The Lie family of Pasilian was an aristocratic Chinese-Indonesian family of landlords, officials and community leaders, part of the ‘Tjabang Atas’ or the Peranakan Chinese gentry of the Dutch East Indies. For over a century, from 1847 until the 1952, members of the family served as Chinese officers, producing a total of nine office-holders, including Lie Tjoe Hong, the third Majoor der Chinezen of Batavia. The Chinese officership, consisting of the ranks of Majoor, Kapitein and Luitenant der Chinezen, was an arm of the Dutch colonial government with administrative and judicial jurisdiction over the colony's Chinese subjects.

The Cabang Atas —literally 'upper branch' in Indonesian—was the traditional Chinese establishment or gentry of colonial Indonesia. They were the families and descendants of the Chinese officers, high-ranking colonial civil bureaucrats with the ranks of Majoor, Kapitein and Luitenant der Chinezen. They were referred to as the baba bangsawan [‘Chinese gentry’] in Indonesian, and the ba-poco in Java Hokkien.