GOOGLE his name and the first entry leads to a collection of trivia naming him the longest serving editor-in-chief in the world. Unofficially, at least.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Sir Etienne Dupuch holds the “world’s longest editorship” at 72 years — he was editor-in-chief of the Nassau Daily Tribune in the Bahamas from 1919 t0 1972, and then as contributing editor until his death in 1991.
Sy Yinchow, meanwhile, stakes his claim as the world’s longest-serving editor-in-chief, since technically, Dupuch held that title for only 53 years.
Yinchow (also known by his pen name Chua Kee) first became editor-in-chief of the Manila New Day, an underground newspaper he founded in 1945 at the height of the Japanese occupation.
Since then, he’s been editor-in-chief for at least three newspapers — until today he’s the chief editor for United Daily News, a broadsheet catering to the local Chinese community.
Born in China’s Fujian province, his family migrated to the Philippines when he was three years old.
Until now, he’s been living in the same house in Binondo with his wife Jade, whom he affectionately refers to as a former beauty queen and the first acknowledged “model mother” within the Chinese community.
A place in the world record books would be just icing on the cake, though. Yinchow has published several books, translating Chinese poems from — as far back as the Tang and Sung dynasties — into English.
The 90-year old Yinchow was born in 1919, according to him during the height of the renaissance in Chinese literature.
Journalism is his career but he considers literature his passion. So he takes pride in numerous accolades given to him for his precise “word-for-word, rhyme-by-rhyme, meter-by-meter” translations.
During my conversation with him, I was quite amazed at how he was able to remember all the highlights of his career, realizing I am talking to someone more than nine decades old already.
So what’s his secret? For starters, running as a sport and eating shrimps and walnuts.
