Tjalie Robinson is the main alias of the Indo (Eurasian) intellectual and writer Jan Boon (10 January 1911 – 22 April 1974) also known as Vincent Mahieu. His father Cornelis Boon, a Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) sergeant, was Dutch and his Indo-European mother Fela Robinson was part Scottish and Javanese.
He is considered to be the author of unique Indo literature. Tjalie Robinson became the most influential post war Indo activist of his generation and the most important promoter of Indo culture anywhere. In his essay "Sweet Java, about Tjalie Robinson." Rudy Kousbroek, one of the Netherlands foremost essayists, simply called him "one of the greatest Dutch writers".Kousbroek, Rudy Lief Java, over Tjalie Robinson. (Part II, 1988) available in his compiled work: Kousbroek, Rudy Het Oostindisch kampsyndroom. (Publisher: Olympus, 2005) P.130
His aim as cultural guardian was to preserve Indo culture for the future or as he put it himself: "To create living monuments for an immortal past.".
In his most vivid description of the Eurasian nature of his Indo identity Tjalie Robinsion wrote: "I did not care that people wanted to call me ‘neither fish nor fowl,’ and wanted to label me (an Indo), either Indonesian or Dutch. For them I just had to choose between the two, right? Nevertheless, I stubbornly named the turtle as ‘neither fish nor fowl,’ and praised this animal as a unique, land-and-sea-lover who lives to very old ages, whose meat has an excellent taste, and who cuts through oceans from continent to continent. I said, "Just as I do not find the turtle inferior, although he is neither fish nor fowl, I do not think the Indo inferior."
Tjalie Robinson's book 'Tjies' was awarded a literary prize by the municipality of Amsterdam in 1958.
Robinson is the best read Dutch author in Indonesia.Nieuwenhuys, Rob. ‘Oost-Indische spiegel. Wat Nederlandse schrijvers en dichters over Indonesië hebben geschreven vanaf de eerste jaren der Compagnie tot op heden.’, (Publisher: Querido, Amsterdam, 1978) p.555
Life in the Dutch East Indies Born in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, he spent the first 44 years of his life in the Dutch East Indies. When he was a 3-month-old baby his family returned to the Dutch East Indies. As a child he lived and went to primary school in Meester Cornelis (now Jatinegara). He attended secondary school (MULO) in Batavia (now Jakarta). Although an eager and astute student, he was also an avid and all-round athlete and boxer, winning the Silver medal at the high jump and the Gold medal at the pentathlon during the Athletics Championships of Java in 1933. After completing college and obligatory military serviceIn 1933 Jan Boon served as conscript mariner with the Dutch Royal Navy on the military cruiser HNLMS Java. he married18 December 1934 Jan Boon married his first wife, the Indo-European teacher Edith de Bruijn in the Rehoboth church in Batavia. and went on to become a teacher at the so-called 'Wild (unsubsidised) Schools' on Java and Sumatra. In 1936 he became a contributing editor for the 'Batavian Newspaper' (Dutch: Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad), founded in 1885 by author P.A. Daum. It was one of the leading newspapers in the Dutch East Indies which also employed other important Indo writers like Karel Zaalberg, Ernest Douwes Dekker and Victor Ido.Note: During his period with the Batavian Newspaper he used the alias 'Jan van Nimwegen'. See: Iburg, Nora “Van Pasar Malam tot I Love Indo, identiteitsconstructie en manifestatie door drie generaties Indische Nederlanders.” (Master thesis, Arnhem University, 2009, Ellessy Publishers, 2010) p.83 .
During World War II (1942–1945) Robinson was interned in various Japanese concentration camps such as Tjimahi and the infamous Changi Prison, where he continued writing. He was part of a small group of intellectuals (including Leo Vroman and Rob Nieuwenhuys) that engaged in cultural activity.This group consisted of Reverend Selms, Rob Nieuwenhuys (author), Bernard van Tijn, Kurt Binners (politician), Henk Vis (painter) and Leo Vroman (poet). See: Buikema, Rosemarie and Meijer, Maaike (red.), Cultuur en migratie in Nederland. Kunsten in beweging 1900–1980 (Publisher: Sdu Uitgevers, The Hague, 2003) See DBNL: For a while Robinson was even able to print a camp periodical named 'Kampkroniek' (Camp Chronicles) and a pamphlet named 'Onschendbaar Domein' (Inviolable Domain). The gruesome war experience influenced his life philosophy; nevertheless Robinson never wrote much about his years as a POW. On occasions he tried to reflect with an uneasy mix of shame and fascination: "Sometimes I reluctantly look back at that time I am supposed to hate. (60 years and 60 thousand emotions packed into 1 night.) Surrounded by life-threatening situations and you know you're alone against Fate. Fight, Johny Brown, fight. Ulcers, malaria, diphtheria, bullits and landmines. [...] Knowing physical exhaustion, the stench of swamps, the rattling of snakes, anachoic hunting grounds."Willems, Wim Tjalie Robinson; Biografie van een Indo-schrijver (Publisher: Bert Bakker, 2008) P.168-169
After the war he survived the bedlam of the Bersiap period (1945–1946) and even worked as editor in chief for the magazine Wapenbroeders (Brothers in Arms), where he was also the creator of the popular 'Taaie & Neut' cartoon series. Online information page about Tjalie Robinson as cartoonist. In 1946 he was promoted to captain and served as war correspondent for the KNIL's Public Relations Office (Dutch: Leger voorlichtings dienst) in amongst others the volatile region of Kediri, East Java.Willems, Wim Tjalie Robinson; Biografie van een Indo-schrijver (Publisher: Bert Bakker, 2008) P.178
After Indonesia gained independence, he remarried in 1950 and moved to Borneo with his new wife, who was working for the Bruynzeel corporation in the timber industry. There he adopted the alias 'Vincent Mahieu' (named after Indo icon Auguste Mahieu (1865–1903), founder of the Komedie Stamboel Indo operaCohen, Matthew, Isaac "The Komedie Stamboel: popular theater in colonial Indonesia, 1891-1903." (Publisher: Ohio University Press, 2006) P.21 and P.358 See: ) and wrote much of his work for the books 'Tjies' & 'Tjoek'.Note: According to Beekman first published in 1953 and 1954. Beekman, E.M. Paradijzen van weleer. Koloniale literatuur uit Nederlands-Indië, 1600-1950 (translation: Maarten van der Marel en René Wezel), (Publisher: Prometheus, Amsterdam, 1998) See DBNL:
His wife Lillian Ducelle recalled:Kousbroek, Rudy Het Oostindisch kampsyndroom. (Publisher: Olympus, 2005) P.140 ... he was home writing. We lived outside of the city along a river. Rats as big as cats ran through our little house. Sometimes we had no water or electricity - but he had the time of his life. In our time there he wrote most of his 'Vincent Mahieu' oeuvre. Typewriter on a wooden case turned over, he just kept on typing. He said: "This is where I live."
