By Iris Lo and Joan Tsang
Phnom Penh Post, Issue 16 / 17, August 24 - September 6, 2007
In a secluded schoolyard tucked deep in a downtown neighborhood a group of children is vigorously chanting "ren zhi chu, xing ben shan" - a three-word rhyme written by Confucius. It's a charming, wise and well-known verse that translates into "All people are kind when they are born."
This is Duanhua School, an institution steeped in history and founded in Phnom Penh during the Qing Dynasty (1636-1912) in the 1880s. Today, with enrollment booming and more than 15,000 students Duanhua is the largest Chinese-language institute outside mainland China. It recently opened an extension campus near Olympic Stadium.
"China is developing rapidly and a lot of investments here involve Chinese. Parents want their children to have an easier time finding a job," said Duanhua Principal Li Huiming.
Sino-Khmer relations date to the third century BC, according to the Historical Dictionary of Cambodia. A large immigrant community was well established by the 13th century, with most settlers coming from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
Perhaps because of the origin of these emigres, Duanhua taught the Chinese dialect of Teochiu until the 1940s when the school began teaching Mandarin. Teochiu is the native language of Guangdong, and the most widely spoken dialect in China.
Duanhua was shuttered after the Lon Nol coup on March 18, 1970. Later, the Khmer Rouge burned all the school's records that had been kept since the 19th century.
The school reopened in September 1992, and is now owned by the Association of Chinese Nationals in Cambodia (ACNC).
"The demand for Chinese speakers is very high right now, especially in the garment and hospitality industries," said Gao Feng, senior secretary at the China, Hong Kong and Macau Business Association. "There are more Chinese tourists every year and of the 400 garment factories, about 70 percent are owned by Chinese investors. Bosses want there employees to communicate with workers."
Feng estimates there are some 70 Chinese language schools in Cambodia and more than 35,000 students. Figures for the number of ethnic Chinese in Cambodia vary: an official with XinHua news bureau in Phnom Penh put the number at about 70,000, but the Taiwan's Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission claimed as many as 343,855. A 1995 Ministry of Interior report claimed only 47,180.
Cultural inheritance
Huang Yulan, general director of Duanhua School, said Chinese put high importance on their roots and hold a strong sense of nationalism. Yulan, who graduated from Duanhua in 1964, said it is important to transmit their culture to future generations.
"The Association of Chinese Nationals in Cambodia and Guangdong Jinan University assist us in designing our textbooks. We also use textbooks from other countries, like Chinese textbooks from Malaysia," Li said.
A well-known Confucius saying advocates teaching without discrimination. Huang said Duanhua puts the directive into practice.
"We are willing to teach anyone who is interested in learning Chinese. You can see there are some older kids who are in the same class with the younger ones, because we divide classes according to their Chinese language level instead of their age. So we allow the students to skip a grade if they perform well," she said.
All subjects, from mathematics and geography to history, are taught in Chinese. But students also learn Khmer.
A normal school day is split into two parts, with Khmer in the morning and then Chinese in the afternoon. Duanhua students attend 23 lessons from Monday to Saturday.
"We claim our school as a public school because we received funds and donations from other Chinese organizations such as Association of Chinese Teochiu in Cambodia. But we haven't been subsidized by the government and we simply rely highly on school fees and donations," Li said.
Tuition runs from $30 to $50 per term from first grade to junior secondary. Vocational training, a two-year course for students who have finished junior secondary school, is $80 per term. For senior secondary school, students can transfer to another school.
"Since there isn't any university in Cambodia offering Chinese language course, if the students want to keep on learning Chinese, they may have to go to countries like Singapore or China to pursue their studies," Li said. One problem is finding qualified Chinese teachers, Li said. Duanhua has more than 240 teachers who are either Chinese -Khmer or Chinese from mainland China.
"Being a teacher in China is a very low paid job, so a lot of people come here to find jobs. For Duanhua, the salary of a primary school teacher is $200 per month and for the secondary ones is $260 per month, which is much higher than those who teach in a Cambodian school with only $20 to $30 a month," Li said.
"We don't have money to hire teachers of the highest quality. Most of the good and experienced teachers are either retired or passed away and many new teachers that we employed have never received any professional teaching training," he said.
This is Duanhua School, an institution steeped in history and founded in Phnom Penh during the Qing Dynasty (1636-1912) in the 1880s. Today, with enrollment booming and more than 15,000 students Duanhua is the largest Chinese-language institute outside mainland China. It recently opened an extension campus near Olympic Stadium.
"China is developing rapidly and a lot of investments here involve Chinese. Parents want their children to have an easier time finding a job," said Duanhua Principal Li Huiming.
Sino-Khmer relations date to the third century BC, according to the Historical Dictionary of Cambodia. A large immigrant community was well established by the 13th century, with most settlers coming from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.
Perhaps because of the origin of these emigres, Duanhua taught the Chinese dialect of Teochiu until the 1940s when the school began teaching Mandarin. Teochiu is the native language of Guangdong, and the most widely spoken dialect in China.
Duanhua was shuttered after the Lon Nol coup on March 18, 1970. Later, the Khmer Rouge burned all the school's records that had been kept since the 19th century.
The school reopened in September 1992, and is now owned by the Association of Chinese Nationals in Cambodia (ACNC).
"The demand for Chinese speakers is very high right now, especially in the garment and hospitality industries," said Gao Feng, senior secretary at the China, Hong Kong and Macau Business Association. "There are more Chinese tourists every year and of the 400 garment factories, about 70 percent are owned by Chinese investors. Bosses want there employees to communicate with workers."
