Kwee Kek Beng (Chinese: 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 from 1925 to 1947.

Biography

Early life

Kwee was born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies on November 16, 1900. He received a Dutch language education at the Hollandsch Chineesche School in Batavia.[1] Around 1915-17 he attended the Openbare Muloschool (MULO) in Batavia[2][3] and then a teacher training institute (Kweekschool).[1] In 1922 he started working as a schoolteacher in Bogor, not far from Batavia.[4]

Journalism career

While still working as a teacher in 1922, Kwee contributed writings to the Dutch-language Java Bode.[5] Impressed by his writings, Na Tjin Hoe, an editor at Sin Po invited Kwee to work at the short-lived Bin Seng, a spinoff newspaper of Sin Po focusing on local news.[4][6] Even this junior position at the newspaper gave him almost double the salary he had been making as a teacher.[7] He soon transferred to the editorial board of Sin Po itself.[4] When former editor-in-chief Tjoe Bou San died in 1925, Kwee Kek Beng was promoted to the position.[1] That same year, he became vice-chairman of a union for Indies journalists, the Journalistenbond Asia, along with editors of Hindia Baroe, Perniagaan, Bintang Hindia, and other papers.[8]

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.[1] Like his predecessors, he was also a strong Chinese nationalist.[1] 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, Sartono, and WR Soepratman.[5] During the 1930s he served as an assistant at Soeloeh Indonesia Moeda (Indonesian: Voice of young Indonesia), the magazine of the Partai Nasional Indonesia.[4] He also used his position at Sin Po to publish 5000 leaflets containing the score of the nationalist song Indonesia Raya, which were distributed with the paper in November 1928.[5]

Shortly before the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Kwee sent his relatives to hide out in Sukabumi.[5] He himself planned to stay in Batavia under the assumed name Thio Boen Hiok, but soon found it too dangerous and fled to Bandung, where he spent most of the war.[5][1] Shortly after his departure his house in Batavia was discovered and looted by the Kenpeitai.[5]

After the war ended Sin Po 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.[1]

After Indonesian independence, he became a vocal critic of Indonesia's treatment of its Chinese minority.[4] For example, he was co-writer of the Memorandum Commissie Chung Hwa Hui in 1947 which documented abuses against the Chinese population by the Indonesian republican forces.[1] Nonetheless, in 1950 Kwee became an Indonesian citizen.[4] 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 Sin Tjhoen during 1956–60.[5][1]

He died in Jakarta on May 31, 1975.[4]

Family

His wife was named Tee Lim Nio.[5] Their first son Kwee Hin Goan, born in 1932, became a well-known architect in Indonesia during the 1950s-1965 and in the Netherlands from 1966 to 1992.[9] Their second son Kwee Hin Houw, born in 1938, became a journalist and lived in Germany from the 1960s until his death in 2016.

Selected writings

  • Beknopt Overzicht der Chineesche Geschiedenis (A brief overview of Chinese history) (in Dutch, Batavia, 1925)
  • Li Tai Po, Een Kleine Studie Over China’s Grootsten Dichter (in Dutch, Batavia, 1927);
  • Doea Poeloe Lima Tahon Sebagi Wartawan, 1922-1947 (Twenty-five years as a journalist) (in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1948)
  • Ke Tiongkok Baru (To a new China)(in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1952)
  • Seikitar Stalin (Around Stalin) (in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1953)
  • Pendekar-Pendekar R.R.T (Who's who in New China) (in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1953)
  • Bevrijd China (Freed China) (1954)
  • Djamblang Kotjok (in Indonesian, 1954)
  • Kung Fu Tze, artinja, pengaruhnja, penghidupannja peladjarannja (in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1955)
  • 50.000 kilometer dalam 100 hari (50,000 kilometres in 100 days) (in Indonesian, Jakarta, 1965)

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Salmon, Claudine (1981). Literature in Malay by the Chinese of Indonesia : a provisional annotated bibliography. Paris: Editions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme. p. 202. ISBN 9780835705929.
  2. ↑ "Openbare Muloschool te Batavia (Schoolweg)". Het nieuws van den dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië (in Dutch). 1916-05-20.
  3. ↑ "Openbare Mulo-school (,Schoolweg, Batavia)". De Preanger-bode (in Dutch). 1917-05-21.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Suryadinata, Leo (2015). Prominent Indonesian Chinese : Biographical Sketches (4th edition) (4th ed.). Singapore: ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. pp. 113–4. ISBN 9789814620512.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Kwee Kek Beng, Sang Pendekar Pena dari Batavia". tirto.id (in Indonesian). Tirto. Retrieved 21 November 2020.
  6. ↑ Sin Po Jubileum Nummer 1910–1935 (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Sin Po. 1935. pp. 3–9.
  7. ↑ "Merkwaardigheden van den dag". Deli Courant (in Dutch). 1922-06-10.
  8. ↑ "Bond van Inlandsche journalisten". De Locomotief (in Dutch). 1925-10-13.
  9. ↑ Suryadinata, Leo (2015). Prominent Indonesian Chinese : Biographical Sketches (4th edition) (4th ed.). Singapore: ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute. pp. 111–2. ISBN 9789814620512.
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