Chinese American Contributions to the Educational Development of Toisan 1910-1940

by Renqiu Yu

10 March 2003

Overview

The following is a word for word transcription of an article of the same name, originally published in Amerasia 10(1): 47-72, 1983. No footnotes have been included as none were relevant to my purpose. If you wish to view them, you will have to source the original article yourself.

The opinions and attitudes expressed are those of the original authors, and, in my opinion, need to be carefully discounted as they significantly colour the treatment of the topic.

Background of Education in Toisan

Chinese Americans have always maintained a close relationship with their emigrants homeland. Since the 1850s, the majority of Chinese in the United States have sent remittances to support their families and relatives in China. They also sent money to establish schools, orphanages, hospitals, and other public institutions. In the Pearl River delta of Guangdong Province, from which the majority of Chinese emigrated, the economic and cultural influences of Chinese Americans on local communities are still quite visible. One outstanding example is the highly developed educational institutions of Toisan (Taishan) County, which have been supported by Chinese Americans for many decades.

From the middle of the nineteenth century, it is estimated that 80 percent of the Chinese who emigrated to the United States were from Toisan. Most of these emigrants were poor peasants displaced by political and social turmoil, famine, and poverty caused by the disintegration of the traditional agrarian economy due to foreign imperialist penetration of China.

With large scale emigration, overseas remittances became an increasingly important part of Toisan's economy. According to rough estimates of local Toisan historians, yearly remittances from America to Toisan from the turn of the century to 1949 (exclusive of the war years, 1937-1944), exceeded the annual value of the county's agriculture output. In the 1920s and the early 1930s, remittances to Toisan from America constituted one-eighth of the national remittances which China received from abroad.

Remittances were used by Toisan families first for necessities. After meeting basic living expenses, any remaining money was spent for the childrens' [sic] education. Chinese parents hoped that through education their children would become scholar-officials, a traditional ideal.

As more emigrant families were able to afford schooling for their children, the number of schools in Toisan increased. Before 1910, education took two forms. One form was the sisuk (shishu) in which scholars were hired by one or more families to teach their children. Pupils were taught the rudiments of Chinese classical works in classrooms located usually in one of the pupil's homes or in the local Confucian temple. The tutors were paid regularly, often on a monthly basis, either in cash or rice and meat. Sisuk flourished in villages of large emigration in part because remittances could be used to pay the tutors.

After finishing their studies in sisuk, pupils who did well would take competitive examinations for siyuen (shuyuan) or academies of classical learning. Students studied the essential works of Confucian philosophy, poetry, calligraphy, and the writing of the "eight-legged essay" in preparation for examinations to enter the government bureaucracy. Those who passed the national examinations would be appointed to administrative positions in the central, provincial, or local governments. Those who failed either went back to the siyuen to review for the next examinations or to the countryside to work as a sisuk tutor.

Before the 1860s, Toisan had only five siyuen. Six more were established in 1869. By the turn of the century, the Sunning Yunchi (Xinning Xianzhi) or Toisan Gazetteer recorded more than twenty siyuen in most of the major towns of the county. Again remittances played an important role in providing for the students' tuition and board. Because of this educational system, it is estimated that about 90 percent of the adult males in the county were more or less literate by 1910.

After the birth of the Republic of China in 1911, the government embarked on the development of a modern educational system which would teach about democracy, modern industry, trade, and agriculture rather than prepare students in the classics. The reform movement also called for the building of new elementary schools. As a result, by 1920 there were 104 elementary schools, two middle schools (one junior high, one women's teachers middle school), one trade school, and one women's elementary school in the county. Except for the Toisan County Middle School and the Toisan County Women's Teachers School, which were publicly financed by the local government, all other schools were privately funded and administered. U.S. Toisanese provided most of the financial support for the private schools.

During this period, the local government ordered each clan or village to allocate a portion of its ancestral lands for the construction of its own school. The school movement was supported by advocates of educational reform but encountered stormy opposition from some traditional clan leaders. Beleaguered by stubborn infighting and meagre funds, many schools turned to the U.S. Toisanese to carry out their school building plans.

