Historical trajectories and lost heritage of early Chinese schools in Singapore – case study of Yeung Ching School in ‘Chinatown’

ABSTRACT

The history of modern Chinese schools in Singapore may be traced back to the early 20th century, when efforts to provide vernacular education in the British colony were made by community leaders across Chinese dialect groups, with support of the Qing Empire. Only a handful of these were selected as elite schools for bilingual education under the Special Assistance Plan (SAP) introduced in 1979 in independent Singapore. This paper examines the historical trajectories of these early schools from early association with Chinese nationalism to becoming multi-ethnic schools or simply defunct. It will focus on the case of the former Yeung Ching School in ‘Chinatown’ catering to the Cantonese community, to explore how the legacy of a Chinese school may be impacted by state formation and urban development since the 1950s, and also to point out a gap in current heritagisation pertaining to the role of education in shaping cultural identities.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese vernacular schools
• dialect groups
• Singapore’s state formation
• heritagisation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Purushotam, Negotiating Language, Constructing Race: disciplining difference in Singapore, cited in Chua, ‘Taking Group Rights Seriously: Multiculturalism in Singapore,’ 4.

2. See Brown, The State and Ethnic Politics in Southeast Asia, 67, where corporatism is defined as ‘attempts by an avowedly autonomous state elite to organise the diverse interest associations in society so that their interests can be accommodated within the interdependent and organic national community’. Also see Lian, ‘Multiculturalism in Singapore: Concept and Practice’. The ‘Asian values’ discourse in Singapore, along with a communitarian view of everybody knowing his or her place in a social hierarchy, has its source mainly in Confucianism in terms of the relationship between rulers and subjects likened to that between fathers and sons, with emphasis on education, personal virtue, and obedience to authority. See Barr, ‘Lee Kuan Yew and the “Asian Values” Debate,’ 311.

3. See speech by Lee, dated 17 March 2009. In reaction to a Straits Times article by Jalelah Abu Baker on 8 March 2009, discussing how Singaporeans used to be more multilingual 40 years before, citing a two-day Language and Diversity Symposium at the Nanyang Technological University, Chee Hong Tat wrote an article as Principal Private Secretary to the Minister Mentor saying it would be ‘stupid’ for any Singapore agency to advocate the learning of dialects. A research by Dr Leher Singh at the Infant and Child Language Centre, National University of Singapore has since been reported as suggesting that bilingual infants are able to learn a third language more easily), but there was no discussion of Chinese dialects in the newspaper report. See Boh, ‘Bilingual kids can pick up third language “more easily”: Study.’

4. The state ideology of pragmatism, with constant economic growth as the singular criterion for government initiatives, has influenced the bilingualism policy in Singapore. See Wee, “Language Politics and Global City,” 27; also see Chua, Communitarian Ideology and Democracy in Singapore, 68–69.

5. Singapore as an independent republic had long emphasised the importance of learning English for its utilitarian value in employment and access to science and technology of the West, while associating the significance of Mandarin with a purely cultural domain, though the late 1980s brought about a new argument that Mandarin could have economic value as well. See Gopinathan, Education and the Nation State, 72. Also see Borthwick, “Chinese Education and Identity in Singapore,” 36-37.

6. Department of Statistics, 2013 and 2015.

7. Kwok and Chia, “Memories at the Margins: Chinese-Educated Intellectuals in Singapore,” 231–34.

8. Lee, Chinese Schools in Peninsular Malaysia, 9.

9. Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, Lawrence Wong, said in answer to a parliamentary enquiry in January 2014 that Chinese dialects continued to be used in informal communications, in traditional arts and cultural forms such as getai performances (popular music shows during Chinese religious festivals) and Chinese opera, while clan associations also organised dialect classes for children and Singaporeans of all ages. See Johnson, ‘In Singapore, Chinese Dialects Revive After Decades of Restrictions,’ on the significance of dialect use revived in television and film, after decades of restriction making it difficult for grandchildren to connect with their grandparents.

10. Article 2 of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.

11. An article by a Yale-NUS student Tee Zhuo, ‘The Special Assistance Plan: Singapore’s own bumiputera policy,’ has argued that SAP schools are a form of segregation and elitism. Subsequently, the continuing relevance of SAP schools in Singapore was debated in a three-part exchange of letters between reporter Yuen Sin from The Straits Times and reporter Ng Wai Mun from Lianhe Zaobao. Yuen, ‘Being Chinese in multiracial Singapore,’ raised concern over a possible tendency among some Singaporeans in dismissing past sacrifices made by the Chinese-educated in accepting English as the working language in Singapore. Referring to the term ‘Chinese privilege’ as coined and popularised by an independent writer-activist Sangeetha Thanapal in the last three or four years, she argued that such a perspective in reference to the experience in Chinese education would be too sweeping, missing out on the sense of trauma experienced by an older generation of the Chinese-educated with closure of vernacular schools and the Chinese-medium Nanyang University.

12. Wang, China and the Chinese Oversea, 274–75.

13. Ibid., 277.

14. Rudolph, Reconstructing Identities: A Social History of the Babas in Singapore, 42–44.

15. Ibid., 65.

16. Clammer, Straits Chinese Society: Studies in the Sociology of the Baba Communities of Malaysia and Singapore, 84, 126.

