pramoedya had spent time in china, so he had good feelings towards indonesian chinese people. this was unusual in indonesia after independence. the indonesian government had made many laws restricting indonesian chinese people's freedom and ethnic malay or javanese people often discriminated against indonesian chinese. pramoedya published a series of letters to an imaginary chinese correspondent discussing the history of the indonesian chinese, called "hoakiau di indonesia" (history of the overseas chinese in indonesia). he criticized the government for being too java-centric and insensitive to the needs and desires of the other regions and peoples of indonesia. as a result, he was arrested by the indonesian military and jailed at cipinang prison for nine months.