Scholar, translator and poet E.M. BeekmanShort online biography of E.M. Beekman describes the work as: "These stories show a refined talent, a powerful imagination, an inquisitive intellect and a whole lot of feeling."Beekman, E.M. Paradijzen van weleer. Koloniale literatuur uit Nederlands-Indië, 1600-1950 (translation from English to Duch: Maarten van der Marel en René Wezel), (Publisher: Prometheus, Amsterdam, 1998) See DBNL: Both books were translated into Indonesian in 1976 by H.B. Jassin. The latter book into German in 1993 by W.Hüsmert. The English translations by M. Alibasah were published in 1995.
From 1952 to 1954 he worked as journalist for the newspaper 'Nieuwsgier' where he was continuously reflecting on life in his ever-changing homeland and wrote most of his often re-printed work 'Piekerans van een straatslijper.' 'Piekerans' (Musings) is the Petjok word Tjalie Robinson used to name his weekly essays in the newspaper, which in essence do not significantly differ from the work of his famous Dutch contemporary in the Netherlands Simon Carmiggelt. Together their work grew into a separate genre in Dutch literature and found successors in among others Rudy Kousbroek.Buikema, Rosemarie and Meijer, Maaike (red.), Cultuur en migratie in Nederland. Kunsten in beweging 1900-1980 (Publisher: Sdu Uitgevers, The Hague, 2003) See DBNL: He also became contributing editor with the cultural and literary magazine 'Orientatie', which published many of his short stories. In his story writing he excelled as a literary interpreter of everyday life of Indos in the Dutch East Indies.
Life in the Netherlands In 1955 he left for the Netherlands and first lived in Amsterdam and later in The Hague, where he became a zealous activist for the preservation of Indo culture. Initially he wrote columns reflecting on repatriation in Dutch newspaper Het Parool, where he became a direct colleague of Simon Carmiggelt, and simultaneously kept catering for the Indos still in Indonesia by writing for Surabaya based 'De Vrije Pers' (The Free Press). He originally attempted to find connection with the cultural and literary establishment of the Netherlands, but unwilling to assimilate he wanted to establish his own cultural network of Indo authors and artists. To groom the 62-year-old Indo author Maria Dermoût who successfully debuted in 1955 he wrote her: "I am Mrs Dermoût, a barefoot child of the free seas and free mountains. Even when death would be my prediction, I will keep fighting an injustice that does not threaten me personally, but our cultural conscience (if there is such a thing)."
He soon started a short-lived magazine called Gerilja (Guerrilla), sub-titled 'Magazine for Self-preservation', after which he took over editorial responsibility of the monthly magazine De Brug (The Bridge) in 1957, which he wanted to transform into a weekly Indo magazine. This became the predecessor of his magazine ‘Tong Tong’, sub-titled 'The only Indo magazine in the Netherlands', established one year later (1958) and that lives on to this day under the name ‘Moesson’.Tjalie Robinsons 'Moesson' magazine The magazine's main target audience was the Indo community in diaspora. At its peak in 1961 the magazine had 11,000 paying subscribers and reached an estimated 77,000 readers, one third of the Indo community in the Netherlands.Willems, Wim "De uittocht uit Indie (1945–1995), De geschiedenis van Indische Nederlanders" (Publisher: Bert Bakker, Amsterdam, 2001) p.239 Another living monument of his achievements is the annual Pasar Malam Besar (renamed to 'Tong Tong Fair' in 2009) which he co-founded in 1959.Tjalie Robinsons 'Tong Tong Fair' aka ‘Pasar Malam Besar’
In a 1958 example how Tjalie Robinson used the Tong Tong Magazine to elucidate both his own Indo community and Dutch public opinion, his editorial reaction to a government study about the repatriation from Indonesia contradicts the widespread notion Indo culture was merely a thin facade laid over a Dutch foundation. Using the evidence of centuries old Portuguese family names many Indos carried and matriarchal kinship relations within Eurasian communities, he argued that in origin the Indos sprang from an ancient mestizo culture going back all the way to the beginning of the European involvement in Asia.Goss, Andrew From Tong-Tong to Tempo Doeloe: Eurasian Memory Work and the Bracketing of Dutch Colonial History, 1957-1961 (Publisher: University of New Orleans, New Orleans, 2000) P.26-27 Online History Faculty Publications UNO