Chinese Education Across the Empires: Knowledge, Politics, and Networks Between Batavia, Singapore and Nanjing

By Oiyan Liu

“I have observed that in the near future there will spring up one new independent
country, the Malay Peninsula, the Straits Settlements. The masters of this new political division will certainly be Chinese…Now is the time for you students to build up your
political ability, because the future masters of the Malay Peninsula are you students
of this College”.¹

This quote is extracted from Juin Li’s lecture entitled “Chinese Emigrants and their Political Ability” at Jinan College in Nanjing (China) on 8 February 1922. Jinan, established at the end of the year 1906, was the first institution of higher education that was especially opened for overseas Chinese. Functioning under the auspices of China’s central government, the school aimed at integrating with the Chinese from Southeast Asia and trained Nanyang Chinese to become agents for spreading China’s political influence overseas. This school, which was built after the educational movements in the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya had already started, first approached advocates of the educational movement in Java for institutional integration. Soon afterward Jinan also started to recruit students from British Malaya, particularly Singapore.

This essay seeks to understand how institutional circulations of people, thought and activities across Dutch-ruled Batavia (now Jakarta), British-ruled Singapore and China were related with one another. I analyse the circumstances under which these triangular relations intensified, and the conditions under which this integrating process weakened. More interestingly, I seek to understand how educational exchanges mutually shaped the political visions of diasporic Chinese. This essay concentrates on the case of Batavia and examines how the educational movement of the Dutch East Indies Chinese was connected to the educational movements in Singapore and China.

The Educational Movement In Batavia

“China is so much vaster and bigger than Japan! How great could we become if the
great China reorganises! We could become the most powerful nation in the world, but
first we need education to reach that goal”.²

This expression is quoted from the notes of Sandick, inspector at the Department of Domestic Governance of the Dutch colonial government, who examined essays that were written by students of the Tiong Hoa Hwee Koan School in Batavia. This source from 1909 reveals that, at the time, Indies Chinese students felt that they were part of China. They envisioned (by comparing themselves with Japan as inspiration) China becoming the most powerful entity in the world through education.

Chinese, Dutch and Malay documents state that modern Chinese education in Java started at the turn of the 20th century when Tiong Hoa Hwe Koan (中華會館hereafter THHK) was established in 1900. It was the first pan-Chinese association in the Indonesian archipelago and its school was named the “Tiong Hoa Hak Tong” (中華學堂 Zhonghua Xuetang). Founding members included Lee Hin Lin,³ Tan Kim Sun,⁴ Lie Kim Hok⁵ and Phao Keng Hek.⁶ The school was funded with an annual support of 3,000 guilders from the Chinese Council (Kong Koan), and aimed at providing free education for all children of Chinese descent. The funds for its establishment came from the sale of land owned by local Chinese. Kong Koan then used these funds to invest in charity issues.⁷

THHK was the first Chinese educational institution in Java that raised worries among the Dutch. The association played an important role in stimulating the educational concerns and political movement in Java.⁸ Even before the establishment of THHK in 1900, the Chinese in Java played a pioneering role in the educational development of overseas Chinese. It has been stated that the first school for the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia was established in Java, even before the opening of Singapore as a port city in 1819. Schools for overseas Chinese in Nanyang existed before China opened classes for the Nanyang Chinese community. It has been documented that the earliest school for huaqiao (overseas Chinese) in Nanyang was established in Java in 1729 when Yangjiyuan (養濟院) established a Chinese branch called Mingcheng Shuyuan (明誠書院).⁹ Schooling in this period, however, was considered as an activity for families of higher social and economic status, and had no political meaning. It was only at the turn of the 20th century that Chinese education in the Dutch East Indies became politicised. Education before 1900 was in the form of the traditional style, and was regarded as a social phenomenon as only the wealthier classes could afford sending their children to school.¹⁰

Promoters of the educational movement aimed at making education accessible to all children of Chinese descent. Educators designed a curriculum along “modern” lines which meant instruction in modern Chinese. While some studies claim that THHK’s educational programme was meant to reform outdated practices within the Chinese community,¹¹ I believe that the educational movement should be considered more as a public reaction of local Chinese towards anti-Chinese colonial policies at the time.¹² Over the course of the last decades of the 19th century, the Chinese lost their privileged status as commercial intermediaries with the government that had secured their economic position. Moreover, under the so-called Ethical Policy, the Dutch government provided privileges for indigenous inhabitants but excluded Chinese from using colonial benefits. The Dutch stripped away privileges for the Chinese. Under the new state policy, the Dutch provided education and subsidies for indigenous natives, but, with the exception of a few Indies peranakan Chinese, continued denying education for the Chinese. This led to criticism of the Dutch government for not providing similar educational opportunities for children of Chinese descent and propelled THHK to use its own funds through contributions from the local Chinese to make its political point for equal rights under the Dutch colonial administration.

