Name Hok Kan | ||
Kan Hok Hoei Sia (January 6, 1881 - March 1, 1951), generally known as Hok Hoei Kan or in short H. H. Kan, was a prominent public figure, statesman, patrician and landowner of Peranakan Chinese descent in the Dutch East Indies. He was a leading member of the Volksraad, and advocated cooperation with the Dutch colonial state in order to attain racial and legal equality for the colony's Chinese community.
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Family and Early Life
Kan was born Han Khing Tjiang Sia in Batavia into the city's Chinese gentry or baba bangsawan. His father, Han Oen Lee, served as Luitenant der Chinezen of Bekasi, and hailed from the Han family of Lasem - probably Java's most ancient and most storied Chinese lineage. His family had been part of the scholar-gentry of Imperial China since the Tang Dynasty (618–907 AD), and was first elevated to the Chinese Captaincy of colonial Java in the early eighteenth century. As a descendant of a long line of Chinese officials in Java, Kan held the courtesy title of Sia from birth.
His mother, Kan Oe Nio, was one of Batavia's richest heiresses, and daughter of the famed tycoon and landowner, Kan Keng Tjong, later elevated by the Chinese Imperial Government to the rank of mandarin of the third grade. Han Khing Tjiang was adopted by his childless uncle, Kan Tjeng Soen, and renamed Kan Hok Hoei. He was also made the principal heir of the name and fortune of his maternal grandfather.
He had a thoroughly European upbringing, and was schooled at the Europeesche Lagere School (ELS) and the prestigious Koning Willem III School te Batavia (KW III). In 1899, he was married off to his first cousin, Lie Tien Nio, daughter of Lie Tjoe Hong, titular Majoor der Chinezen of Batavia, and - like her husband - a grandchild of Kan Keng Tjong. The couple had 8 children.
Kan applied and obtained legal equality with Europeans (gelijkgesteld) in 1905, after which he was universally known as Hok Hoei Kan or H. H. Kan.
Political career
His political career began in the Municipal Council of Batavia and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce (Siang Hwee). When the Volksraad was convened by the Governor-General for the first time, Kan accepted appointment to the newly founded legislative body in 1918. He did so despite widespread opposition to the colonial legislature from many Chinese and indigenous subjects of the Dutch East Indies, many of whom refused to cooperate with the colonial government and campaigned for outright independence. Kan remained a member of the Volksraad until its dissolution by the Japanese, who invaded the colony in 1942 during the Second World War.
In 1928, Kan presided - as founding President - over the formation of Chung Hwa Hui (CHH), a political association that attracted the support of mainly Dutch-educated ethnic Chinese. Together with the likes of Loa Sek Hie and Chester Sim-Zecha, who were both on the Executive Committee of CHH, Kan pleaded for legal equality of the Chinese with Europeans under Indies law. Kan also opposed some of the legal disabilities that had been imposed on the Chinese of the colony, such as limited ownership of agricultural land and excessive taxation.
His relationship with Indonesian nationalists was ambiguous. In 1927, Kan voted against expanding the franchise for elections to the Volksraad as he feared domination of the legislature by indigenous Indonesians. At the same time, in 1936, he supported the ill-fated Soetardjo Petition, which requested Indonesian Independence within ten years as part of a Dutch commonwealth.
Kan was made an Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1921, and a Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion in 1930 in recognition of his service to the Dutch Crown.
Japanese Occupation and Death
When the Japanese invaded Java in 1942, they apprehended Kan along with other leaders of the colonial government due to their anti-Japanese activities. Kan was imprisoned in Tjimahi until the Japanese capitulated in 1945.
He did not resume political activities after the Second World War, and died at his residence on Jalan Teuku Umar in Menteng in 1951.