The Hokkien huiguan, Chinese businessmen and early Chinese education in Singapore, 1840-1965.

HY2239
Molding Young Minds:
The Hokkien huiguan, Chinese businessmen and early Chinese education in Singapore, 1840-1965.

-Tan Yee Lin Amy

Introduction

From the beginnings of migration to Singapore in the early 19^th century, the importance of education within the Chinese community has been recognized. Clans in the early days viewed education as a tool in instilling a sense of vernacular identity, simultaneously consolidating clan control over the attitudes of the youths, and perpetuating traditional Chinese values in society.[1] Subsequently, with the founding of the Republic of China in 1912 and the emergence of the modern school prototype, education was seen as a medium for fostering patriotism for mainland China as well as preserving one’s Chinese cultural identity.[2]

Hence, in view of Singapore’s post-independence educational structure, with the state as the engine behind educational efforts for the whole nation, the success of the Chinese immigrant community in creating their own education infrastructure from scratch in the absence of colonial state support, is indeed noteworthy. The Hokkien community has therefore been chosen as a focal point in this paper not only because of its status as the “major dialect group in Singapore”,[3] but also because the educational infrastructure developed for the community spanned a range of primary and secondary schools, hallmarked by the building of the Nanyang University in 1956. In the absence of colonial support, such was a significant step in educational developments in and for the Chinese community.

This essay thus offers a historical analysis of the role and significance of the Hokkien huiguan to the development of education for the Hokkien community from the huiguan’s founding in 1840, to the formal taking over of educational responsibilities by the state upon independence, 1965. First, the link between the Hokkien huiguan and Chinese businesses will be established. Second, the essay will provide a brief historical background of the establishment of Chinese education for the Hokkien community in Singapore. Third, the role of education within the Hokkien community will be evaluated, simultaneously expounding on the symbiotic relationship between education and the Chinese businessmen. Finally, it is the contention of this essay that the huiguan provided avenues through which Hokkien businessmen worked, in their promotion and development of education for the Hokkien community.

Of Huiguans and Businessmen

Huiguans emerged in the mid 19^th century Singapore as a response to the “basic needs for mutual aid and interest articulation”,[4] which Wickberg argues to be the “core organizations of pre-1945 Chinese communities.”[5] Huiguans were usually native-place or clan specific, and apart from serving as intermediaries, were responsible for promoting economic and social welfare and encouraging cultural maintenance, through the promotion of Chinese education.”[6] The Singapore Hokkien huiguan was founded in 1840 and was one such communal institution.

In the absence of colonial interference in the internal affairs of the Chinese community, individuals with great economic power – the Hokkien merchants – assumed at least 85% of the leadership positions in the Hokkien huiguan.[7] These businessmen-cum-leaders included individuals such as Tan Kah Kee and Tan Lark Sye, who were both ex-Chairmen of the huiguan and hence important community leaders during their respective times. Both men were rubber tycoons, with the former being touted as one of the richest Chinese businessmen in colonial Southeast Asia.[8] Tan Kah Kee and Tan Lark Sye were but the most illustrious two out of a myriad of other Hokkien merchants who held leadership positions in the huiguan.

The significance of the Hokkien businessmen to the huiguan was not limited to the leadership roles which they held. More importantly, by virtue of their economic and social power, were the primary driving forces behind the development of education for the Hokkien community, and the Hokkien huiguan provided the avenue through which they worked. As Liu and Wong note, “Chinese schools (were) sponsored by businessmen through various locality-based voluntary associations (huiguan).”[9] The huiguan not only enabled these different merchants to pool their economic resources in a collective effort towards the promotion of education, but also served to bring the efforts of these merchants to the wider Hokkien community. Despite their lack of high education, wealthy entrepreneurs, such as Tan Kah Kee and Tan Lark Sye perceived their support of education to be a “moral duty”[10], and hence funded the establishment of schools under the banner of the huiguan during their respective periods of leadership. Thus, the Hokkien businessmen were imperative to the survival of the Hokkien huiguan as they formed the huiguan’s strong financial and management backbone, through which they promoted education for their community.

