Schooling diaspora : women, education, and the overseas Chinese in British Malaya and Singapore, 1850s-1960s / Karen M. Teoh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Teoh, Karen M., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Chinese--Education--Malaysia--History.

Chinese.

Chinese--Education--Singapore--History.

Girls' schools--Education--Malaysia--History.

Girls' schools.

Girls' schools--Education--Singapore--History.

Education.

History.

Chinese--Education.

Singapore.

Malaysia.

Physical Description:

xi, 210 pages, 18 unnumbered pages of plates ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018]

Summary:

"Schooling Diaspora relates the previously untold story of twentieth-century female education and Chinese students living overseas in British Malaya and Singapore. Traversing more than a century of British imperialism, Chinese migration, and Southeast Asian nationalism, this book explores the pioneering English- and Chinese-language girls' schools in which these women studied and worked, drawing on school records, missionary annals, colonial reports, periodicals, and oral interviews. The history of educated overseas Chinese girls and women reveals the surprising reach of transnational female affiliations and activities in an age commonly assumed to be male dominated. These women created and joined networks in schools, workplaces, associations, and politics. They influenced notions of labor and social relations in Asian and European societies. They were at the center of political debates over language and ethnicity, and were vital actors in struggles over twentieth-century national belonging. Their education empowered them to defy certain socio-cultural conventions, in ways that school founders and political authorities did not anticipate. At the same time, they contended with an elite male discourse that perpetuated patriarchal views of gender, culture, and nation. Even as their schooling propelled them into a cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic public space, Chinese girls and women in diaspora often had to take sides as Malayan and Singaporean society became polarized-sometimes falsely-into mutually exclusive groups of British loyalists, pro-China nationalists, and Southeast Asian citizens. They negotiated these constraints to build unique identities, ultimately contributing to the development of a new figure: the educated transnational Chinese woman"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note:

Acknowledgments

A Note on Spelling

Introduction: Women, Education, and Overseas Chinese Identity

Chapter 1: A Little Education, A Little Emancipation: The Colonial Politics of Female Education, 1850s-1950s

Chapter 2: Barrier against Evil, Encouragement for Good: English Girls' Schools, 1850s-1960s

Chapter 3: So That They May be an Honor to You: The Nyonya Problem and the Singapore Chinese Girls' School, 1890s-1940s

Chapter 4: Rare Flowers, Modern Girls, Good Citizens: Chinese Girls' Schools, 1900s-1950s

Chapter 5: Home is That Which I Adore: Re-migration to China, 1940s-1960s

Conclusion: The Domestic Citizen and Female Education in the Postcolonial Era

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Teoh, Karen M. Schooling diaspora.

ISBN:

9780190495619

0190495618

OCLC:

994576277