John Huang, possible doyen of the Netherlands, celebrated his 111th birthday

John Huang photographed on his 111th birthday, 1 February 2025.

The Gerontology Research Group is pleased to announce news that Mr. John Huang, possibly the oldest living man and person in the Netherlands, celebrated his claimed 111th birthday in Hilversum, North Holland, on 1 February 2025.

John Huang was born in Southern Vietnam, French Indochina (present-day Vietnam) on 1 February 1914. He completed his education in Southern Vietnam where he grew up with his older siblings. In 1931, at the age of 17, together with his family, he left Vietnam and moved to the Netherlands (first to Suriname), where they set up an antique shop a few years later.

In the 1940s, he married a Dutch woman, and the couple had several children. Huang initially worked as a factory worker before being deployed as a soldier on the Western Front during World War II. A few months after the war, he returned to Hilversum and worked as a professional businessman. In the early 1970s, he continued to operate the family antique shop after his parents died. He retired at the end of the 1970s. His wife died in 2021 at the age of 93.

On 3 May 2020, following the death of 109-year-old Eelke Bakker, Huang became the oldest known living man in the Netherlands.

On 1 February 2024, he celebrated his 110th birthday, becoming a supercentenarian. At the age of 110, he could still read newspapers with the help of a magnifying glass and watch TV.

On 11 March 2024, following the death of 111-year-old Marina van der Es-Siewers, Huang became the oldest known living person in the Netherlands.

However, his age has not been verified by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG), meaning the title of the country’s oldest validated living person currently belongs to Jan van Ierland, who was born on 5 May 1914, and lives in Bloemendaal.

Hoera! Oudste Nederlander (111) jarig: ‘Ik voel me goed!’ (NOS Jeugdjournaal, 1 February 2025)