This is the first chapter of a biography of Yap Thiam Hien written by Daniel S. Lev. Yap Thiam Hien (1913-1989) was a renowned Indonesian lawyer and human rights activist. The chapter describes the background of his Chinese-Indonesian family, including his financially successful great-great-grandfather, who emigrated from south China in the 1840s; his father, who was unable to maintain the family business in Aceh but did insure that his children were well educated; and his father’s resourceful Japanese mistress, who raised the children after their mother died.