Chapter 41 Section 2 Overseas Chinese Schools Spread All Over

Respecting teachers and teaching is a fine tradition of the Chinese people.However, the economic conditions of the early Chinese immigrants were extremely poor, the majority were illiterate, and there were many bachelors, so it was impossible to discuss the issue of educating the next generation.With the increase of population and the development of society and economy, the problem of running schools has been brought up on the agenda, so overseas Chinese education has emerged. Around the end of the 18th century, private schools appeared in the overseas Chinese community. The "Mingcheng Academy" and "Nanjiang Academy" established in Batavia (now Jakarta) in 1775 are the earliest private schools and free schools in Southeast Asia. Some people think that they are the originator of overseas Chinese schools in Southeast Asia.By the beginning of the 19th century, the most famous private school was the "Cuiying Academy" opened in Singapore in 1854.In fact, these "academies" were small in scale, employing one or two old scholars to teach a few children to read the "Four Books" and "Five Classics", not a school in the strict sense.

It was not until the end of the 19th century that new-style overseas Chinese schools began to appear, and they flourished in the first half of the 20th century. The Philippines was the first to open a new type of overseas Chinese school in Southeast Asia. In 1899, the "Little Luzon Overseas Chinese Chinese and Western School" was established.However, the best development of overseas Chinese education in Southeast Asia is not in the Philippines, but in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. In 1901, in Indonesia, the newly established Bacheng Chinese Association established the "Bacheng Chinese Association School", which is a formal overseas Chinese school and teaches in Mandarin.Immediately afterwards, Chinese schools were established in other parts of Indonesia, and by 1911 there were 130 schools. In 1911, Indonesia established a unified leadership organization for overseas Chinese education - the Netherlands-India Overseas Chinese Academic Affairs Association.By 1940, there were about 650 overseas Chinese schools in Indonesia, spread all over urban and rural areas, not only primary schools, but also famous middle schools such as Bacheng Zhonghua Middle School, with more than 70,000 primary and middle school students.In Singapore and Malaysia, the Penang Chinese School was established in 1904, which marked the beginning of the new education in Malaya.Before and after the Revolution of 1911, a relatively independent and complete basic education system consisting of kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, girls’ schools, and teachers’ schools was basically formed in Singapore and Malaysia. In 1919, under the initiative of Tan Kah Kee, Singapore Nanyang Overseas Chinese High School was established, which was the first complete middle school founded by overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia.Then Confucian Secondary School (Kuala Lumpur), Chung Ling Secondary School (Penang Island), Chung Cheng High School (Singapore) and other secondary schools were established one after another. These schools are relatively large in scale and relatively well-equipped.By 1941, there were more than 1,300 overseas Chinese schools in Singapore and Malaysia, with about 100,000 students, making it the most developed area for overseas Chinese education in Southeast Asia.

When the Pacific War broke out in December 1941, all parts of Southeast Asia became Japanese colonies one after another, and the education of overseas Chinese was severely damaged.After the end of the Second World War, the Overseas Chinese School recovered and developed on the ruins of the war. In Singapore and Malaysia, the Malayan Overseas Chinese School Restoration Committee was established in 1946, and three branches were established in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Penang to coordinate the affairs of overseas Chinese schools in Malaya.Old schools were reopened one after another, and new schools were established one after another.The British colonial government adopted a policy of controlling and stifling the flourishing overseas Chinese education after the war, and even dispatched armed military and police to persecute the teachers and students of Chinese schools.In spite of the harsh political environment, overseas Chinese education in Singapore and Malaysia has achieved gratifying development. In 1949, there were 1,680 overseas Chinese schools, an increase of more than 900 compared with 1938. In 1956, Singapore also established a formal Chinese comprehensive university - Nanyang University.In Indonesia, taking Jakarta as an example, overseas Chinese schools are also recovering and developing rapidly.Old schools such as Zhonghua Middle School built large-scale new school buildings, and some new schools were opened, the most famous being Bacheng Middle School established in 1945, which later developed into one of the most influential overseas Chinese schools in Southeast Asia. In 1948, the total number of Chinese schools in Indonesia was 621, with more than 140,000 students, an increase of 24% from the total number of schools in 1941, and the number of students more than doubled.In the Philippines, due to the restoration of old schools and the opening of new schools, there were as many as 150 overseas Chinese schools after the war. In 1948, there were 426 overseas Chinese schools registered in Thailand, with more than 60,000 students, which was the year with the largest number of schools in the history of overseas Chinese education in Thailand.By 1954, there were a total of 4,376 overseas Chinese schools (including Hong Kong and Macao), most of which were concentrated in Southeast Asia.The new overseas Chinese education that emerged from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century has reached a considerable scale after half a century of development.Overseas Chinese schools instill Chinese national consciousness in overseas Chinese teenagers, disseminate traditional Chinese culture, popularize cultural and scientific knowledge, and strengthen the unity of overseas Chinese with the motherland and the overseas Chinese themselves. Its role is positive.