A History of Hokkien Education in Singapore

The Hokkiens in Singapore, like other Chinese immigrants, saw themselves as overseas Chinese nationals – “temporarily abroad rather than permanent emigrants”,[11] and were very much conscious of their ties and affinity with their Chinese motherland. As such, the development of educational institutions in the Chinese and Hokkien community should not be divorced from the political climate of China. Compounded by thee fact that the Hokkien huiguan’s leaders such as Tan Kah Kee were “Chinese patriots”[12], the political climate as well as its emerging educational reforms greatly shaped the way in which Chinese education developed and was subsequently structured within the Hokkien community in Singapore.

The Hokkien huiguan was founded in 1840 by businessman-philanthropist Tan Tock Seng[13], opposite Thian Hock Keng Temple, thus marking the early origins of Chinese education – temple schools[14] – for the Hokkien community in Singapore. Shophouses, residences of sponsors of education, and temples, in particular, acted as makeshift school venues in the early days of Chinese education within the community, and was vernacular in nature.[15] Lim Boon Keng, the first Chinese to be awarded the Queen’s Scholarship, and another early promoters of education amongst the Chinese community received his early education at one such Hokkien clan temple. In 1849, Singapore’s first Chinese private school, Chong Wen Ge, was founded by the Hokkien huiguan under the leadership of Tan Kim Seng, who was also an merchant and educationalist.

In the late 19^th century, late Qing education reforms greatly impacted upon the rise of modern Chinese education within the community, through huiguan leaders who had close relations with the Qing court. Modern Chinese schools were characterized by changes in the structure of the school system and in curricula to include the study of “modern subjects”[16] such as history, geography, mathematics, and physics, and such a system formed the bedrock of the education system within the Hokkien community right up till the founding of the Republic of China in 1912. Dao Nan Primary School, was founded by the Hokkien huiguan during this period of change, and Liu & Wong note that the wealthy Hokkien merchants, through the huiguan, financed “more than 97 percent of its operational budget”.[17] Of this 97 percent, one thousand dollars was donated by Tan Kah Kee towards the establishment of the school.[18] This thus set the benchmark for the active participation of Hokkien merchants in the following promotion of modern Chinese education in the early 20^th century.

Yen argues that “modern Chinese education in British Malaya achieved its most remarkable growth during the Republican period between 1912 and 1941”.[19] “Growth” within this context can be understood at two levels – the progress of modern Chinese education, and the increasing number of modern Chinese schools established by the Hokkien huiguan during this period of time. The dawning of the Republican era in China and the accompanying surge of Chinese nationalism led to the promotion of Mandarin as the medium of instruction and a subsequent weakening of the dialect barrier, argued by scholars to be “an important contribution of the Hokkien community towards modern Chinese education in British Malaya”.[20] With the promotion and institution of Mandarin in schools managed by the Hokkien huiguan, the Hokkien community was able to extend education beyond the realms of the Hokkien community, a significant development in Chinese education and hence the Chinese community within Singapore. Hokkien businessmen-leaders within the community, such as Lim Boon Keng, who had links with the Qing government, were the important links in perpetuating such a ideological and paradigm shift in education, resulting in the adoption of Mandarin as the medium of instruction in Dao Nan School, the flagship of Hokkien education, in 1916. In addition, the Hokkien huiguan intensified its promotion of education during this period of time. This can be attributed to the emerging and changing perceptions of modern education, which was increasingly seen as progressive, in its believed ability to facilitate the achievement of modern statehood. The Republican government during this period also integrated ethnic Chinese education into its education system and thus contributed in supplying educational texts as well as teachers to Hokkien-huiguan-managed schools in Singapore,[21] therefore contributing to the wave of establishment of modern Chinese schools by the Hokkien community. Most importantly, bearing in mind the consciousness of China’s political climate by the Hokkien businessmen in Singapore as well as their sense of affinity with the mainland, the May Fourth Movement in China, 1919, provided further impetus for the promotion of education as education was increasingly perceived as “a means of salvation for China”.[22] Such ideological stimulation led to the founding of two modern Chinese schools by the Hokkien huiguan: Ai Tong School in 1992 and Chong Fu Girls’ School in Singapore in 1915, in which Tan Kah Kee had a hand in financing as well. The development of the latter was significant as it represented an early consciousness of the Hokkien community and its leaders, in the importance of providing education for females, deeming the founding of the school as an “urgent social need”.[23] In addition to these three schools which were financed and controlled by the Hokkien Association during the Republican and post-war periods, Yen also notes that “at least another eight private and public Hokkien schools existed around 1929 in Singapore and they received financial subsidies from the Hokkien (huiguan)”. The Hokkien huiguan later financed the rebuilding of older huiguan-managed schools, and founded two new schools: Kong Hwa School in 1946 and Nan Chiau Girls’ School in the subsequent year. Hence, in light of the abovementioned, the ability of the Hokkien huiguan to extensively finance Chinese education for the community is significant as it indicates a growing consciousness as well as financial support from the Hokkien merchant community with regards to the importance of education.

