she always insisted she was a woman, rather than a waria (a somewhat contested term often translated as ‘trans woman’). "
Available via indonesiaatmelbourne
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