Chinese Indonesian
Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries.
Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have ...
journalist and writer, best known for being editor-in-chief of the popular Malay language newspaper '' Sin Po'' from 1925 to 1947.
Dutch language
Dutch ( ) is a West Germanic language spoken by about 25 million people as a first language and 5 million as a second language. It is the third most widely spoken Germanic language, after its close relatives German and English. ''Afrikaans'' ...
education at the in Batavia. Around 1915-17 he attended the ( MULO) in Batavia and then a teacher training institute (). In 1922 he started working as a schoolteacher in
Bogor
Bogor ( su, , nl, Buitenzorg) is a city in the West Java province, Indonesia. Located around south of the national capital of Jakarta, Bogor is the 6th largest city in the Jakarta metropolitan area and the 14th overall nationwide.
Journalism career
While still working as a teacher in 1922, Kwee contributed writings to the Dutch-language . Impressed by his writings, Na Tjin Hoe, an editor at invited Kwee to work at the short-lived , a spinoff newspaper of focusing on local news. Even this junior position at the newspaper gave him almost double the salary he had been making as a teacher. He soon transferred to the editorial board of itself. When former editor-in-chief
Tjoe Bou San
Tjoe Boe San (Chinese: 朱茂山) (born around 1892 in Batavia, Dutch East Indies, died 1925 in Batavia) was a Chinese nationalist, translator and newspaper editor in the Dutch East Indies, most notably editor and director of the influential Indo ...
died in 1925, Kwee Kek Beng was promoted to the position. That same year, he became vice-chairman of a union for Indies journalists, the , along with editors of , '' Perniagaan'',
Bintang Hindia
Bintang Beer ( id, Bir Bintang, literally "Star Beer") is a brand of beer from Indonesia and is produced by PT Multi Bintang Indonesia Tbk, part of Heineken.
The beer is styled as a pale lager, gold in colour with an ideal serving temperature of ...
, and other papers.
In 1929 he travelled outside of the Indies for the first time in his life, touring the Malay Peninsula and Singapore, following a few years later with his first trip to China in 1933.
Like his predecessors, he was also a strong Chinese nationalist. But, as with many other Indies Chinese intellectuals during the late 1920s and early 1930s, he also became increasingly sympathetic to the rising Indonesian nationalist movement. He was a close personal friend of a number of nationalist leaders including
Sukarno
Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.
Sukarno was the leader of ...
Sukabumi
, nickname = id, Kota Santri en, City of Learners
, image_map = Map of West Java highlighting Sukabumi City.svg
, map_caption = Location within West Java
, mapsize =
, pushpin_map = Ind ...
. He himself planned to stay in Batavia under the assumed name Thio Boen Hiok, but soon found it too dangerous and fled to
Bandung
Bandung ( su, ᮘᮔ᮪ᮓᮥᮀ, Bandung, ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of West Java. It has a population of 2,452,943 within its city limits according to the official estimates as at mid 2021, making it the fourth most ...
, where he spent most of the war. Shortly after his departure his house in Batavia was discovered and looted by the Kenpeitai.
After the war ended resumed publication and Kwee returned to his position. In 1947 he got into a dispute with publisher Ang Jan Goan, and resigned as editor-in-chief in 1947.
After Indonesian independence, he became a vocal critic of Indonesia's treatment of its Chinese minority. For example, he was co-writer of the in 1947 which documented abuses against the Chinese population by the Indonesian republican forces. Nonetheless, in 1950 Kwee became an Indonesian citizen. He spent most of the 1950s as a freelance writer, publishing prolifically, especially about China. He founded a monthly journal ''Java Critic'' in 1948, contribute to the monthly ''Reporter'' during the 1950s and was editor of the annual journal during 1956–60.
He died in Jakarta on May 31, 1975.
Family
His wife was named Tee Lim Nio. Their first son
Kwee Hin Goan
KWEE (100.1 FM, "100.1 We FM") is a commercial radio station licensed to Dayton, Nevada, and serving the Reno metropolitan area and Lake Tahoe. It is owned by Lotus Communications and broadcasts an adult hits radio format. The radio studio ...
, born in 1932, became a well-known architect in Indonesia during the 1950s-1965 and in the Netherlands from 1966 to 1992. Their second son
Kwee Hin Houw
KWEE (100.1 FM, "100.1 We FM") is a commercial radio station licensed to Dayton, Nevada, and serving the Reno metropolitan area and Lake Tahoe. It is owned by Lotus Communications and broadcasts an adult hits radio format. The radio studio ...
, born in 1938, became a journalist and lived in Germany from the 1960s until his death in 2016.
Selected writings
*' (A brief overview of Chinese history) (in Dutch, Batavia, 1925)
*' (in Dutch, Batavia, 1927);
*' (Twenty-five years as a journalist) (in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1948)
*' (To a new China)(in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1952)
*' (Around Stalin) (in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1953)
*' (Who's who in New China) (in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1953)
*' (Freed China) (1954)
*' (in Indonesian, 1954)
* (in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1955)
*' (50,000 kilometres in 100 days) (in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1965)