Fund raising was divided into two stages. In the first stage, village and clan leaders held discussions on how to obtain money for the school, and often took the lead in donating money. At the same time wealthy persons such as shopkeepers, merchants, and the relatives of overseas Chinese were persuaded to donate. The local clan elite, who usually controlled the village remittance agencies, knew each family's financial capability. The second stage consisted of donation campaigns targeted at the Toisanese especially in the United States, which will be discussed in detail later in the essay.

Despite increased school building following the establishment of the Republic, three major factors hindered educational reform until after 1920. First, several gangs of bandits terrorized the county from 1913 onwards. They robbed mainly American returnees and wealthy merchants and later kidnapped teachers and pupils for ransom. In 1922, for example, the united Lee, Wong, and Woo (Li, Huang, and Wu) clans' Nam Chuen (Nan-cun) school in the Sze Kou (Sijiu) region were attacked. Two teachers and fifteen pupils were taken hostage and held for half a year. A ransom of $10,000 for the two teachers and $2,700 per student was demanded and paid.

Second, the fierce machinations and competition of local elites for control of schools hampered new construction and the implementation of reforms. These elites regarded building a school in their village or region as a means to enhance their power in the local community. Infighting forced some schools to shut their operations after only one or two years.

Third, during World War I the exchange rate of the American dollar to the Chinese dollar declined. U.S. Toisanese were reluctant to remit their hard-earned monies to Toisan because of the decline in buying power.

The next two decades constituted a golden age for the educational development of Toisan and the building of schools. A "reforming, vitalizing, and universalising" educational reform movement was begun. Under the leadership of Lau Choi Po (Liu Zhaipu), a reformer and supporter of Sun Yat-sen, Toisan was granted status as an autonomous county under the Revolutionary Guangdong Government. Autonomy empowered the county government to promote educational reform. From 1922 to 1926, the county education bureau directed its efforts to closing down private elementary schools and organizing and building modern schools. The number of old-style elementary schools decreased while modern schools increased dramatically. By 1920, there were four middle schools in the county, rising to eleven, including two vocational schools, by 1928.

The case of vocational schools illustrates the significance of overseas donations and of American returnees in the county's development. In 1928, the first telecommunication school in Guangdong province, the Jaiwa (Zhaihua) vocational school was founded through the fundraising efforts of Wong Jaiwa (Huang Zhaihua)). Wong, who went to the United States at the age of fifteen, graduated from Columbia University and returned to Toisan in 1927. He began the campaign to establish the telecommunication school while teaching English in the Toishan Middle School. The vocational school trained many technicians for the county's transportation and telephone companies.

In addition, the number of elementary schools in the county jumped rapidly from 104 in 1920 to about 1,000 in 1928. Most of these 1,000 village elementary schools were built and controlled by members of a single clan. There were also other types of elementary schools such as the united clan or regional schools built by several clans in the same region. School size varied from the small village clan school of twenty pupils and one teacher for three grades to the united clan school with several hundred pupils and several dozens of teachers. The size of a school depended on the number of children of school age in the area, and the amount of financial support garnered from the U.S. Toisanese.

In the 1920s and 30s, massive donation movements aimed at the U.S. Chinese were launched with successful results. During this period, the number of Toisan schools, including elementary and middle schools, was three to four times greater than those in neighbouring emigrant counties such as Hoiping (Kaiping), Shuntak (Shunde), Sunhui (Xinhui), and Chungshan (Zhongshan). Until World War II, and thereafter until 1949, Toisan schools continued to obtain financial aid from the U.S. Chinese, much of it to rebuild schools which had been destroyed by the Japanese.

Motivations of Donating School Funds

In order to understand why Chinese emigrants financially supported schools in Toisan over many decades, we must examine the political and historical circumstances both in China and America.

1. The Educational Reform Movement and the Emigrant Hope of Modernizing Chinese Society

Shortly after the first Chinese emigrants entered America, a number of laws and ordinances were enacted to restrict and finally to exclude them. Although Chinese Americans contributed greatly to the development of the American West, they were treated harshly by the U.S. government and by the dominant society. Discriminated against and persecuted, the Chinese were denied naturalization. Exploited by American capitalists, they were limited to certain occupations such as laundries, restaurants, and domestic services. Isolated from the mainstream of American life, they were confined for the most part to ghettos in large cities, so-called "Chinatowns." The Chinese in America were not only denied their legal rights by the U.S. government, but also lacked the protection of the Qing government, the last of the feudal Chinese dynasties.

