Ang Jan Goan ( zh, 洪渊源, , 1894–1984) was an

Indonesian Chinese 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 l ...

journalist, publisher and political thinker, and director of the influential newspaper ''

Sin Po Sinbo () was a minister who served the kings in Gaya confederacy. Queen Mojong who was the second wife of Geodeung of Geumgwan Gaya was his daughter. He served as government officer of Gaya confederacy. In 48, when Heo Hwang-ok came over from In ...

'' from 1925 to 1959.

Biography

Early life

Ang was born on May 25, 1894, in

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 ...

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

. His family traced their ancestry to

Nan'an, Fujian Nan'an () is a county-level city of southern Fujian province, People's Republic of China. It is under the administration of Quanzhou City and as of 2010, had a total population of 1,500,000. More than 4,000,000 overseas Chinese trace their ancest ...

and his parents, Hong Songmei and Chen Cui Niang, operated a grocery store. He had early education in the

Malay language Malay (; ms, Bahasa Melayu, links=no, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , Rejang script, Rencong: ) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language that is an official language of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and that is also spo ...

and

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

and then enrolled in a

Tiong Hoa Hwee Koan Tiong Hoa Hwee Koan (THHK, ) was an Indonesian Chinese organization founded on March 17, 1900 in Batavia, Dutch East Indies. Its founders included former classmates Lie Kim Hok and Phoa Keng Hek ''Sia'', both of whom had been educated at Sierk C ...

school. After finishing at the THHK school he went to China to study at the JNXT (Jinan Xuetang), also known as Kay Lam Hak Tong, a school designed for Overseas Chinese in

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

. (The institution is a predecessor of the present day

Jinan University Jinan University (JNU, ) is a public research university based in Guangzhou, China. "Jinan" literally means "reaching southward", indicating the university's original mission to disseminate Chinese learning and culture from North to South when i ...

.) Ang was still studying there when the

1911 Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a d ...

broke out, forcing him to end his studies and return to the Dutch East Indies. Upon his return to the Indies he became a teacher, first at

Ciamis Ciamis ( su, ᮎᮤᮃᮙᮤᮞ᮪) is a town and district which serves as the regency seat of Ciamis Regency in West Java, Indonesia. Government GOVERNMENT Since regional autonomy was implemented in 2001, Ciamis Regency has experienced regional ...

in 1912 and 1913, and then 1917 in

Tasikmalaya en, Neaty City , nickname = nl, Delhi Van Java en, Delhi of Java , image_skyline = , imagesize = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top: Great Mosque of Tasi ...

. During that period he became interested in journalism and writing.

Newspaper career

In 1918 Ang was introduced to Tjoe Bou San, who was then director of the

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 ...

newspaper ''

''. He also met

Kwee Tek Hoay Kwee Tek Hoay (; 31 July 1886 – 4 July 1951) was a Chinese Indonesian Malay-language writer of novels and drama, and a journalist. Biography Kwee Tek Hoay, the youngest son of Tjiam Kwee Hong and Tan Ay Nio, often played truant during his ...

who urged him to relocate to

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. In 1920 he left Bogor and moved back to

. In 1922 Ang finally joined the editorial board of the newspaper ''Sin Po''. The previous editor and director Tjoe Bou San died in 1925.

Kwee Kek Beng Kwee Kek Beng ( zh, 郭克明, 1900–1975) was a Chinese Indonesian journalist and writer, best known for being editor-in-chief of the popular Malay language newspaper ''Sin Po (newspaper), Sin Po'' from 1925 to 1947. Biography Early life Kwee w ...

became editor in chief while Ang was promoted to be director of the newspaper, a position he stayed in until the end of the publication in 1959, with the exception of the period of

Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies The Empire of Japan occupied the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) during World War II from March 1942 until after the end of the war in September 1945. It was one of the most crucial and important periods in modern Indonesian history. In May ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Some changes he made to the operation of the paper were an increase in translated

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

news, a change in the layout, the addition of editorial comics, and a cut to the pay of the staff. Another decision of his was to purchase a typesetting machine for Sin Po, apparently the first of its kind in the Indies. In 1925 Ang and his editor

were sentenced to eight months and a year in prison under Persdelict laws. They had printed a critical article about a Dutch policeman who had accidentally shot and killed an Indonesian hawker while shooting at a stray dog. They appealed the charges and it was overturned by a higher court (the ''Raad van Justitie''), with Kwee Kek Beng having to pay a 500 guilder fine. In 1928, Ang printed what would become the national anthem of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

Indonesia Raya "" (; "Great Indonesia") is the national anthem of Indonesia. It has been the national anthem since the Proclamation of Indonesian Independence on 17 August 1945. The song was introduced by its composer, Wage Rudolf Supratman, on 28 October 19 ...

