Joan Margaret Marbeck (26 June 1944, Malacca City, Malaysia - 28 July 2024, Seremban[1]) was a Malaysian scholar specializing in the study of Malay-Portuguese Creole language Kristang in Malaysia and other countries (Singapore, Australia, Macau).

[2] She published dictionaries and phrase books, translated poetry and songs into this language, tried to introduce Kristang to be studied in primary schools in places where the Creole population lives, especially in Malacca.

[3] She was an organizer of the conference "On the Conservation and Development of the Malayo-Portuguese Creole Language and Heritage in Malaysia" (January 1996), the initiator of the establishment in 2010 a department of the life of the Eurasian community in the Peoples Museum Melaka,[4] the holding of a seminar on Kristang in cooperation with the Corporation of Malacca Museums in December 2011 and the International Conference on Creole Languages in June 2012 in Malacca (in cooperation with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro).

In 1994, she was invited to write and stage the musical "Saint Francis Xavier - the main saint of India" in conjunction with the centenary of the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Malacca[5] In 2009, she wrote and presented to the competition of the Lusophone Festival in Macau a monoplay in Kristang 'Seng Marianne' (Without Marianne).

In December 2010, in Kuala Lumpur with the sponsorship of the Brazilian Embassy, her musical "Kazamintu na Praiya" (A Wedding on the Beach) in Kristang was staged.