Phoa Keng Hek

Phoa Keng Hek Sia (; 1857–1937) was a Chinese Indonesian Landheer (landlord), social activist and founding president of Tiong Hoa Hwe Koan, an influential Confucian educational and social organisation meant to better the position of ethnic Chinese in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia). He was also one of the founders of Institut Teknologi Bandung.

Biography

Early life and family background Phoa was born in Buitenzorg (now Bogor), Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), in 1857 into an influential Peranakan Chinese family, part of the Cabang Atas or the Chinese gentry of colonial Indonesia. THHK aimed to purify the practice of Confucianism in the Indies, and ran a network of around 130 schools to promote a modern education for the colony's ethnic Chinese community. With a paternalist concern for the moral well-being of the inhabitants of his domains in mind, Phoa succeeded 1903 in banning gambling in the area. Like other Landheeren, Phoa grew and sold agricultural products. He owned a rice mill and tea factory on his domains.

Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands conferred the Groote Gouden Ster, the highest rank in the Ster voor Trouw en Verdienste on Phoa for his social work. Phoa was also invested as a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1937. He died in Batavia later that year, on 19 July, and was buried after a large funeral at Petamburan Cemetery on 25 July. As he had no male issue, one of his daughter's sons by Majoor Khouw Kim An, Phoa Liong Djin, assumed his maternal grandfather's surname and succeeded Phoa as head of his lineage.