I was born into a Buddhist family in Bandung. My father was a martial art instructor of the Chinese Boys Brigade called Siong Tie Hwee in that city. My maternal grandfather gave me the name Lie Wie Liong (Mandarin: Li Wei Long), which means the Great Dragon, as opposed Bruce Lee, whose Chinese name is Lie Siao Liong (Li Xiao Long), meaning The Small Dragon, because both of us were born in the year of the Golden Dragon, 1940.
Later, my parents were converted into Christianity and I was given the Christian name of Samuel Lie, by Pastor Bletterman, a Dutch Pastor of the Protestant Church in Bandung.
A few years later my father got acquainted with a group of people from the Pinkster Zending Gemeente, or the Pentacostal Mission Church, now named Gereja Utusan Pantecosta.
In 1946 there was an uprising in Bandung, known as the Political Action of 1946 where the Indonesian youths of Bandung revolted and turn the city into a lake of fire. My dad was an employee of the NIMEF (Nederlandsch Indische Metal Fabrik), and so we were considered as traitors by the revolutionary people and our lives were in danger. My auntie who has married a Makassarese businessman and solicitor in that city helped us escape from the burning city of Bandung and we migrated to the city where they lived.
At that time Makassar was still under the Dutch control and was called the NIT, Negara Indonesia Timur, which is East Indonesian Republic, under its President, Mr. Sukawati.
This was later ended and turn into part of the Republic of Indonesia in 1949.
From 1946 to 1949 I studied in the Dutch Indonesian Chinese School and later when the Dutch language was prohibited, I moved to the Roman Catholic Primary School operated by the Jesuit Order of St. Francis Xavier. I studied for 9 years in that institution and continued for 1 year at the SMA Katolik Broederan, or the St. Aloysius Senior High School in Bandung. The following year I entered the SMA Advent, an Academy on the mountain slope of Tangkuban Prahu, near Lembang, a small town about 16km outside of Bandung.
There were a lot of American Missionaries as teachers of that institution and my English was improved greatly because they lived in the campus and as students we have very close interrelationships with them in our daily life. I had always loved studying languages.
When I was born, my mother and grandmother talked in Sundanese with me, which is one of the main dialects of Indonesia spoken by about 30 million people who live in the western part of Indonesia called Parahyangan or Priangan. According to history the Sundanese are descendants of a mix marriage between the Javanese and Chinese during the time of the ancient kingdom of Parahyangan.
My father who wanted me to be fluent in the official language which was Dutch, always talked to me in that language. Later in 1942 when the Japanese occupied Indonesia, the factory where my father worked was taken over by the Japs and we were forced to learn the Japanese language. So by the time I was 5 years old, I could speak quite fluently in Sundanese, Dutch and Japanese.
When we moved to Makassar where I had my first education, everybody either spoke Makassarese or Dutch. But in 1949 Dutch language was prohibited by the Government of Indonesia and so I started to learn the national language, which is Indonesian, followed by Manadonese and English as I started to enter the Secondary School or year 7.
Makassar was very clean and beautiful at that time and the streets are safe for us to ride bicycles, because the transportation in the city was either done on bicycles or becaks, or trishaws called by the local "tigaroda" or "talluroda". We travelled everywhere in the city without fear of being knocked down by a car, because there were very few cars during those days.
Our secondary school is called SMP Frater, which is a boys junior high school, and that was the top school of Makassar where the students were children of prominent people in the government and among business people. We used to play volleyball at the backyard of one of our school mates, and after that riding bicycles from one end of the city to the other or around the perimeter of the city and acted as if we are really kings of the road.
Well that is Makassar in its golden days which will never return. I pity the people who live there now. It is so crowded and stressful to drive in the city and life is just not the same as before, although it look much more modern and expanded.
Later, my parents were converted into Christianity and I was given the Christian name of Samuel Lie, by Pastor Bletterman, a Dutch Pastor of the Protestant Church in Bandung.
A few years later my father got acquainted with a group of people from the Pinkster Zending Gemeente, or the Pentacostal Mission Church, now named Gereja Utusan Pantecosta.
In 1946 there was an uprising in Bandung, known as the Political Action of 1946 where the Indonesian youths of Bandung revolted and turn the city into a lake of fire. My dad was an employee of the NIMEF (Nederlandsch Indische Metal Fabrik), and so we were considered as traitors by the revolutionary people and our lives were in danger. My auntie who has married a Makassarese businessman and solicitor in that city helped us escape from the burning city of Bandung and we migrated to the city where they lived.
At that time Makassar was still under the Dutch control and was called the NIT, Negara Indonesia Timur, which is East Indonesian Republic, under its President, Mr. Sukawati.
This was later ended and turn into part of the Republic of Indonesia in 1949.
From 1946 to 1949 I studied in the Dutch Indonesian Chinese School and later when the Dutch language was prohibited, I moved to the Roman Catholic Primary School operated by the Jesuit Order of St. Francis Xavier. I studied for 9 years in that institution and continued for 1 year at the SMA Katolik Broederan, or the St. Aloysius Senior High School in Bandung. The following year I entered the SMA Advent, an Academy on the mountain slope of Tangkuban Prahu, near Lembang, a small town about 16km outside of Bandung.
There were a lot of American Missionaries as teachers of that institution and my English was improved greatly because they lived in the campus and as students we have very close interrelationships with them in our daily life. I had always loved studying languages.
When I was born, my mother and grandmother talked in Sundanese with me, which is one of the main dialects of Indonesia spoken by about 30 million people who live in the western part of Indonesia called Parahyangan or Priangan. According to history the Sundanese are descendants of a mix marriage between the Javanese and Chinese during the time of the ancient kingdom of Parahyangan.
My father who wanted me to be fluent in the official language which was Dutch, always talked to me in that language. Later in 1942 when the Japanese occupied Indonesia, the factory where my father worked was taken over by the Japs and we were forced to learn the Japanese language. So by the time I was 5 years old, I could speak quite fluently in Sundanese, Dutch and Japanese.
When we moved to Makassar where I had my first education, everybody either spoke Makassarese or Dutch. But in 1949 Dutch language was prohibited by the Government of Indonesia and so I started to learn the national language, which is Indonesian, followed by Manadonese and English as I started to enter the Secondary School or year 7.
Makassar was very clean and beautiful at that time and the streets are safe for us to ride bicycles, because the transportation in the city was either done on bicycles or becaks, or trishaws called by the local "tigaroda" or "talluroda". We travelled everywhere in the city without fear of being knocked down by a car, because there were very few cars during those days.
Our secondary school is called SMP Frater, which is a boys junior high school, and that was the top school of Makassar where the students were children of prominent people in the government and among business people. We used to play volleyball at the backyard of one of our school mates, and after that riding bicycles from one end of the city to the other or around the perimeter of the city and acted as if we are really kings of the road.
Well that is Makassar in its golden days which will never return. I pity the people who live there now. It is so crowded and stressful to drive in the city and life is just not the same as before, although it look much more modern and expanded.