The establishment of Nanyang University (Nantah) in 1953 by Hokkien huiguan chairman of that time, Tan Lark Sye, and the donation of “500 acres of land in the Jurong area as the site for the university”[24] by the huiguan represented the hallmark of Hokkien educational efforts. Emerging from concerns pertaining to the difficulties the Chinese-educated faced in continuing education in China because of the Communist Revolution in 1949,[25] the significance of the founding of Nantah lay in its attempt to provide the Chinese community not only in Singapore, but in Southeast Asia as well, with regional opportunities of higher education. As such, the efforts of the Hokkien huiguan contributed in unifying the Chinese community in Singapore as well as well as to a certain extent, Southeast Asia. The merchants who contributed to funding the establishment of Nantah spanned a variety of vernacular identities, as Yen notes, donors included “Oei Tiong Ham, the renowned ‘king of sugar’ of Java, Zeng Jiangshui, a wealthy Hokkein merchant of Malacca, and Lim Ngee Soon, a wealthy merchant and a leader of the Teochew community in Singapore.”[26]

The Place of Education within the Hokkien Community

The role of education within the community can be understood at two different levels: the significance of Chinese education provided by the huiguan to the Hokkien immigrants, as well as the significance of Chinese education to the merchants-cum-leaders in the hierarchical rungs of the communal and huiguan strata. Despite the different roles of education within both groups in the Hokkien community, this does not negate the extensive contributions of the Hokkien businessmen-cum-community-leaders to the development of education for the Hokkien and subsequently, Chinese community in Singapore.

Hokkien immigrants

The significance of Chinese education to the Hokkien community in Singapore lay in its attempts to foster a common sense of identity. As Yen notes, “education was a means of strengthening China and the Chinese race”[27]. Strongly influenced by the political climate in China, education emerged as “an expression of ethnic and cultural solidarity”,[28] which in turn reinforced the affinity of the overseas Chinese community in Singapore with China. This heightened a sense of consciousness of one’s identity as an overseas Hokkien migrant, intrinsically tied to affairs of the Chinese motherland.

In addition, education provided an avenue for upward mobility for the Hokkiens within their own, as well as the larger Chinese community. Tan Kah Kee believed that “the promotion of education was the best way of overcoming the ignorance of Chinese merchants”[29], and as such, education was the avenue through which future generations of merchants enhanced their competitiveness within the business realm in hope of better prospects and upward social mobility.

