Tjan Tjoe Som ( zh, 曾珠森, 1903–1969) was an

Indonesian Chinese Chinese Indonesians (), or simply ''Orang Tionghoa'' or ''Tionghoa'', are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese Indonesians are the fourth largest community of Overseas Chinese in th ...

intellectual and

sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

at the

University of Indonesia The University of Indonesia (UI; ) is a public university in Depok, West Java and Salemba, Jakarta, Indonesia. It is one of the oldest tertiary-level educational institutions in Indonesia (known as the Dutch East Indies when UI was established) ...

Early life

Tjan was the son of a prominent

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

family in

Surakarta Surakarta (Javanese script, Javanese: , Pegon script, Pegon: ), known colloquially as Solo (Javanese script, Javanese: ; ), is a major List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in Central Java, Indonesia. The city adjoins Karanganyar Reg ...

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

. His first education was in the local HCS (Dutch-Chinese School) and then in the AMS (General Middle School) in

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta is the capital city of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by Hamengkubuwono, a monarchy, Yogyakarta is regarded as an importan ...

. His brother Tjan Tjoe Siem also became an academic (of

Javanese literature Javanese literature is, generally speaking, literature from Java and, more specifically, from areas where Javanese language, Javanese is spoken. However, similar with other literary traditions, Javanese language works were and not necessarily prod ...

Academic career

In 1935 he went to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

to study

Sinology Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilization p ...

Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince of Orange as a Protestantism, Protestant institution, it holds the d ...

. He obtained a PhD in Sinology in 1949 and was appointed as a professor there. In 1952 he returned to Indonesia and became head of the department of Sinology at the FSUI (''Fakultas Sastra Universitas Indonesia'' - Literature Department at the

Political activities

In the late 1950s he became associated with left-wing politics at a high level. In 1958 he joined the ''Himpunan Sardjana Indonesia'' (

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

: Indonesian Scholars' Association), a mass organization affiliated with the

Communist Party of Indonesia The Communist Party of Indonesia (Indonesian language, Indonesian: ''Partai Komunis Indonesia'', PKI) was a communist party in the Dutch East Indies and later Indonesia. It was the largest non-ruling communist party in the world before its Indo ...

(PKI). He was appointed as director of the Universitas Rakjat (

: People's university), a PKI educational network. He was also an advisor for the

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

edition of Warta Bhakti, a major left-wing newspaper in Indonesia at that time. He died in

Bandung Bandung is the capital city of the West Java province of Indonesia. Located on the island of Java, the city is the List of Indonesian cities by population, fourth-most populous city and fourth largest city in Indonesia after Jakarta, Surabay ...

in February 1969.

Selected works

* Po-hu-t'ung = The comprehensive discussions in the White Tiger Hall: a contribution to the history of classical studies in the Han period (Volume 1, 1949; Volume 2, 1952), Leiden: E.J. Brill * De plaats van de studie der kanonieke boeken in de Chinese filosofie: rede uitgesproken bij de aanvaarding van het ambt van bijzonder hoogleraar aan de Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden op 27 October 1950 (1950), Leiden E.J. Brill * Eastern and Western World (1953) * ''Tugas ilmu pengetahuan'' (1959)

References

{{Authority control 1903 births 1969 deaths Indonesian sinologists Academic staff of the University of Indonesia Indonesian people of Chinese descent Leiden University alumni Academic staff of Leiden University