Shwe Kyu (1883–1935) was the founder of Myanmar's first modern

Myanmar Alin Myanmar Alin ( my, မြန်မာ့အလင်း; also known as Myanma Alinn) is a state-run Burmese language daily newspaper and the longest running newspaper in circulation in Myanmar. The daily is considered to be the official mouthpie ...

magazine, which is still distributed today as the Myanmar Alin Newspaper. He was also the inventor of a new Peacock branding Burmese textbook.

Early life and education

Shwe Kyu was born on 1883 in

Mawlamyine Mawlamyine (also spelled Mawlamyaing; , ; th, เมาะลำเลิง ; mnw, မတ်မလီု, ), formerly Moulmein, is the fourth-largest city in Myanmar (Burma), ''World Gazetteer'' south east of Yangon and south of Thaton, at th ...

Mon State Mon State ( my, မွန်ပြည်နယ်, ; mnw, တွဵုရးဍုင်မန်, italics=no) is an administrative division of Myanmar. It lies between Kayin State to the east, the Andaman Sea to the west, Bago Region to th ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. He has eight siblings. He was a modern scholar and attended at Yangon College.

Careers

Before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, He worked at German businesses in

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military governme ...

. Then, in 1271, he opened his own company in

called Shwe Kyu. In addition, He set up a printing press called Shwe Kyu Printing House and started publishing

Myanma Alin Myanmar Alin ( my, မြန်မာ့အလင်း; also known as Myanma Alinn) is a state-run Burmese language daily newspaper and the longest running newspaper in circulation in Myanmar. The daily is considered to be the official mouthpiece ...

Magazine in June 1912, during the British colonial era in

Yangon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

.The paper was known for its anti-colonialist stance before

World War II 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In August 1914, Shwe kyu, who took advantage of the outbreak of

, published a separate ''Myanma Alin War Telegraph newsletter'' in addition to

Magazine in November of that year. It was renamed the

Newspaper on March 15, 1915. He was deported to

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 ...

in 1916. These events took place during

. Even after

, he was not allowed to return to his homeland. He was allowed to return to his country in 1921.Upon his return to

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, he tried to publish a newspaper called "Liberty" (Independence). However, it was shut down due to inconsistencies during a short time. Eventually, Shwe Kyu became the secretary of the Rangoon Municipality. Shwe Kyu not only started publishing "

Magazine" but he also wrote and published "Shwe Kyu English-Burmese Dictionary".

Exile

A year after the publication of the

, the Burmese government demanded 5,000 kyats bail for an advertisement, ''Beware of March 15th''. The advertiser was the author,

P Moe Nin P Moe Nin ( my, ပီမိုးနင်း; 5 November 1883 – 6 January 1940) was one of Burma's most prolific and treasured writers. His writing style differed from that prevalent in Burma at the time, writing concisely and clearly. Because ...

, and the advertiser himself explained that he was announcing the publication of his book, but to no avail. So, after the newspaper was shut down without bail, Shwe Kyu went to Japan to study

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone ( lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German ...

in 1916. On the way, he visited to Myingun Prince in

Saigon , population_density_km2 = 4,292 , population_density_metro_km2 = 697.2 , population_demonym = Saigonese , blank_name = GRP (Nominal) , blank_info = 2019 , blank1_name = – Total , blank1_ ...

and discussed the return of Burma to the hands of Burmese dynasties. Thinking that Burma would be returned hands of Burmese dynasties, he took a Power of Attorney from the Myingun Prince and spoke with Lockham Ninghan, the British ambassador to Japan. However, the Burmese government took a different interpretation of Shwe Kyu's case and ordered his return from Japan. On his return from Japan, he was deported by the burmese government to prevent him from returning to

. Myanmar Encyclopedia; Volume 11

References

1883 births 1935 deaths Burmese writers {{Myanmar-writer-stub