The Changing Process Of Southeast Asian Chinese-language Education In The First Half Of Twentieth Century

With the rise of Southeast Asian Chinese School at the beginning of20th century, somechanges occur in Chinese-language education, such as scale of the school, teacher resources,teaching level, teaching contents, the number of students and textbooks, which distinguishitself from old-style private school before the20th century.The Southeast Asian Chinese-language education in the first half of twentieth centurywent through the process from rise to develop, from flourish to fall, although the period everycountry experienced varies, the o verall process is quite the same:At the beginning of20thcentury, Chinese revolutionists and reformists came to Southeast Asia, built modern Chineseschool to propagandize their ideas, which objectively promoted the emergence of SoutheastAsian Chinese-language education;during the1920s and1930s, the rise of Chinese nationalistsentiment and the policies encouraging overseas Chinese to run schools enacted by nationalgovernment stimulated the enthusiasm of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, the school scale,the number and students enrollment improved significantly compared with the condition inthe early20th century, Chinese-language education began to flourish;After the breakout of thePacific War, Japanese troops took control of Southeast Asia, which resulted in the extinctionof Chinese-language education.Chinese school experienced short-lived revival after the war,but the restriction policy issued by Southeast Asian colonial administration and the policy notrecognizing dual nationality Chinese government executed have changed national identities ofoverseas Chinese, Chinese-language education in Southeast Asia (except Malaysia) began todecline.This paper focuses on the inner factors which promote prosperity and decline ofChinese-language education in Southeast Asia from an overall perspective, in order to findsome inspiration to improve the research of Southeast Asian Chinese-language education inthe first half of the20th century.