Beginning in the 1840s, successive defeats of the Qing imperial armies in wars with Britain, France, and Japan had rendered the dynasty impotent. By the end of the nineteenth century, progressive Chinese intellectuals, searching for a way to save China from further penetration, proposed political and economic reform, rebuilding of the army, and the importation of advanced western technology. At the same time, scholars, especially those who had received their higher education in Japan or the West, demanded a complete overhaul of the educational system.

The advocates of educational reform regarded it as vital to the future of China. They strongly criticized the traditional examination system for destroying the health of young people and blocking the development of a national spirit. If the Chinese adhered to traditional educational and social institutions, they warned, the people would inevitably become the slaves and subordinates of foreign powers.

Confronting pressures from within and without, the Qing government was forced to accept demands for educational reform. In 1898, the emperor issued decrees to abolish the traditional essays, calligraphy, and poetry required for the fokoi (keju) examination. In 1903, for the first time in Chinese history, an imperial school charter was published which provided a uniform school code for the nation. In 1905, the central government established a board of education to administer nationwide educational reform. In the following year, each province and county formed its own education committee to help build modern schools under its own jurisdiction. After the Republican Revolution of 1911, the construction of modern schools was facilitated.

The founding of the Republic in 1911 raised the hopes of U.S. Chinese for a modern nation-state. By supporting the reform movement, they believed that their contributions to China would eventually be rewarded. In addition, the U.S. Chinese hoped that a powerful China would assist them in bettering their lot in America. They were especially influenced by the idea "develop education to save China."

The modern Chinese education movement influenced the people of Toisan on both sides of the Pacific. As early as 1908, a number of progressive Toisan scholars founded an "Education Association" in order to promote modern education and reform Toisan's politics, economy, and society. Their organ, the Sunning magazine (Xinning Zazhi) published many editorials, commentaries, and articles to promote the educational development of the county. From 1911 to the 1930s, almost every issue of the magazine included articles or news discussing and reporting various education issues.

The U.S. Chinese had great expectations for the educational institutions in their home county. One U.S. Toisanese presented a perspective in 1925 that reflected the sentiments of his fellow countymen. In an article urging the U.S. Chinese to contribute to educational development in the county, Lau Ying Lun (Liu Yinlun) stated that education was the basis of democratic politics and economic development in a modern country, which was proven by the experience of the advanced western nations. In order to modernize China, it was necessary to universalize education. Since the economic situation of Toisanese in the U.S. was relatively better than that of people inside China, Lau reasoned, the U.S. Chinese should donate money to advance education in Toisan. Modern schools would develop human resources for industry and agriculture, and provide jobs for people. Lau stated in a painful tone, "Our descendants will have a means to survive in our native place. They will not, as we did, have to go to foreign countries and become slaves to other nations just for survival." He emphasized that donating to local Toisan schools was a way to save China from the imperialist powers and contribute to the nation.

2. The Emigrant Desire to Provide Welfare and Improve the Education of Their Kin in Toisan.

Before World War II, the majority of Chinese in the United States were poor, single, able-bodied men. Because of U.S. exclusion laws, they could not bring wives and children with them. Chinatowns remained "bachelor societies" for many decades. Deeply concerned about their families' welfare in Toisan, many of these emigrants regularly remitted hard-earned savings towards the education of their children. Some emigrants, in light of their impoverished experiences in America, hoped that their children with an education would find decent jobs and remain in China. Other emigrants, even though they planned for their children to later join them, still wanted to provide them with an education. In Toisan, many sons of emigrants were called "yi sai jau" (er si zu) or fops because of their extravagant behaviour. Living on remittances from America, these young men became gamblers, alcoholics, and drug addicts. Distressed at hearing shameful stories of their sons, emigrants hoped that a well-administered school would educate their children in correct behaviour. One emigrant from the Holong (Helang) region, to cite an example, wrote a letter to the head of the Wenjiang school along with his donation, saying, "My son is now studying at your school ... I would be grateful to you if you give him earnest teachings and strict discipline. It is my hope that my son will become useful man ..."