In his pertinent essay “What is a Chinese Movement” written in 1911, Dutch lawyer Fromberg observed that there were desires for equal education and equal treatment among races, and equal law in Java. Some notable Chinese from western Java requested the Dutch colonial government to work on judicial matters. They hoped that the Chinese in the Netherlands East Indies would be considered as equals to Europeans and therefore wished not to be restricted by colonial policies that did not favour local Chinese.¹³ The Chinese movement, of which the educational movement was a part, emerged in a period when Indies Chinese were experiencing transformations in the colony. When the Dutch removed opium-farming, a credit system for agriculture emerged that caused competition among financial businesses. The Chinese were challenged with these new demands. Lack of experience, skill and education hindered the Chinese in successfully managing financial and commercial institutions by themselves. In this situation, the Chinese started to realise that education would teach them the appropriate skills to meet these demands.

Under these circumstances, education became the tool to address the unequal treatments, such as passenstelsel (a system that restricted the mobility of the Chinese), racial competition and other judicial treatments that did not benefit local Chinese communities.¹⁴ Indies Chinese took the case of Japan as an example to evaluate their own position. It was believed that, based on ethnic backgrounds, the Japanese in the Indies should belong to the racial category of “Foreign Orientals” (Vreemde Oosterlingen). However, in the late 1890s, the Japanese, as the only Asiatic people who were granted the same judicial status as Europeans, were incorporated in the category of “Europeans” in Dutch census. From the Dutch perspective, it could therefore be inferred that “colour” was not the most important parameter for defining “race”; it was the “civilised status” that formed the criterion for racial categorisation. Japan attained “equal status” with Western powers after having undergone educational modernisation during the Meiji Reformation. Moreover, starting from 1908, the Dutch allowed the presence of a Japanese consul in the Indies.

Looking at the Japanese who attained a status that was equal to Europeans, Indies Chinese believed that education would improve the political outlook for the Chinese in Java in the long run. Hence, even without the support of the Dutch government for education, the Chinese in Java took the initiative to establish their own schools that allowed all Chinese children of various classes to attend.

The Singapore Connection

The educational movement of the Chinese in Java emerged at the initiative of Indies Chinese, but the educational movements in Singapore and China had an impact in shaping the educational movement in Java. Enlightened Chinese outside Java had guided Indies Chinese, and showed that education and the press were effective tools to realise their political ambitions.¹⁵ Singapore, in particular, played an important role in framing THHK’s educational system in its initial stages. The Straits Chinese Magazine, a prominent Singaporean periodical delivered to Chinese communities in Nanyang, including Java, stated that its Straits Chinese representative visited schools in Java regularly and that Chinese in Java declared that “they derived the germ of their ideas on [education] from Singapore”.¹⁶

Among the connections outside Java, Lim Boon Keng, who started promoting modern Chinese education during the Confucian revival movement in the Straits Settlements at the end of the 19th century, played an important role in the initial stages of the educational movement in Java.¹⁷ In One Hundred Years of Chinese in Singapore, Song Ong Siang stated that Lim Boon Keng revived Confucianism in Malaya. He toured throughout Malaya promoting Confucianism and education through lectures between 1894 and 1911.¹⁸ When the THHK-school in Batavia was established, it received assistance from Lim Boon Keng in Singapore. A report shows that Lim Boon Keng had provided Louw Koei Hong, who was originally hired in Japan for a position in Singapore, to become the first principal of the Chinese school in the Netherlands Indies.¹⁹ Lim Boon Keng also appointed a teacher for THHK.²⁰

Lim Boon Keng and Song Ong Siang, as editors of The Straits Chinese Magazine, were clearly well connected with THHK. Even before the official opening of THHK, the magazine informed its readers that the school would be offering courses in Chinese and Dutch languages, Chinese manners and customs, mathematics, geography and other useful and practical subjects. For members of the THHK, the editors announced that competent teachers would give lectures on the doctrines and writings of Confucius.²¹ Staff of the magazine also received a pamphlet from THHK members in Batavia that was entitled “Soerat kiriman pada sekalian orang bangsa Tjina, terkirim oleh lid-lid-pengeroes dari pakompoelan Tiong Hoa Hwe Koan” (translated as: Letter sent to all Chinese, by members of the THHK).

In 1902, on the occasion of celebrating the anniversary of the THHK School, the magazine’s editorial staff acknowledged THHK’s contribution in awakening Indies Chinese awareness and praised the spirit of reform in the Dutch East Indies, which took place simultaneously with the reform movement in the Straits Settlements.²² Although not explicitly stated in published matters, connections between the pioneering leaders of the educational movements in the Straits Settlements and Dutch East Indies proved that both movements were connected. In the same year when The Straits Chinese Magazine (co-edited by Lim Boon Keng who led the movement in Singapore) congratulated THHK with its establishment, THHK extended its education in Batavia with the institutionalisation of an English school called Yale Institute. Yale Institute was founded by Lee Teng-Hwee but supervised by THHK.²³

