Sally Han

Sin Li 'Sally' Han (Tokkiew: Han Sin Li, born 16th September 594 DI) is a revolutionary and architect in Bandar Subuh. She is the leader of the pro-independence group Dhalang and instigated the April Rebellion against Kandus and Jalatal.

## Backstory

Sin Li was born in Bandar Subuh to unknown parents; speculation was that her mother was pregnant out of marriage, and wanted to avoid the scandal. As ancestry and blood family are very important to the Mandarina people, adoption is uncommon and generally misunderstood. Thus, it stirred a great deal of rumour and gossip when the wealthy, middle-aged merchant Han San Cheng took her in when she was eighteen months. Cheng had no experience with children, was unmarried, and had no close family members. Nonetheless, he doted on Sin Li, unconditionally supporting her and making sure to provide anything she needed as she grew up.

This became critical, as when she was thirteen she began her transition and took the name Sin Li. While the Mandarina community is not violently transphobic, there is a widespread ignorance that isolated Sin Li and opened her eyes to the world of social inequality. She had a difficult time convincing people that she could be a girl, let alone that she *was,* and lost many of the friends she had grown up with.

One friend that she did keep was Tiphanie Alouette, a first-generation Devoisien immigrant who went to school with her. She and Tiphanie became best friends during their teenage years, and Tiphanie persuaded Sin Li to join her in going to university in Faris. After some debate with Cheng and a feverish year learning basic Devoisien, Sin Li agreed.

Sin Li and Tiphanie began university in 614 DI, Sin Li studying undergraduate architecture. She took the nickname Sally after a week of having to keep correcting people's pronunciation of Sin Li, but was generally happy because it was easier for her to assert her gender, since she was not battling years of preconceptions. She was in Faris for the February, March, July, and November revolutions in 616 DI, and learnt basic skills like how to pass messages between revolutionaries, how to build a barricade, and most importantly, that Farisiens like the act of revolution more than they like actual systemic change.

She began dating Tiphanie during university, and they returned to Bandar Subuh together in 618 DI with their degrees to pursue careers. Sally joined the activist group Gamelan in 618 DI as a secretary, writing petitions and commentary on legislature drafts, but quickly grew frustrated with the negligible effect this had on Subun politics. She then branched off and started the splinter group Dhalang in 619 DI, formed of a few equally disillusioned members of Gamelan, Tiphanie, as well as new comrades she met when she started her MBA. Dhalang was originally developed as a housing assistance group that helped queer and trans women to find and keep homes, and forcibly reclaimed empty or rental properties from landlords. It operated out of, and still does, the back room of the jazz club Marimbar.

Sally finished her MBA in 621 DI and started a real estate consulting business, then married Tiphanie. The marriage was neither legal nor formally recognised, and Tiphanie started working to campaign for equal marriage and to raise awareness of the consequences of having no legal rights, such as an inability to delegate property after death, assign spouses as next of kin, or even purchase property as a couple. Sally thus expanded the goals of Dhalang to throw their weight behind Tiphanie's fight.

In 622 DI, Dhalang started raising the stakes with the Subun government as they began courting Kandushta favour, and Tiphanie began leading civil disobedience campaigns, small demonstrations, and individual sabotage on violently homophobic and transphobic politicians. This painted a target on her back, but despite this, she and Sally adopted a baby girl, who they called Adelaide. Not a month after they brought Adelaide home, Tiphanie was assassinated in a state-led crackdown on any and all dissent, and Sally had to take Adelaide and go into hiding.

She was taken in by artist Judith Nevrakis, who had just lost her own husband Oshri and was also suddenly a facing a future as a single mother. Dhalang went quiet for a few months until they could regroup and resume activity, and through Judith, Sally met the local doctor Elyon Meir and invited him to join in the new iteration. Faced with the brutal experience with the Subun government, Sally pivoted the group's focus again, finally landing on the cause they would ultimately be known for: absolute independence from Kandus and the demolishment of the current Subun government. With the radicalised agenda, their tactics also became more extreme, shifting from civil disobedience to mass protests, sabotage of infrastructure, individual acts of terror, and industry strikes in critical areas like shipping, building, and transport.

This came to a head in the April Rebellion of 626 DI, when Dhalang co-operated with other revolutionary groups to attempt an overthrow of the Subun government and throttle Kandushta and Jalatali influence. While the revolutionaries came close, the government directly enlisted the aid of Kandus under the agreement that they would immediately come under control of the Kandushta King and become a formal part of the empire. This allowed the Subun government to pick off revolutionary targets and break the morale of the younger revolutionaries, who hadn't shared Sally's experiences in Faris and weren't accustomed to withstanding violence and instability. Elyon was one of the targets brought to Selangah Prison, and while the rebellion was ultimately unsuccessful, Sally participated in the retaliatory razing of the prison. There is a Nevrakis masterpiece called *Eleftheria,* or *Liberty,* that depicts Sally waving the red flag of Dhalang while the prison lies in ruins behind her.

## Personality

Sally is curt, severe, and prefers smoking to socialising. She has no love for individuals and frequently finds them tiring, short-sighted, selfish, and complacent. She has a tendency towards paranoia, but it serves her well as she has an excellent survival rate compared to her contemporaries. While she makes no effort to be kind to others, she has a magnetism about her and a passionate belief in her convictions that is deeply persuasive, aided by a ruthless pragmatism.

Sally values 'people' in the ideological sense rather than the personal, but also devotes a great deal of energy to being a good mother to Adelaide. Her grief after Tiphanie's death heightened her closed-off nature, but spending time with Adelaide, Judith, and baby Miriam was a reminder that she had a duty still left to the living.

## Appearance

Sally has light skin with neutral undertones, and is built out of angles. She has long black hair, dark eyes, a very square jawline, and a pointy nose that looks similar to Judith's. Her fashion sense is non-existent and she has accepted this, sticking to black and grey dresses, never having bought into the colourful Mandarina fashions. She always carries a small pistol, extra ammunition, and a watch gifted to her by Tiphanie.

## Cultural Touchstones

Sally is Peranakan, a descendant of Chinese immigrants to the Malacca Strait who intermarried with the local Malay and Indonesian population. Peranakans, also known as Baba-Nyonya in Singapore, are not mixed Chinese-Malay but rather an ethnic group in their own right with unique cultural traditions. Dhalang is the name given to puppeteers of Javanese wayang gamelan performances, a storytelling role typically restricted to men. Sally’s experiences with identity in Bandar Subuh are drawn from those of queer women in Singapore, such as expressed by Adrienne Tan. She is inspired by Enjolras, Adora Belle Dearheart, and Sally Lockhart, who she was named after. The April Rebellion is a thinly veiled reference to the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris, which featured heavily in Victor Hugo's 'Les Miserables.'

## References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peranakans
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalang\_(puppeteer)
3. ↑ https://popagandhi.com/posts/2021-05-21-schrodingers-lesbian/
4. ↑ https://lesmiserables.fandom.com/wiki/Enjolras
5. ↑ https://discworld.fandom.com/wiki/Adora\_Belle\_Dearheart
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally\_Lockhart
7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June\_Rebellion