17. Chia, The Babas, 73.

18. Graham and Howard, “Introduction: Heritage and Identity,” 6–7.

19. Kong and Yeoh, “Urban Conservation in Singapore.”

20. Yeoh and Kong, “Singapore’s Chinatown: Nation Building,” 147.

21. Zaccheus, “Singapore Seeks to Select Intangible Heritage Item for Unesco List.”

22. Mathews et al, CNA-IPS Survey on Identity Identity in Singapore, 66–67.

23. Kuper, Anthropologists and Anthropology: The British School, 1922-1927, 14.

24. Clammer, Straits Chinese Society: Studies in the Sociology of the Baba Communities of Malaysia and Singapore, 9–10. Lim Boon Keng was incidentally a co-founder of Singapore Chinese Girls’ School catering to Straits Chinese girls as established in 1899, providing lessons in English, Chinese and Malay, which preceded by half a decade the modern Chinese schools for boys of various Chinese dialect communities in Singapore; later he would also serve as president of Amoy University in China between 1921 and 1937.

25. Rudolph, Reconstructing Identities: A Social History of the Babas in Singapore 174.-176.

26. Barr and Skrbis, Constructing Singapore: Elitism, Ethnicity and the Nation-Building Project, 5.

27. Yen, Haiwai Huaren de Chuantong yu Xiandaihua, 98–99.

28. Ibid., 93.

29. Tao Nan, Tao Nan School 60th Anniversary Souvenir 1906-1966, 25.

30. Yow, Yimin Guiji he Lisan Lunshu, 81.

31. Business Times, 24 November 1984.

32. Ho, Yangzheng Xuexiao Xiaoyou Lixiao ji Biye 60 nian Lianhuan Juhui, 17.

33. Liu, Zhanhou Xinjiapo Huaren Shehui de Shanbian, 128–30.

34. Pan, Xiaoshi de Huaxiao, 14.

35. Wong, Hegemonies Compared: State Formation and Chinese School Politics in Postwar Singapore and Hong Kong, 129ff.

36. UNESCO, “Singapore Botanic Gardens.”

37. Ashworth et al., Pluralising Pasts: Heritage, Identity and Place in Multicultural Societies, 155.

38. STB, “Chinatown: A Story of Chinese Heritage.”

39. Pan, Xiaoshi de Huaxiao, 9

40. People’s Daily Overseas Version, 12 June 2007.

41. A Straits Settlement Annual Education Report in 1884 indicated that Singapore had 51 private Chinese writing schools, whereas Penang had 52 and Melaka 12. See Tay, Malayxiya Huawen Jiaoyu Fazhanshi, 30.

42. The site of Wu Fu Shu Yuan in Lebuh Chulia, located in the buffer zone of George Town world heritage site, dates back to 1898 (the building has a 1901 stone tablet documenting a renovation back then) but it still boasts of overall integrity of the building structure, with intricate roof decoration as well as calligraphic inscriptions in the facade and the main hall intact. In July 2017, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced the allocation of 200,000 Malaysian ringgit to help restore the building which was plagued by leaking, termites and other structural issues. See Kwong Wah Jit Poh, Lin Guanying Bo 20 Wan Weixiu Wufu Shuyuan.

43. Tan, “Former St Joseph’s Institution (Singapore Art Museum).”

44. The Hindu, “Glimpses into Peranakan Chinese Culture.”

45. Lim, Tusheng Huaren he Haixia Huaren de Wenhua yu Shenfen Rentong.

46. Other names included He Leru, Zhao Peitang Zhu Zipei and Lu Yinjie. See Yeung Ching, Yangzheng Xuexiao Jinxi Jinian Kan.

47. Yeung Ching, Xinjiapo Yangzheng Xuexiao Gaikuang.

48. Yeung Ching, Yangzheng Xuexiao Jinxi Jinian Kan, 30.

49. Yeung Ching, Xinjiapo Yangzheng Xuexiao Yexuebu Di Si Jie Biye Tekan,1.

50. Ibid.

51. Ho, Qian Yangzheng Jishi 1905-1987, 254.

52. Ibid.

53. Pan, Yangzheng jiujzhi bainian shijie huo baoliu.

54. Ho, Yangzheng Xuexiao Xiaoyou Lixiao ji Biye 60 nian Lianhuan Juhui, 5.

55. Yangzheng Primary website.

56. Wong, Wenhua Yichan Baohu de Duihua Pingtai.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Heritage Board, Singapore [Grant number 92.90].

Notes on contributors

Jingyi Qu

Jingyi Qu is currently Assistant Professor of Chinese at School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University, and Faculty Advisory Committee Member of Chinese Heritage Centre, Singapore. He holds a PhD from Peking University. He has also been an Honorary Fellow at University of Wisconsin-Madison, Fulbright Researcher at Harvard University, and Visiting Scholar at SOAS University of London. He procured a Heritage Research Grant in 2016 from the National Heritage Board in Singapore, which made this research project on heritage values of Chinese schools in Singapore possible.

Chee Meng Wong

Chee Meng Wong obtained his BA in Chinese studies from the National University of Singapore, followed by MA and PhD in heritage studies from the Brandenburg Technological University Cottbus, Germany. He is invited visiting researcher at Centre for Chinese Language and Culture, Nanyang Technological University as part of a research project on heritage values of Chinese schools in Singapore, funded by the National Heritage Board, Singapore.