Lee Teng-Hwee was an educator who tried to model education in Batavia according to his alma mater Yale University in the United States. Lee Teng-Hwee, a Batavia-born Chinese, had strong institutional connections with Singapore where he studied at the Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) headed by William Oldham in 1886. He taught at its ACS Penang branch as English director upon his return from Yale University. Together with Lim Boon Keng, Lee Teng-Hwee opened a private English school in Penang.²⁴ The Dutch colonial government was concerned that its subjects, through their connections with the Chinese in the Straits Settlements, would become more supportive of British rule. The Dutch felt particularly threatened by the influence of THHK in fostering the idea that Dutch rule was less favourable than its imperial competitor. THHK’s curriculum was similar to that in schools in the Straits Settlements, and its schools taught children to read and write Chinese. It also taught “modern” subjects such as mathematics, singing, gymnastics, physics and (when funding permitted) English.²⁵ Initially, THHK wanted students to learn Dutch, but it soon proved to be impossible.²⁶ Hiring Dutch instructors was too expensive, and the Dutch government did not allow Chinese to learn and speak Dutch because in the Indies, the Dutch language was synonymous with the language of the rulers and positions of authority.²⁷ Social stigma and lack of funding to learn Dutch led THHK to teach English as the representative European language. The Chinese in the Indies soon realised that the learning of English had its benefits. The Dutch were losing their power and status to the British. English therefore had become more useful for engaging in commerce. Within the first year of the establishment of THHK’s school, it had already been observed that the Chinese in Batavia were starting to prefer the English language to Dutch.

In 1902, THHK extended its education in Batavia with the institutionalisation of Yale Institute, led by Lee Teng-Hwee. He and ACS alumni Lim Boon Keng not only connected the educational spirit between Java and the Straits Settlements, but also helped integrate Nanyang Chinese with mainland Chinese through their educational efforts. Lim Boon Keng became president of Xiamen University, founded by Tan Kah Kee in 1921. Lee Teng-Hwee, upon leaving Batavia in 1904, worked and later became president of Fudan University from 1906 till the Japanese Occupation. These two educators, Lim Boon Keng from Singapore and Lee Teng-Hwee from Batavia, are two important examples of how early Nanyang Chinese were connected to extra-local networks of educational movements and influenced the intellectual and educational development in China.

Integrating With China

Initial steps of Integration

The connection of Chinese in Java with Chinese in Singapore was laid by local Chinese settlers in the Indies, but the intensifying integration with China was mainly due to efforts of (first) Chinese reformers and (shortly after) revolutionaries exiled from China who were active in Nanyang. Through educational efforts, the Chinese reformers and exiled revolutionaries encouraged overseas Chinese to participate in the changing political situation in China. Kang Youwei, leader of the Chinese reform party, travelled to Singapore via Hong Kong after his reform movement was crushed by the conservative party led by the Empress Dowager Cixi in China. From Singapore, Kang Youwei further travelled to Java, most likely with the help of promoters of the movement in Singapore, and his presence had an impact on the local movement. Chinese schools in Java grew steadily since the establishment of THHK in the Indies, but it was in 1903 when Kang Youwei travelled through the Netherlands East Indies that made THHK more popular.28 In Singapore, he attempted to promote schools in the same manner as in Java and Japan. In 1903, he met male and female students at THHK.²⁹ He appointed teachers to instruct students.³⁰ Because of his efforts, one can say that schools in the Dutch and British Indies started to have an integrating character for the first time.

The increasing success of the educational movement, partly encouraged by political exiles from China, inspired the Qing state to actively promote education for overseas Chinese, which had caused competition among the Chinese state, reformers and revolutionaries for overseas Chinese support. For the Nanyang Chinese who promoted education, however, it seemed that the political visions of these activists from China did not matter to them as much, since they were more concerned with providing education and strengthening their power and influence against the colonial regime. Lim Boon Keng and other Straits Chinese expressed sorrow two years after the “Hundred... Days of Reform” was interrupted. The Straits Chinese Magazine, under the chief editorship of Lim Boon Keng and Song Ong Siang, published articles and poems of political discontent regarding the interruption of the reform movement. Nevertheless, the presence of political activists in Nanyang did further stimulate local educational movements. Although political exiles from China promoted education, this alignment cannot be considered as official integration with education in mainland China.

Official Integration with China: Jinan, 1906–ca. 1911/2

Ideological integration with China sprouted in Nanyang through contacts with political exiles travelling in Nanyang, but official educational integration with China started in 1906 when the Qing Empire established Jinan Xuetang (暨南學堂) in Nanjing. Jinan Xuetang was the first school for Huaqiao on Chinese soil, and was meant to be the highest educational institution for all overseas Chinese. Its establishment could be considered as the milestone for educational integration through which the Chinese government officially reached out to Nanyang.

The founding of Jinan was part of the Qing government’s educational reform programme. The Qing government abolished the examination system that had existed since the Han Dynasty and launched a system of “modern education”. Instead of being tested on their knowledge of the Chinese classics, students were now trained in practical matters. Initial efforts for implementing curricula for “modern education” was put into practice in 1898 by Emperor Guangxu (on the urgent request of Kang Youwei), but was aborted by the right-wing Empress Dowager Cixi, who subsequently persecuted Kang Youwei and his adherents.

