| This dissertation contrasts the interrelationships between state formation and Chinese schools in postwar Singapore and Hong Kong. The ruling regimes in both Singapore and Hong Kong sought to gain control over Chinese schools, which traditionally followed the curriculum model of schools in mainland China and thus spread a China-centered ideology. However, as the ruling elites in the two settings faced diverse sets of demands in state formation, they used very different strategies to achieve their goals.; Because Singapore went through decolonization immediately after the war, the state needed to fuse its Chinese, Malay, and Indian residents into a national, Singapore-centered whole. In this context, the state, facing pressure to remove the “Chineseness” of its Chinese residents, adopted a de-Sinicization approach to reform Chinese schools. In Hong Kong, the major opponents of the postwar colonial government were the Chinese regimes in Beijing and Taipei. Since Hong Kong was generally a monoracial society, the British authorities, unimpeded by pressure from powerful local anti-Chinese racial groups, could defy challenges from the two Chinas and consolidate its ruling power by accommodating and then modifying Chinese schools into a de-nationalized mode.; Besides being influenced by the dynamics of state formation, the educational systems in both territories also unleashed recursive effects on state formation. In Singapore, the state elites, under pressure from the Malays, barely introduced Chinese studies in English and Malay schools. As a result, Chinese learning remained the prerogative of Chinese schools and people educated in Chinese schools continued to be identified by dramatic cultural-linguistic differences from those educated in other schools. This fragmenting effect caused by the educational system haunted all postwar state-builders who sought to found an integrated nation. In Hong Kong, since the colonial state was unconstrained by other racial groups, it could more actively provide Chinese learning in English schools. Consequently, the cultural identity between Chinese and non-Chinese institutions was bluffed, and the school system eased state formation by producing people without abrupt linguistic-cultural differences. This dissertation makes a theoretical contribution by treating the relationship between state formation and education as two-way and interactive. It also develops a theory of state formation and education by synthesizing insights from Antonio Gramsci, Andy Green, Basil Bernstein, and Michael Apple. |
