The Remains of a Bygone Era
The roots of Chairils poetry can be traced back to Medan, North Sumatra. Most of that history has been lost.
August 16, 2016
ON an empty piece of land surrounded by rusty corrugated aluminum sheeting on Jalan Cut Mutia once stood Medans Public Junior High School No. 1. Long ago, when the street was still known as Jan-Lichthart-Straat in the colonial language, the building served as Meer Uitgebreid Lager Onderwijs (MULO), a junior-high school.
Literary luminaries such as Sutan Sjahrir, Amir Hamzah and Chairil Anwar once studied there. Sjahrir and Amir graduated earlier,
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