However by 1906, Empress Dowager Cixi re-implemented reforms after witnessing the success of Chinese schools. In the previous year, governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi Cen Chunxuan (岑春煊) sent Liu Shiji (劉士驥) to various cities in Nanyang to inspect Nanyang schools. The inspection tour revealed that ethnic consciousness among Nanyang Chinese had risen rapidly. The Qing authorities feared that if they continued delaying in seeking support among Huaqiao, these overseas Chinese and the Nanyang Chinese would increase their support for the court’s adversaries, namely Kang Youwei’s reform party and Sun Yatsen’s revolutionary party (Guomindang). The Qing regime was particularly threatened by the Guomindang, which had been intensively promoting its activities in Nanyang since 1905. Liu Shiji reported to Cen Chunxuan that most of the Guomindang’s branches were located in Nanyang, and therefore the schools there needed to be supervised before it was too late.³¹

Following the inspection tour, Empress Dowager Cixi appointed Duan Fang (端方), governor-general of Jiangxi and Jiangnan, to open Jinan at the end of 1906. Jinan was an institute for higher education that was especially designed for overseas Chinese. Jinan’s mission was to spread Chinese culture beyond China’s territorial borders by nourishing returning Huaqiao who would then further spread the spirit of Chinese civilisation to other places.³²

Pioneers from Java

The school was led by Zheng Hongnian (鄭洪年). The first batch of students at Jinan came from Java.³³ The Qing Empire and THHK had existing educational exchanges prior to the establishment of Jinan. By way of the Department of Education it allowed THHK to request qualified teachers with certification from China to teach in Java.³⁴ While the Qing government sent teachers to Java, the THHK committee selected students who would be sent to China.³⁵ In China, these students received further education under the auspices of the Chinese government. The purpose was to nourish ties of Indies-born Chinese towards “the motherland”, and to keep China’s national enterprises running. The press reported that the Chinese in the Indies were “stepchildren” who were abandoned by the Dutch Indies government but who were awakened and recognised by their own father (referred to China) who had been previously “dormant”.³⁶

It would be incorrect, however, to assume that Nanyang Chinese uncritically embraced the Chinese government. It was noted that Indies Chinese reacted to the Qing court’s outreach to Java with suspicion. One source reported “… at first, our association [THHK] did not think of sending our kids to China, because we did not know if we could count on the Chinese state”.³⁷ Questioning the accountability and reliability of the Qing state was understandable, for the Qing state prohibited officials and commoners from leaving Qing territory without imperial approval. Until 1893, when Xue Fucheng (薛福成) petitioned to re-recognise overseas Chinese, Nanyang Chinese were considered “traitors” of the Chinese state.³⁸ THHK, therefore, was cautious about sending Chinese children from Java for further studies at a school opened by the Chinese empire. Therefore, contrary to what most scholarship had inferred, integration between the two parties at this stage was primarily not caused by a form of romanticised, essentialist patriotism towards China as some scholars had argued,³⁹ but was due to the fact that Jinan’s mission as proposed to Nanyang Chinese was in line with THHK’s purposes.

On 1 January 1907, three Qing officials, Chen Baozhen (陳寶箴), Qian Xun (錢恂), and Dong Hongwei (董鴻褘), attended an ad hoc meeting that the THHK-Batavia organised. At the meeting Qian Xun announced that the Department of Education in Beijing was accepting returning Huaqiao to further education at Jinan.⁴⁰ The Dutch were well aware of the intensifying connections between the Chinese court and Indies Chinese. A Dutch inspector reported:

We have learnt from Tjian Soen [Qian Xun] and Tong Hong Wie [Dong Hongwei] (respectively secretary and attaché of the Chinese delegation in The Hague) who visited THHK schools in 1906, that the Emperor gives our students the opportunity to complete their studies in Nanjing … On 21 February 1907, the first 21 students went to Nanjing. They received state-sponsored education and stipends … According to their letters to their parents, these students do not want to return to Java unless they have completed their studies. The Chinese state has also told them, that after they have completed their studies, they can continue their studies in Europe, Japan, or the US by using funding of the state”.⁴¹

Indies Chinese were increasingly inclined to integrate with China, because the Chinese state provided educational facilities for the young Chinese — a primary goal that Indies Chinese tried to attain with the Dutch colonial government. Considering the fact that the educational issue in the Dutch Indies was most pressing compared with other places in Southeast Asia, it is therefore not surprising that the Chinese state tried to reach out to Dutch subjects first. From the perspective of the Chinese state, it can be argued that its goal was two-fold: one, to have the most intelligent and competitive overseas Chinese students become China-oriented, as they could become leaders of their local community after returning to the colonised areas, and two, to have them learn from competing empires so as to protect the Chinese state from being further victimised by Western imperialism.