Businessmen-cum-leaders

Most evidently, the significance of businessmen to the development of education is seen through the economic support of the wealthy Hokkien businessmen in the promotion of education through the huiguan. Liu & Wong note, that as leaders of the huiguan, these merchants were able to provide substantial assistance to the affiliated schools because of their “financial resources and popular backing”.[30] The economic power of the Hokkien merchants in early 20^th century Singapore was hence the driving force for the promotion and development of education within the Chinese community. Businessmen like Lee Kong Chian not only donated greatly to the founding of Kong Hwa School and Nan Chaiu Girls’ School in the 1940s, but also set up the foundations, which provided “substantial financial support to local education, particularly to needy students”[31], thus attempting to ensure equal educational opportunities for all Chinese, across social backgrounds. In addition, the establishment of Nanyang University would be virtually impossible had it not been for the donations by the Hokkien huiguan, as well as the extensive economic support by Tan Lark Sye and other Chinese businessmen.

The importance of contributing to the development of local Chinese education by the businessmen-cum-leaders was laden with politically undertones. As Wang Gungwu notes:

“Many…sought security and respectability by giving away large sums of money especially to support and enrich certain aspects of Chinese culture, a particularly attractive form of philanthropy which could win them communal leadership as well as offical recognition and even a modicum of protection.”[32]

This is significant, because it reveals that the support of education could not only have been a gesture of one’s attachment to the community and beliefs in the benefits of education to the Chinese community in Singapore, but it could also be exploited for more self-centered means, such as the consolidation of one’s own personal power.

Nevertheless, one should not fail to recognize the symbiotic relationship between education and the businessmen-patrons of the former. The successful growth and development of Chinese education for the Chinese community in Singapore would have been virtually impossible if not for the philanthropy and support of the wealthy and influential merchants, through their leadership roles in the Hokkien huiguan. In return, the huiguan provided not only avenues for their championing of Chinese education, specifically within the local community, it also provided a networking base for these businessmen to further extend and consolidate their business empires.

Insights: The post 1965 Hokkien huiguan

The process of nation-building from 1959 to 1985 witnessed the regression of the Hokkien huiguan as an important social institution. As Cheng notes, the post-independence government of Singapore assumed much of the traditional roles of the huiguans, of which included the propagation of education[33]. As part of state imperatives, huiguan schools were gradually transformed into government schools by the late 1960s, which Liu & Wong argue to signify the end of “an important phase in the evolution of Chinese education in modern Singapore”.[34] Huiguan schools today such as Ai Tong, Dao Nan and Kong Hwa Schools still do exist, with the Hokkien huiguan contributing to the management of these schools, albeit to a diminished extent as a result of the government’s instatement of these schools as government-aided educational institutions. Hence in order to maintain its relevance within the local community, the Hokkien huiguan has reinvented itself as an social organization contributing towards nation-building[35] - a very post independence ideal – as well as “preserving and promoting Chinese language and culture”[36] amidst the homogenizing forces of globalization.

Conclusion

Despite the changing roles of the Hokkien huiguan over the course of Singapore’s history, the legacy it leaves behind should be acknowledged. In the absence of direct colonial rule over the Chinese community, not only did it serve as an important social institution centered on the welfare of the Hokkien migrant community, its role in pioneering and championing Chinese education for both the Hokkien and the wider overseas Chinese community in Singapore is one which is more noteworthy in the essay’s context. The huiguan provided avenues through which Hokkien businessmen funded and worked to bring education to the Hokkien community. This Chinese education was subsequently extended to the rest of the Chinese population with the establishment of the Republic, and was crucial in instilling an early sense of solidarity and identity within the Chinese migrant community in Singapore. As such, one should not be too quick to brand the huiguan irrelevant to the memory of Chinese Hokkiens and Singaporeans today. The Hokkien huiguan in contemporary Singapore society stands not as an irrelevant article in the history of the nation, but as a past overlooked but not forgotten, waiting to be rediscovered.

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[1] Yen Ching-Hwang, Community and Politics: The Chinese in Colonial Singapore and Malaysia. (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1995), p.52.

[2] Yen Ching-Hwang, “Hokkien Immigrant Society in British Malaya,” in Chinese Migrants Abroad: Cultural, Educational, and Social Dimensions of the Chinese Diaspora, Charney et al. (eds.). (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003), p.135.

[3] Ibid., p.117.