. He was not the first to do so, as it had been printed in another newspaper ''Soeloeh Ra'jat Indonesia'' a few days earlier. In 1960 he founded the Surya Prabha publishing company which published '' Warta Bhakti'', an influential left-wing daily in

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...

which only lasted until 1965. Warta Bhakti was intended to be a modern replacement for the former Sin Po.

Political advocacy

Ang was involved in many aspects of Chinese politics in the Indies during his career. It may have been his second trip to China in 1918 that caused him to become more active in Chinese nationalist politics. He was involved in the Tjoe Sian Hwee, an organization fundraising for China in its war against Japan. Ang himself was later detained by the Japanese during the

. Another case that Ang involved himself in was to join a national committee in 1937 dedicating itself to improving treatment of pretrial detainees in the Indies. However, this was also connected to Chinese nationalism as the committee was explicitly a Chinese-only committee, and the event that had spurred them to form the committee was the arrest and rough treatment of some Indies Chinese businessmen who had been attempting to run for electoral office in China. During the early period of

Indonesian independence The Proclamation of Indonesian Independence ( id, Proklamasi Kemerdekaan Indonesia, or simply ''Proklamasi'') was read at 10:00 on Friday, 17 August 1945 in Jakarta. The declaration marked the start of the diplomatic and armed resistance of t ...

, he was also elected president of the ''Hua-Chiao Chu-jin Hui'', an organization aiming to normalize relations between Indonesia and China. After Indonesia did normalize its relationship with

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

in 1950 the organization was renamed ''Chung-Hua Chiao-Tuan Tsung-Hui'' or "federation of Chinese associations", and Ang remained its president for another four years. Ang was also a co-creator of the Lembaga Persahabatan Indonesia-Tiongkok ("Association for the Promotion of friendship between Indonesia and China"). And he was a member of the Persatuan Tionghoa, a political party formed in 1948 by

Thio Thiam Tjong Thio Thiam Tjong (born on 4 April 1896 – died on 19 September 1969) was an Indonesian politician, community leader and businessman whose public career spanned from the late colonial period to the early decades of Independence. He was a founding ...

which was renamed Partai Demokrat Tionghoa Indonesia ("Chinese Indonesian Democratic party") in 1950. After that party was dissolved in 1954 Ang joined the

Baperki The Consultative Council for Indonesian Citizenship ( id, Badan Permusjawaratan Kewarganegaraan Indonesia), often known by its Indonesian abbreviation Baperki, was an organization founded in Indonesia in 1954 by Indonesians of Chinese descent. It s ...

until it too was dissolved in 1965.

Emigration to Canada

During the 1965-66

Transition to the New Order Indonesia's transition to the New Order in the mid-1960s ousted the country's first president, Sukarno, after 22 years in the position. One of the most tumultuous periods in the country's modern history, it was the commencement of Suharto's ...

in Indonesia, Ang's newspaper Warta Bhakti was shut down by the government and many of its editors and journalists were arrested without trial. Thus, in 1967, Ang emigrated to Canada where his sons were already living. During his time there he wrote his memoirs in English, which have yet to be published in that version, although they have been released in Indonesian (2009) and Chinese translations (1989). He died in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1984.

Selected works

* ''Akoe poenja pernikahan dengan seorang Tionghoa'' (1922),

translation of ''My Chinese Marriage'' by Mae Franking, 1921. * ''Diseblah dalemnja lajar malaise'' (1923 play, written pseudonymously as Hoay Tjiong) * ''Djangan sedih'' (1923 play, written pseudonymously as Hoay Tjiong) * ''Moesoenja orang banjak'', (date unknown ) translation of

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

An Enemy of the People ''An Enemy of the People'' (original Norwegian title: ''En folkefiende''), an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, followed his previous play, ''Ghosts'', which criticized the hypocrisy of his society's moral code. That response inclu ...

(1882).

References

{{Reflist Indonesian people of Chinese descent People from Bandung Indonesian Hokkien people Indonesian writers Indonesian journalists Indonesian newspaper editors Newspaper editors from the Dutch East Indies Journalists from the Dutch East Indies