Feng estimates there are some 70 Chinese language schools in Cambodia and more than 35,000 students. Figures for the number of ethnic Chinese in Cambodia vary: an official with XinHua news bureau in Phnom Penh put the number at about 70,000, but the Taiwan's Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission claimed as many as 343,855. A 1995 Ministry of Interior report claimed only 47,180.
Cultural inheritance
Huang Yulan, general director of Duanhua School, said Chinese put high importance on their roots and hold a strong sense of nationalism. Yulan, who graduated from Duanhua in 1964, said it is important to transmit their culture to future generations.
"The Association of Chinese Nationals in Cambodia and Guangdong Jinan University assist us in designing our textbooks. We also use textbooks from other countries, like Chinese textbooks from Malaysia," Li said.
A well-known Confucius saying advocates teaching without discrimination. Huang said Duanhua puts the directive into practice.
"We are willing to teach anyone who is interested in learning Chinese. You can see there are some older kids who are in the same class with the younger ones, because we divide classes according to their Chinese language level instead of their age. So we allow the students to skip a grade if they perform well," she said.
All subjects, from mathematics and geography to history, are taught in Chinese. But students also learn Khmer.
A normal school day is split into two parts, with Khmer in the morning and then Chinese in the afternoon. Duanhua students attend 23 lessons from Monday to Saturday.
"We claim our school as a public school because we received funds and donations from other Chinese organizations such as Association of Chinese Teochiu in Cambodia. But we haven't been subsidized by the government and we simply rely highly on school fees and donations," Li said.
Tuition runs from $30 to $50 per term from first grade to junior secondary. Vocational training, a two-year course for students who have finished junior secondary school, is $80 per term. For senior secondary school, students can transfer to another school.
"Since there isn't any university in Cambodia offering Chinese language course, if the students want to keep on learning Chinese, they may have to go to countries like Singapore or China to pursue their studies," Li said. One problem is finding qualified Chinese teachers, Li said. Duanhua has more than 240 teachers who are either Chinese -Khmer or Chinese from mainland China.
"Being a teacher in China is a very low paid job, so a lot of people come here to find jobs. For Duanhua, the salary of a primary school teacher is $200 per month and for the secondary ones is $260 per month, which is much higher than those who teach in a Cambodian school with only $20 to $30 a month," Li said.
"We don't have money to hire teachers of the highest quality. Most of the good and experienced teachers are either retired or passed away and many new teachers that we employed have never received any professional teaching training," he said.
5 comments:
The chinese teaches khmers to be dishonest toward each other to make money. Then use the money to leave the country whenever crisis arise. The chinese do not have a sense of nationalism. All they care about is getting away from danger like they did when Cambodia faced with war. Now, they return after the danger disappear, form association, have businesses, teach khmer chinese language so that khmer can be their slave in the garment factories. Remember folks, chinese and vietnamese never have good intention toward khmer. There's always a hidden agenda.
I would like to give you another side of Chen immegrants in Cambodia.
My Great-Grand father arrived in Cambodia later 19 th centuary.He'd got married with a khmer lady.He went to khmer temple prayed & chanted in Khmer with his strongly Chinese accent.He loved Cambodia & its people.
He had created many grant-Children who were millionaire in Cambodia.
On Chen side who called them :" A Khmer " and turn to khmer side,they were called : "A Chen ".
But we though we are Khmer.
I've seen both side. Some Chinese are greatful and repsectful of Khmer culture and some don't. I've seen some that immigrated to the US here that are still an inegral part of the the Khmer community and some that don't wanted to do anything with Khmer and proclaim theselve to be from China or Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc... And then there are those that are just lost because they don't want to assoicate with Khmer, but they also can't fit in with the Chinese of the Chinatown in the US either and now trying to crawl their way back into the Khmer community. Sad, but it's our job as Khmer to help (in Cambodia or anywhere else) to help educated them and be respectful of the country you live in. My heart will heart always be Khmer, but I now live in the US and I must respect the US law and culture and adpat to their system and way of life and will do the best to help Khmer and preserve our culture and heritage as well. The world is big enough to accomodate everyone as long as we're respectful toward one another.
1:56PM You are an idiot. Both side of my great grand-parent came from Quong Tong, Southern China. So I'm supposed to be 100% chinese.
But I consider myself as Khmer and work very hard for Cambodia and only Cambodia even in dangerous case like politic, never for China. It makes me sick to hear some one like you talking. About 15 years ago I almost hit Ok Socheat's younger brother because he was talking like you to me in the student meeting (we were in college).
But I agree with 9:37PM 100%.
I'm cambodian of khmer ethnic. I'm engineer. I have a lot of friends who are cambodians of chinese ethnic or sino-khmers. But I can tell you that these friends are as patritotic as me. They love Cambodia. They want to protect Cambodia from the hegemonic ambition of vietnam. Don't forget that vietnam wants to form an indochinese federation dominated by vietnam. Vietnam is encroaching upon Cambodia's territory at its eastern border. In 1979 when vietnam invaded Cambodia, vietnamese soldiers prohibited cambodians who have names with 3 syllabes from working in the state sector. Because vietnamese think that these cambodians are of chinese descent. Therefore, please be right with our compatriots of chinese descent. We are fighting for the survival of our country (Cambodia) from being annexed by vietnam. We need every cambodian of khmer ethnic or chinese ethnic likewise.
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