Expansion and Disintegration

The Chinese court expanded its educational integration with other Chinese communities in Southeast Asia in the second round of student recruitment. In 1908, Jinan recruited 38 students from several schools in Java, but students from the Straits Settlements formed a major part of the student body.⁴² Zuo Binglong (左秉隆), consul in Singapore, selected 54 Huaqiao in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Penang to go to Jinan in 1908. From 1908 onwards, the Qing regime requested that Zuo Binglong send 45 students to Jinan annually.⁴³ The first students from Singapore included Lee Kong Chian (李光前), who had studied at Jinan for two years before he went for further studies at Qinghua Xuetang.⁴⁴ Many students from Jinan were engaged in the fields of business, finance, education and culture after graduation.⁴⁵ Based on the school’s curricula, it could be concluded that the school not only sought to build national consciousness, but also ensured that their students were leaders in finance, commerce and education — fields that were considered crucial by both China and Nanyang Chinese to compete with Western imperial powers.

Jinan closed down after the fall of the Qing Empire. Yuan Shikai, president of republican China at the time, was reluctant to reopen the school out of fear that the Guomindang opposition would thrive at Jinan, many of whose students had participated in the 1911 revolution.⁴⁶ However, the need for a post-primary school was still felt among Nanyang Chinese. In May 1913, Tan Kah Kee proposed starting a middle school in Singapore. The following year, consul-general Hu Weixian re-submitted the proposal and requested assistance from the Chinese government. It was not until 1917, however, that the Department of Education in China agreed with the request of the Nanyang Chinese. In addition to the financial assistance from the Chinese government Tan Kah Kee received donations from other places in Nanyang. Tan Kah Kee took the proposal to Nanyang Chinese in the British and Dutch colonies in June 1918, and established the “Xinjiapo Nanyang Huaqiao Zhongxuexiao” (Singapore Nanyang Overseas Chinese High School) in 1919.⁴⁷

While Nanyang Chinese advocated the establishment of a school exclusively for Nanyang Chinese, advocates who pioneered the promotion of modern Chinese education at the turn of the century scrutinised the problems in the existing educational system two decades later. In his speech delivered at the Ministry of Education on 9 January 1917, Liang Qichao, Kang Youwei’s student who promoted reforms including education, commented that unlike at the end of the Qing Empire when passionate propagators believed that education was a necessary tool for saving the country, Chinese society in the republican period were suspicious of education, believing that education only benefited the government. Liang Qichao explained that education was the foundation of a country and that the head of the educational department was responsible for remedying the problem. He argued that even though the traditional examination system had been abolished, traditional characteristics still persisted in the educational system at the time. He said that despite the implementation of modern education, it was still unable to gain popularity among commoners as it was seen as only necessary for people who intended to become government officials. Education was not sufficiently practical; Liang Qichao noted that it still perpetuated “knowledge on paper” rather than practical competency . Moreover, he acknowledged the problems that persisted in the transitional period from the “old school” to the “new school” in this regard. Learning contemporary science required a “new language”. However, modern Chinese in speech and writing was still at the developmental stage and hence students had difficulty learning science while the language was not fully developed.⁴⁸ While Nanyang Chinese felt the need to establish a school to meet their own purposes,⁴⁹ the Chinese government also re-evaluated the value of reinforcing ties with Nanyang Chinese through education.

Reintegration: Jinan 1917–late 1920s

After Yuan Shikai’s death, the Chinese government sought to reinforce its ties with Nanyang Chinese by reopening Jinan. Yuan Shikai’s successor Li Yuanhong sent the educationalists Huang Yanpei and Lin Dinghua to examine Chinese education in Nanyang. They toured Malaya, lectured in schools and discussed educational problems with the Nanyang Chinese. After the inspection tour, Huang Yanpei concluded that Nanyang Chinese wanted to have teachers and citizens with commercial knowledge. Upon returning to China, he subsequently requested that the government reopen Jinan so as to train teachers and entrepreneurs.⁵⁰ Since Jinan’s reopening in 1917, the school increasingly modelled the curricula to meet the demands of both the Nanyang Chinese and the “national needs” of the Chinese government.

Compared with its foundational years when Jinan focused on stimulating nationalistic sentiments, Jinan now concentrated on training students with skills that were needed to prosper in commerce and trade. However, while teaching students professional skills such as commerce and accounting were its primary role, the aim of developing students with love for “the motherland” (i.e. China) persisted. The reopening of Jinan in some way helped strengthen ties between Nanyang Chinese and China, but its age-old problems nevertheless existed. Jinan expanded its student body and networks in Southeast Asia in addition to its foundational networks with Chinese in the Dutch and British Indies. At around 1925, there were more than 800 male and female students at Jinan from various places, including Java, Sumatra, Batam, Borneo, Straits Settlements, Malay Peninsula, Burma, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Annam, Taiwan and Siam. Jinan also accepted some students from Hawaii,⁵¹ a community that Sun Yatsen had strong connections with.

