It looks like the Khong Guan father is quite the workaholic — he is finally sitting at the table with his family only because he had to work from home.
Khong Guan biscuits have been a staple snack for decades in Indonesia. Its tin packaging features an iconic image of a mother sitting at the table enjoying the cookies with her two children, with the notable absence of the father remaining a mystery all these years.
The enigma has been a source of endless debate and countless memes, but a new take from Indonesian newspaper Media Indonesia is both hilarious and serves as a PSA for people to work from home amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cover Harian Umum Media Indonesia edisi hari ini, Senin (16/3/2020), mengajak seluruh masyarakat untuk tetap Produktif dari Rumah. #mediaindonesia #jujurbersuara pic.twitter.com/xJt9IY0VYf
— Media Indonesia (@mediaindonesia) March 16, 2020
“The cover for today’s edition of Media Indonesia newspaper, Monday (March 16, 2020), urges all people to remain ‘Productive from Home,’” the newspaper wrote in a tweet.
The illustration accompanied the headline, Productive from Home, echoing President Joko Widodo’s statement from his national address on Sunday — in which he urged citizens to work, study, and pray at home to reduce the number of people out in public areas, as part of an effort to contain further spread of COVID-19.
The illustration quickly went viral, with many netizens applauding Media Indonesia for its creativity in highlighting the importance of staying at home as a preventative measure against the pandemic.
https://twitter.com/kanashiimajo/status/1239401494559981568
Media Indonesia today is so creative, after not going home in the long time, the father finally [returned to] work from home
https://twitter.com/raviopatra/status/1239481077602762753
Media Indonesia reported that the father of the Khong Guan family is finally home due to the work from home policy
The Khong Guan image has also been parodied by the National Public Procurement Agency (LKPP), which shows that the father was actually missing because he briefly went away to wash his hands before enjoying the meal with his family.
Menghadapi virus corona?
Tidak perlu khawatir Sob… Ikuti kata Mimin, lakukan langkah-langkah berikut ini yaah! Cukup sederhana dan mudah untuk dilakukan.#LKPP#CegahVirusCorona pic.twitter.com/c2X5Gjk2Zt
— L K P P (@LKPP_RI) March 6, 2020
The original image was illustrated by Bernardus Prasodjo, who once attended the arts and design program at Bandung Institute of Technology in the late ‘70s. He reworked an illustration from a newspaper advertisement, given by the Khong Guan, and painted the image using watercolor paints.
In an interview with Vice published in 2016, Bernardus said the father isn’t visible in the image because he was the one who took the picture of the family, although he said that the company “might have had their own reasons” for not including him in it.
Indonesia has seen a huge surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past week, with 17 new cases confirmed in the latest official update by the Health Ministry yesterday, bringing the total number of domestic infections to 134. Of those, eight people have recovered while five have died.
