Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume I

Y

Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary 1306 Yan Weizhen ( ; , Lin Zhiqiang, 1933–2008) Writer, promoter of Chinese literature, Indonesia Y an Weizhen, whose real name was Lin Zhiqiang ( ), was active for half of a century in the Indonesian Chinese literary scene and famous in the Chinese-speaking community for his beautiful poems. He was born in Indonesia, probably in Bandung, in 1933 and received only a secondary school education. He was a full-time Chinese school teacher in Bandung (West Java) and a part-time journalist writing for Chinese-language newspapers published in Jakarta prior to Soeharto’s coming to power. Yan was a talented writer and had begun writing when he was fifteen years old, using a number of pen names such as Xiu Nong ( ), Han Lu ( ), Li Fu ( ), Fang Ming ( ), Xiao Mei ( ), Xia Xue ( ), and He Dannian ( ), etc. He was already active in the literary world when he was in high school. In the mid-1950s, he and another well known writer, Li Qing ( ), collaborated in editing a literary page called “Coconut Island Literature” ( ) in Xin Bao ( ), a major Chinese newspaper in Jakarta which was closed down in the late 1950s.Yan also served as a “special writer” for three Chinese magazines in Jakarta: Shenghuo Zhoubao ( ), RenYan Xunkan ( ) and XinqiaoYuekan ( ).At the same time he was also a special correspondent for Shenghuo Bao ( ), a left-wing newspaper in Jakarta. Yan was particularly good at writing poems and he and Li Qing dominated the Indonesian Chinese poetry world in the 1950s and early 1960s. Some of Yan’s better known poems include “Bandung — Beautiful City in the Bright and Glorious Days” ( ， ), “Fatherland, You are so far away yet you are with me” ( ， ， ), “O Good, the Other Side of Mount Tangkuban Perahu” ( ， ), etc. During this period, he wrote as a huaqiao or overseas Chinese, not as an Indonesian citizen, and his writings were oriented towards China. He also wrote about Indonesia, but as a Chinese national. In fact, this was common among the Chineseeducated Chinese in Indonesia as most of them held Chinese citizenship. However in 1963, when Chinese papers were only allowed to be run by Indonesian citizens, many writers began to identify themselves with Indonesia. That year, when the Huoju Bao ( ) was published, Yan revived the literary page called “Coconut Island Literature” and started to write from the Indonesian perspective as the Huoju Bao was linked to the Indonesian Nationalist Party. The 1965 coup was a watershed in Indonesian political history and for the Chinese community as the “three pillars” of Chinese culture were eradicated. Like all Chinese schoolteachers and Chinese newspapermen Y Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary 1307 and women,Yan lost his job. In order to make a living he moved to unfamiliar territories, even working as a taxi driver at one time.Later he became a businessman. However his love of Chinese writing and culture eventually took him back to teaching Chinese.This was during the latter part of the Soeharto era when restrictions on teaching the Chinese language were relaxed and many Chinese-language institutions were allowed to be established. During the New Order period many Chinese Indonesian writers began to publish their works only in the half-Chinese and half-Indonesian Harian Indonesia (Yindunixiya Ribao), but more mature writers published their works overseas, especially in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Yan continued to produce his poems and other forms of writing. In 1988 he wrote a poem, revised in 1995, entitled, “I want to live a life of poetry in my old age” ( ): “Write for another twenty years”, And then, I want to fully enjoy The wonderful mountain and water of these emerald islands, Fill up my stomach with the tropical fruit and coconut milk, Wear the colourful garland and Dedicate my beautiful poems to this beautiful brown earth. In the past I sang for the Yellow river and the Long River, At the present I stand on the peak of “Bandung Spirit”, Witnessing the rapidly changing landscape, Reading the human world which is full of spring: Foreign land and Homeland have become the same. The Love that you dedicated to all mankind, More? or Less?This should be the criteria for judging human characters, Poem and theTruth are fire. Oh, Goddess Muse! I want to be cremated under the foot of Tangguban Perahu! (English translation done by Leo Suryadinata) The above poem shows the change in Yan’s ideology from being China-oriented to being...