Despite the increasing integration with Nanyang Chinese, Jinan’s aim to become a centralising force for all schools in Nanyang did not go smoothly. In 1930, Liu Shimu (劉士木), director of Jinan’s Nanyang Cultural Affairs Department and previously principal of a Chinese school in Dutch-ruled Sumatra, believed that despite the meetings and conferences with the central government and other educational bodies of overseas Chinese education, huaqiao education was not well-coordinated or unified. Liu Shimu believed that self-government of schools in Nanyang obstructed the integration of Nanyang with China. Other factors that caused problems were lack of facilities, insufficient financial means and the presence of unqualified teachers.⁵² Following an inquiry received from schools in Nanyang between 1928 and 1930, Chinese educational bodies therefore suggested that teachers (both male and female) should be required to have sufficient knowledge of the following subjects: Chinese as the national language (Guoyu), English, mathematics, sports, science, music, history, geography, drawing, social knowledge, sanmin zhuyi (Sun Yatsen’s political philosophy “The Three Principles of the People”) and handicraft. Above all, fluency in Guoyu, the national language of China, was required.⁵³

Ambigous Missions: Envisioning Students Becoming “Future Masters Of The Malay Peninsula” And the Non-Imperialistic Rhetoric

 Although organisational problems and the increasing desire for autonomy among overseas Chinese obstructed China’s centralisation project; the Chinese authorities assessed that its integration efforts were mainly hampered by colonial forces. Since the establishment of republican China, colonial forces had been enforcing stricter measures on educational bodies located in their territories. In the Straits Settlements, for instance, the British Legislative Council launched an education bill for the first time on 31 May 1920. The bill gave the British government control over Chinese schools. Schools were allowed to continue functioning, but they were obliged to remove their political ambitions and curricula that contained Chinese nationalistic content.⁵⁴

Colonial policies succeeded to a great extent in preventing overseas Chinese from furthering their education at Jinan. In 1927, Jinan released a public announcement which stated that it wanted to prevent any misunderstanding with the imperial powers. The school stated that its mission followed Sun Yat-sen’s political framework and that, according to the school, it was meant to merely nourish generations of Nanyang Chinese with good personalities, knowledge, interest and the capacity to survive. The purpose was to train settled and journeying students to become individuals who contributed to society. The school hoped that all people of Chinese descent would be able to maintain the solid positions that the ancestors of the Chinese nation created. Jinan claimed that its task was to have Chinese settlers and sojourners subject to colonial rule obtain equal political status and economic treatment. Jinan stated:

We want to prevent misunderstanding of colonial governments, that is: we do not
want them to think that Jinan’s national establishment is aimed at constituting a
type a statism or imperialism. We do not want colonial powers to think that we instill
students with thoughts of invading territories of others. We do not want them to
think that once our students graduate and return to Nanyang, they will disturb the
authority of colonial rule and stir revolutions against colonial governments with
indigenous inhabitants.⁵⁵

The document, written in Chinese, was presumably mainly targeted at Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. Instead of employing nationalistic terms that the college used in its foundational years, Jinan now used imperialistic vocabulary and attempted to distort its imperialistic tendencies by differentiating the Chinese government from Western imperialist powers. Instead of having imperialist and nationalist ambitions, Jinan claimed that the GuominDang’s goal was simply to have China reach freedom and equality in the world and have its huaqiao enjoy freedom in international settings. Jinan hoped that the Chinese subjects of imperialist powers would not be oppressed and would not suffer from economic and political discrimination. It urged the colonial powers to allow Chinese in Southeast Asia to manage their Nanyang society in an autonomous manner.⁵⁶

Despite attempts of Chinese authorities to invalidate Jinan’s imperialist and nationalist tendencies, British intelligence reports revealed that Jinan took a strong anti-colonial position. The institution was particularly against the British Empire, which was considered the greatest colonial power at the time. China’s educators did stir up anti-colonialist sentiments among their students. The British government confiscated correspondence between Nanyang and China. Secret letters from a teacher at Jinan, who previously taught in Batavia, complained that “school registration in Malaya and the ‘cruel rules’ of the Dutch in Java are examples of foreign oppression which will destroy the foundation of China”.⁵⁷ Intelligence reports also revealed that Jinan, as the primary educational facility administered by the Chinese government, nurtured students with visions of a future government that would be ruled by Nanyang Chinese. On 8 February 1922, Juin Li, lecturer at Jinan University, expressed the following in his lecture:

Look at the map of Asia; I have observed that in the near future there will spring
up one new independent country, the Malay Peninsula, the Straits Settlements. The
masters of this new political division will certainly be Chinese. The British power in Egypt
and India is crumbling, so the tide of revolt will spread to the East, and the Malay
Peninsula will be the first to catch its new influence … I do not advise you to revolt
against the British authority at once, because first you must be prepared yourself to
organize a government and conduct political affairs, otherwise even if the British
authority should be overthrown, you will be helpless. Now is the time for your
students to build up your political ability, because the future masters of the Malay
Peninsula are you students of this college.⁵⁸

