[4] Ethnic Chinese businessmen, capitalising on the success of films produced in Shanghai, China, established two production houses, one in Batavia (modern day Jakarta) and the other in Surabaya.

Its first script was for Lily van Java;[3][6] which the company had to pass through the Film Commissie (national censorship bureau) for fear of violating traditional values.

[3][9][11] Some sources indicate that the same cast was used,[3][9] while others suggest that the leading role was taken by a student from Shanghai named Lily Oey.

[1][12][13] The silent film was shot in black and white;[3] its intertitles were bilingual, written in both Malay and Chinese.

The reporter Leopold Gan wrote that the film was highly successful, to the point that after several years copies were worn through from overplaying.

The American visual anthropologist Karl G. Heider writes that all Indonesian films from before 1950 are lost.