Hauw Tek Kong () (1887-1928) was a
Peranakan Chinese
The Peranakans () are an ethnic group defined by their genealogical descent from the first waves of Southern Chinese settlers to maritime Southeast Asia, known as Nanyang (), namely the British Colonial ruled ports in the Malay Peninsula, t ...
newspaper editor and publisher from the
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 ...
associated with ''
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 I ...
'' and later ''
Keng Po''.
Biography
Hauw Tek Kong was born in
Batavia, Dutch East Indies
Batavia was the capital of the Dutch East Indies. The area corresponds to present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. Batavia can refer to the city proper or its suburbs and hinterland, the Ommelanden, which included the much-larger area of the Residency ...
in 1887. He is thought to have studied at the
Anglo-Chinese School
Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) is a family of Methodist schools in Singapore and Indonesia. It was founded in 1886 by Bishop William Fitzjames Oldham as an extension of the Methodist Church. Anglo-Chinese School is usually abbreviated as "ACS", wit ...
in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
.
Around 1908 he became interested in silent film theatres and became director of a company aiming to open one in Batavia, the ''Solar Bioscope Company Ltd.''. This company purchased the equipment that same year and toured it around various temporary venues in Batavia and as far afield as
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.[Meester Cornelis
Jatinegara (originally known as Meester Cornelis or Meester for short) is one of the districts (''Kecamatan'') of East Jakarta, Indonesia. The name also refers to the larger, historic area of the colonial town of Meester Cornelis. Established in ...]
by 1910.
The films shown at the Solar Bioscore included English productions and those produced by
Pathé
Pathé or Pathé Frères (, styled as PATHÉ!) is the name of various French people, French businesses that were founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France starting in 1896. In the early 1900s, Pathé became the world's largest ...
.
Sin Po
In 1913, when Oey Tjioe Yong, the former director of the popular Indies Chinese newspaper ''Sin Po'' stepped down, Hauw, who was already a major shareholder in the paper, was appointed in his place.
Under his tenure the paper became embroiled in a high-profile feud with some more conservative elements of the Chinese community due to its criticism of the colonial
Chinese Officer system. That feud resulted in calls to boycott ''Sin Po''. In particular the paper harshly attacked
Phoa Keng Hek
Phoa Keng Hek Sia (; 1857–1937) was a Chinese Indonesian ''Landheer'' (landlord), social activist and founding president of Tiong Hoa Hwe Koan, an influential Confucian educational and social organisation meant to better the position of ethnic ...
and
Khouw Kim An, high-profile Chinese Officers, and accused them of corruption and abuse of authority.
In early 1919, Hauw became embroiled in a court case against
J. R. Razoux Kühr, the former editor of ''Sin Po'' who was then at rival paper ''Perniagaan''. It is unclear what the substance of the case was.
Hauw also became known as a high-profile opponent to Dutch proposals to grant citizenship or some sort of qualified subjecthood for Indies Chinese. In 1919 ''Sin Po'' sent him to China to negotiate with the government there about the matter of potential repudiation of that citizenship; when he tried to re-enter the Indies, the Dutch would not let him in.
In his absence ''Sin Po'' appointed
Tjoe Bou San both editor-in-chief and director of the newspaper, and Hauw resigned.
By 1922, when Hauw had abandoned his public opposition to the Dutch citizenship law, he was allowed to re-enter.
Keng Po
In 1923, due to a disagreement with
Tjoe Bou San of ''Sin Po'', Hauw founded a new newspaper called ''
Keng Po'', which he launched on August 1. At first he appointed himself director and editor-in-chief, although he soon stepped aside from editorial duties.
Khoe Woen Sioe
Maharishi International University (MIU), formerly Maharishi University of Management, is a private university in Fairfield, Iowa. It was founded in 1973 by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and features a "consciousness-based education" system that include ...
, who would be director of the paper in later years, joined as an editor at some point in the early years.
In early 1928 Hauw was returning from a business trip to
Tangerang
Tangerang (Sundanese: , ) is a city in the province of Banten, Indonesia. Located on the western border of Jakarta, it is the third largest urban centre in the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area after Jakarta and Bekasi; the sixth largest city pro ...
he suffered some kind of health crisis and people remarked that he seemed different after that.
He died in Batavia at age 51 on April 7, 1928, apparently of a stroke.
References
{{Reflist
1887 births
1928 deaths
Indonesian people of Chinese descent
People from the Dutch East Indies of Chinese descent
Writers from the Dutch East Indies
20th-century journalists
People from Batavia, Dutch East Indies
Journalists from the Dutch East Indies