This is evidence that educators at Jinan were encouraging and preparing their students to become pioneers of anti-colonialism in Southeast Asia. Contrary to its public claim that it did not encourage overseas Chinese to challenge colonial rule, this lecture shows that Jinan did stir up movements against the imperialist powers. By the 1920s, this institution intensified its anti-British attitudes and claimed that the Chinese were the original people who developed Malaya before the British took over. Jinan stated that “the Chinese were better off in Malaya before the English came … We Chinese opened Malaya — it ought to be ours”.⁵⁹

In short, even though Jinan publicly claimed that unlike Western colonial powers, China did not aim at encroaching on non-Chinese territory, confidential reports shows that it did hope to expand its power by integrating with Nanyang Chinese whom they encouraged to take over the power of the colonial rulers. China’s non-imperialist claim is therefore contradictory for it hoped to gain control over territories which were not under China’s sovereignty through the intervention of overseas Chinese. The colonial powers therefore sought ways to disempower Jinan, which was seen as the primary institution for training students to play key roles in a Southeast Asian society.

Dutch Counter-Integrative Policy

The Dutch implemented counter-integrative measures a decade earlier than the British did, with British policies against further proliferation of Chinese integrative tendencies around 1920. It was towards the end of the first decade of the 20th century that the Dutch were aware of political indoctrination of Indies Chinese through their connections with Straits Chinese and Jinan. Integration of overseas Chinese with China and increased connection with Straits Chinese through THHK’s educational programmes alarmed the colonial authorities. In 1909 Sandick, official of the Department of Domestic Affairs, reported that:

… most pressing issue of this private education for Chinese children is not the
instruction of mandarin-language, not history, nor geography [etc.], but ideas. Ideas
that indoctrinated into the mind of the Chinese youth, because the aim is that these
ideas will form the foundation of the next generations of the Chinese.⁶⁰

The spread of ideas was described as the “yellow peril.” Borel, renowned specialist on Chinese matters in the Dutch Indies, gave an overview of the content of the readers used in Chinese schools. According to him, the National Chinese Reader was completely filled with modern ideas and evoked consciousness of nationalities. The yellow peril, therefore, did not refer to supremacy of military power (such as guns and canons), but referred to the threat of modern ideas. He expressed concern, and estimated that, by the end of the first decade of the 20th century, approximately 5,000 students were influenced by these ideas.⁶¹ It was during this period that the Dutch feared losing their authority over Indies Chinese. The Dutch  press expressed concern that Chinese movements in the Indies would endanger Dutch sovereignty in the Indies, mainly because these movements were nurtured by outside forces, particularly China. Some Dutch authorities suggested revising laws so as to secure political legitimacy over the Chinese. The Dutch were concerned with attracting loyalty of Chinese settlers only because they were regarded as the most industrious residents in the colony.⁶²

Dutch paranoia of losing their political authority over their subjects made the colonial government modify its policies. In order for the Dutch to maintain political support of Chinese settlers in the Indies, the colonial government competed with the Chinese government to provide state-sponsored education. In 1908, just one year after pioneering students from Java sailed off to Jinan, the Dutch government established the “Hollandsche Chineesche School” (Dutch Chinese School, hereafter HCS) with the view to roll back Indies Chinese integrative tendency with China. Its founding was meant to wipe out the increasing influence of THHK that had strong relations with Jinan. The Dutch established HCS to compete with the Chinese government on controlling education of the Chinese. HCS’s curriculum was aimed at “Dutchifying” Indies Chinese as opposed to THHK’s curricula’s aim of sinification. After the establishment of THHK, the Chinese empire attempted to develop patriotism among overseas Chinese and to construct a pan-Chinese empire. Out of fear that the Indies Chinese were becoming increasingly politically supportive of the Chinese empire through educational efforts, the Dutch hoped to reduce the wave of Chinese nationalism in the Indies and reinforce Dutch authority over their subjects.⁶³

HCS public schools were opened specifically for Chinese under the same conditions as for indigenous inhabitants. Instruction at HCS was completely in Dutch, and the curriculum was similar to curricula at European primary schools. Admission was therefore conditioned upon sufficient proficiency in the Dutch language.⁶⁴ Some Indies Chinese settlers regarded the founding of HCS as a good start but were not completely satisfied. Soon after the Dutch implemented educational policies for the Chinese, community leader Tan Siauw Lip (Kapitein Chinees) from Semarang stated that he wished to have equal job opportunities for the Chinese in Java. He explained:

The [Dutch] government has now started to fulfil our educational needs for the
Chinese, but I hope these wishes do not just end with providing education similar
to Europeans. We hope that the gate will be further opened for our children. We
hope our children are allowed to take exams under the same conditions as Dutch
children, and that upon passing the exams, our children will have equal professional
opportunities as Dutch children.⁶⁵

The establishment of HCS succeeded in attracting Indies Chinese to become more oriented towards the Dutch. Indies Chinese responses to HCS’ foundation revealed that the main goal of Indies Chinese was to attain equal rights and status. The Dutch succeeded in reducing Indies Chinese orientation towards China, but did it succeed in completely rolling back their integration with China?