[4] Edgar Wickberg, “Overseas Chinese Organization,” in The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas, Lynn Pan (eds.). (Singapore: Archipelago Press), p.83.

[5] Ibid., p.84.

[6] Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan, “Our History”, , 2005

[7] Liu Hong & Wong Sin-Kiong, Singapore Chinese Society in Transition: Business, Politics, & Socio-Economic Change, 1945-1965. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2004), p.50.

[8] Ibid., p.50.

[9] Ibid., p.87.

[10] Maribeth Erb, “Moulding a Nation: Education in Early Singapore,” in Past Times: A Social History of Singapore, Chan Kwok Bun & Tong Chee Kiong (eds.). (Singapore: Times Editions, 2003), p25.

[11] Wang Gungwu, “Among Non-Chinese,” in The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese Today, Tu Wei-ming, ed. (California: Stanford University Press), p.127.

[12] Yen, “Hokkien Immigrant Society in British Malaya”, p.132.

[13] Chinese Heritage Editorial Committee, Chinese Heritage. (Singapore: Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations and EPB Publlishers Pte Ltd, 1990), p.3.

[14] Yen, “Hokkien Immigrant Society in British Malaya”, p.130.

[15] Wee Tong Bao, “Chinese Education in Prewar Singapore,” in Chinese Migrants Abroad: Cultural, Educational, and Social Dimensions of the Chinese Diaspora, Charney et al. (eds.). (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003), p.105.

[16] Yen, “Hokkien Immigrant Society in British Malaya”, p.116.

[17] Liu & Wong, “Singapore Chinese Society in Transition”, p.108.

[18] Yen, “Hokkien Immigrant Society in British Malaya”, p.134.

[19] Ibid., p.122.

[20] Ibid., p.130.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Ibid.

[23] Ibid., p.129.

[24] Ibid., p.141.

[25] Erb, “Moulding A Nation”, p.29.

[26] Yen, “Hokkien Immigrant Society in British Malaya”, p.141.

[27] Ibid., p.138.

[28] S. Gopinathan, “Education,” in A History of Singapore, Ernest C. T. Chew & Edwin Lee (eds.). (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991), p272.

[29] Yen, “Hokkien Immigrant Society in British Malaya”, p.138.

[30] Liu & Wong, p.111.

[31] Ibid., p.112.

[32] Wang, p.201.

[33] Cheng Lim Keak, “Chinese Clan Associations in Singapore: Social Change and Continuity,” in Southeast Asian Chinese, Leo Suryadinata (eds.). (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1995), p.74.

[34] Liu & Wong, p. 111.

[35] Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan, “Our History”, , 2005

[36] Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan, “About Us”, <>, 2005

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Chan Kwok Bun and Tong Chee Kiong (eds.). Past Times: A Social History of Singapore. Singapore: Times Editions, 2003.

Charney, Michael W. et al. (eds.). Chinese Migrants Abroad: Cultural, Educational, And Social Dimensions of the Chinese Diaspora. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2003.

Chew, Ernest C. T. and Lee, Edwin (eds.). A History of Singapore. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Chinese Heritage Editorial Committee. Chinese Heritage. Singapore: Singapore Federation of Chinese Clan Associations and EPB Publishers Pte Ltd, 1990.

Liu Hong and Wong Sin-Kiong (eds.). Singapore Chinese Society in Transition: Business, Politics & Socio-Economic Change, 1945-1965. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2004.

Pan, Lynn (eds.). The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas. Singapore: Archipelago Press, 1998.

Suryadinata, Leo (eds.). Southeast Asian Chinese: The Socio-Cultural Dimension. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1995.

Wang Gungwu. Don’t Leave Home: Migration and the Chinese. Singapore: Eastern Universities Press, 2003.

Wei-ming, Tu (eds.). The Living Tree: The Changing Meaning of Being Chinese. California: Stanford University Press, 1991.

Yen Ching-Hwang. Community and Politics: The Chinese in Colonial Singapore and Malaysia. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1995.

Online Sources

__________. "Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan” <>. 2005.