Tio Tek Hong

Tio Tek Hong (1877–1965) was a colonial Indonesian businessman and record executive, best-remembered as a pioneer of the Indonesian music recordings industry and as the founder of Toko Tio Tek Hong, one of the country's earliest modern department stores. He was also the first person to make a recording, in 1929, of Indonesia's future national anthem, Indonesia Raya.

Family background and early life Born in 1877 in the fashionable district of Pasar Baru, Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Tio was the son of prominent businessman Tio Tjeng Sioe (b. 1844) and Lie Loemoet Nio (b. 1856). He came from important and well-connected Peranakan lineages of the 'Tjabang Atas' gentry on both sides of his family.

On his mother's side, Tio came from the influential Lie family of Pasilian as a grandson of the high official Lie Pek Tat, Kapitein-titulair der Chinezen, and a great-grandson of the Landheer [landlord] Lie Tiang Ko, Kapitein-titulair der Chinezen. Tio expanded his store by acquiring adjoining properties, and twice rebuilt it, first in 1911, then again in 1916, inaugurating the present building in 1917 to coincide with his store's 15th anniversary. In 1927, Tio's department store celebrated its 25th anniversary; the popular newspaper Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië declares:

"The firm was the first to have a large modern retail space, a pleasant change from shophouses and market sheds; its opening was an event in the history of the capital. What Tio Tek Hong has been to Batavians of tempo doeloe [former times] can best be seen from the fact that they used to say: 'If it is not available at Tio Tek Hong, then do not try it elsewhere. You won't get it anywhere."

Today, the building that used to house this pioneering department store has become a local historic landmark in modern-day Jakarta.

While his core business was initially sport and hunting equipment, in 1903 Tio became the sole agent in Batavia for the newly established German record label company Odeon Records. A year later, in 1904, Tio started to release records under his own name, Tio Tek Hong Record, as a subsidiary of Odean–the first to do so in Indonesia. From 1902 until 1904, Tio acted as a commissioner on the governing board of the influential, Confucian renewal and educational organisation Tiong Hoa Hwee Koan, which operated under the patronage of Tio's cousin, Majoor Tio Tek Ho. A keen hunter, Tio was also a founding board member and honorary secretary and treasurer of the Nederlandsch-Indisch Jagersgenootschap [Netherlands Indies Hunting Association], which was established on June 21, 1931.

In 1959, Tio Tek Hong published his memoir, Kenang-kenangan: riwajat-hidup saja dan keadaan di Djakarta dari tahun 1882 sampai sekarang ['Recollections: My Life and Djakarta from 1882 until the Present'].