Limitations Of Dutch Counter-Integrative Policy

The establishment of HCS and its “equalising” position for Indies Chinese helped in rolling back the integrative process with China but was never successful in completely erasing the impact of Chinese schools on the political orientation of Indies Chinese. A report on detained and expelled instructors reveals that Dutch paranoia of the threat of Chinese schools still persisted two decades after the establishment of HCS. This document “Huaqiao xuexiao jiaozhiyuan chujing ji beibubiao” reveals that in 1929 the Dutch, as the colonial government, punished 33 instructors.⁶⁶ The list of names included mostly teachers from Java, some from Sumatra, and a few from Borneo and Menado. All instructors were punished for political reasons, including teaching political ideologies (such as Sun Yatsen’s “The Three Principles of the People”) and using political tutorials. Instructors were mostly expelled from the Indies. In a few cases instructors were detained. Others were forced to stop teaching for unclear reasons. Students were investigated as well, and in one case a teacher was forced to leave his post after being discovered that a student wrote an essay discussing judicial equality.⁶⁷ These cases show that even after two decades, the Dutch still struggled with the threat of Chinese schools in the Indies.

The absence of Dutch inspection reports on the weaknesses of the educational policies at the time makes it impossible to make firm conclusions on why Dutch counter-integrative policies did not succeed in removing China-oriented schools entirely. However, some facts released by Dutch and Chinese authorities can offer plausible explanations to this phenomenon. By the 1920s, China-oriented schools had spread to the outer islands. Schools in Java continued to exist, but centres of pro-China activities had moved from Java to the outer islands. The outer islands had high concentrations of new migrants and the Chinese schools there had more room to thrive by being away from the colonial administration in Batavia. Moreover, Dutch language proficiency requirements excluded the majority of Indies Chinese (who spoke Chinese or local dialects) from being eligible to attend schools run by the Dutch government. In fact, a Dutch aim was to attract support from the upper and middle classes of the Chinese community because Chinese settlers of upper strata were considered the most industrious residents who helped the colonial economy thrive.⁶⁸ HCS establishments were therefore concentrated in the main cities of Java, including Batavia, Surabaya, Semarang and Makassar in the Celebes — places with relatively high concentrations of settlers of Chinese descent.⁶⁹ Dutch policies were therefore not only based on ethnic lines but also on class.

Conclusion

This essay has attempted to map out the interconnectivity among educational movements in Dutch-ruled Batavia, British-ruled Singapore and coastal China. By looking at institutional circulations of people, thought and activities across colonial and imperial port cities, I have analysed the circumstances under which these triangular relations intensified and under what conditions this integrating process was disrupted. By focusing on Batavia, this essay has examined how educational exchanges shaped the political visions of diasporic Chinese. In the Dutch Indies, Chinese were critical of Dutch educational policies that benefited indigenous inhabitants but discriminated against settlers of Chinese descent. Looking to the Japanese to whom the Dutch granted a status that was equal to that of Europeans, Indies Chinese also came to realise that it was not race but “the civilised status” that would improve the position of Indies Chinese. Under these circumstances, education therefore became a tool for realising their political ambitions.

While local changes played a role, political visions were mainly shaped by connected educational movements in Singapore and China. Particularly, Singapore played an important role in guiding the initial stages of the movement. Although the educational movement in Batavia was initiated by local Chinese leaders, the movement was assisted by intellectuals such as Lim Boon Keng and Lee Teng-Hwee. Educational movements in Batavia and Singapore also helped shape the educational movement for overseas Chinese in China. Jinan, the first post-primary school for overseas Chinese, was opened after the educational movements in the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya had started. Jinan launched institutional integration with Nanyang Chinese and nourished its students with visions of a greater China, anti-colonialism and a future Malaya that was ruled by people of Chinese descent. On the other hand, by attracting Nanyang Chinese support, China continually changed its mission and curricula according to the needs of Nanyang Chinese that seemed to be more concerned with obtaining more favourable professional benefits than to support China unconditionally.

My study reacts to two dominant approaches in the present scholarship on the subject. It distorts the conventional perspective that Nanyang Chinese uncritically and unconditionally supported the Chinese state. This romanticised view has been questioned by more recent studies that emphasise the autonomy of Nanyang Chinese ambitions that were separate from China’s. My study also illustrates weaknesses of both uni-directional approaches mentioned above. By mainly using Chinese, Dutch, English and Malay sources, I analyse the circumstances under which simultaneous educational movements integrated and disintegrated. My research concludes that visions of the Nanyang Chinese were continuously shaped by the dynamic relationship among the educational movements in the Dutch Indies, Straits Settlements and China.

The author wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Associate Professor Eric Tagliacozzo, History Department, Cornell University, in reviewing the paper.

I thank Professor Eric Tagliacozzo for being the reviewer of this research essay, and I thank Chua Leong Kian for sharing his knowledge on Mr. Lee Teng-hwee with me. Lastly, my gratitude goes to Wee Tong Bao and other staff members at the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library for offering excellent assistance on my research.