This edited volume examines the historical development of Chinese-medium schools from the British colonial era to recent decades of divergent development after the 1965 separation of Singapore and Malaysia. Educational institutions have been a crucial state apparatus in shaping the cultural identity and ideology of ethnic Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia. This volume applies various perspectives from education theory to heritage studies in dealing with the cultural legacy and memory of such schools as situated in larger contexts of society.
The book offers comprehensive practice-based analysis and reflection about the complex relationships between language acquisition, identity construction, and state formation from socio-political-cultural perspectives. It covers a broad range of aspects from identities of culture, gender, and religion, to the roles played by the state and the community in various aspects of education such as textbooks, cultural activities, and adult education, as well as the representation of culture in Chinese schools through cultural memory and literature.
The readership includes academics, students and members of the public interested in the history and society of the Chinese diaspora, especially in South East Asia. This also appeals to scholars interested in a bilingual or multilingual outlook in education as well as diasporic studies.
About the Author: Cheun Hoe Yow is associate professor at Nanyang Technological University, where he is head of the Division of Chinese, director of the Chinese Heritage Centre, and director of the Centre for Chinese Language and Culture. He is a chief editor for Huaren Yanjiu Guoji Xuebao (International Journal of Diasporic Chinese Studies). His academic interests and areas include Chinese migrants and diaspora, qiaoxiang (overseas Chinese homelands) ties, and diasporic Chinese literature. He was a Fulbright scholar, visiting the Centre for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California San Diego, in 2013, and visiting professor at the School of Humanities, Tongji University, March 2019-February 2022. His recent books are Yimin guiji he lisan lunshu: Xin Ma huaren zuqun de chongceng mailuo (Migration Trajectories and Diasporic Discourses: Multiples Contexts of Ethnic Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia); Guangdong and Chinese Diaspora: The Changing Landscape of Qiaoxiang; Antara China dengan Tanah Tempatan Ini: Satu Kajian Pemikiran Dwipusat Penulis Cina 1919-1957 (Between China and This Local Land: A Study of Dual-Centred Mentality of Chinese Writers in Malaya, 1919-1957). His articles appear in important journals such as Journal of Contemporary China, Modern Asian Studies, Asian Ethnicity, Cross-Cultural Studies, Changjiang Xueshu, and Waiguo Wenxue Yanjiu. He is a member of the International Society of the Study of Chinese Overseas, the Tan Kah Kee International Society, and the Tan Kah Kee Foundation. He is president of the Singapore Society of Asian Studies.
Jingyi Qu, naturalised Singaporean, holds his Ph.D. from Peking University joint with University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is an associate professor of Chinese at the School of Humanities and international advisory committee member of Chinese Heritage Centre at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also visiting professor at Tongji University (Shanghai, 2019-2022). He was visiting scholar at SOAS University of London (2017), Fulbright Researcher at Harvard University (2016), and an honorary fellow at University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008-2009). He was recipient of the Nanyang Education Award (2014). His research interests include traditional Chinese literature and history, and cultural heritage of Chinese education in Singapore. He has edited six volumes and authored five academic books as well as more than 70 articles in Chinese and English in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Spain, Malaysia, and Singapore. He procured a Heritage Research Grant in 2016 and a Heritage Participant Grant in 2019 from the National Heritage Board in Singapore, which made this book project on the cultural legacy of Chinese schools possible.