3. The Emigrants' Desire to Expand the Influences of Their Clan in the Local Community.

Numerous researchers of Chinese communities in the United States suggest that people from Guangdong had very strong regional and kinship ties. In 1854, Toisan emigrants in the United States founded their own district association, the Ning Yung Association (Ningyang Huiguan), which had the largest membership of any U.S. Chinese district associations. According to one observer's account, in 1876 the Ning Yung Association had 75,000 members. This indicates that people from Toisan exceeded over half of the total Chinese population then in the United States (111,971). With such a large membership, the Ning Yung Association became the most powerful of the seven Chinese district associations and had a bigger voice in the Chunghwa Chung Association (Zhonghua Huiguan), which was the collective organization of all Chinese district associations in America.

Of Chinese Americans from Toisan, about 10,000 bearing the surname Yee (Yu) did not join the Ning Yung Association because of disputes with Toisanese of other surnames. Instead they joined together with the people of Hoiping and Yanping (Kaiping and Enping) to form the Haapwo Association (Hehe Huiguan) with the Yees constituting about half the membership.

In addition to the district associations, Toisan people also established clan organisations. The clan organizations were usually organized by people of the same surnames, such as the Yee Fongchoitong (Yu Fengchaitang), by the Yee clan; the Muisih Gongsoh (Meishi Gongsuo), by the Moy (Mei) clan; the Leisih Gungsoh (Lishi Gongsuo), by the Lee (Li) clan; and so forth. To counteract the power of large clans, several smaller clans would combine. For example, the Lau (Liu), Quon (Guan), Cheung or Jeong (Zhang), and Chow (Zhao) organized the Lung Gong Gungsoh (Longgang Gongsuo) in America and functioned as one clan. Like the district associations, the main functions of the clan associations were to take care of new immigrants and settle disputes among members. The clan organizations were strong and historically controlled some of the smaller Chinatowns, such as the Lee clan which dominated Philadelphia; the Yee clan in Pittsburgh; the Moy clan in Chicago; the Quon clan in Sacramento, and so on. The U.S. Toisanese district and clan organizations played a very important role in maintaining relations with Toisan and promoting educational development there.

Before the 1930s, the Ning Yung Association always invited gentry from Toisan to act as the association president. Although the presidents did not hold real power because of their ignorance of Chinatown affairs, they greatly influenced support for construction projects in their home county. For example, at the first annual conference of the Ning Yung Association in 1928, new regulations clearly stated the organization's purpose was "to protect Ning Yung Association members' interests in America and to promote public welfare constructions in Toisan." The Toisan clan organizations also encouraged their members to donate to their own clan's public welfare in Toisan.

Many clans regarded building modern schools as an important measure of the clan's development. Especially after the educational reform movement of the 1920s, having a modern school became one criterion for judging a clan's prestige. A letter regarding school fund donation reflects this tendency in Toisan. The Gee (Zhu) clan in Hoiyin (Haiyan) region stated worriedly that, "Education is related to the prospects of a country. It is also true to a clan ... We Gee people now have only few small schools, it's such a great shame! If we do not make efforts to develop our clan's education, our children will become illiterate and incompetent, and our clan will disappear ..."

Table 1 shows that of the total 1,122 schools in the county in 1931, 1,113 or 99.2 percent, were private schools. The overwhelming majority of the private schools were clan schools.

TABLE 1: Number of Schools, Students, and Teachers in Taishan, 1931

Source: Taishan County Government Bulletin, vol. 3, June 1931.

Fund-raising Methods

From the beginning of the modern educational reform movement in Toisan in 1908, the planners of schools would send gwin chak (juance) or yuen bou (yanbu) known as money-collecting booklets, to U.S. Chinese communities. The booklet was a kind of roster of donors with the stated purpose of collecting money for building schools. After receiving the booklets, U.S. clan members were persuaded to donate, and their names were added to the roster. The booklets were eventually sent back to Toisan along with the collected money. After the construction of a school, the names of donors were carved on a "memorial stone tablet" extolling the donors' deeds and spirits and placed in front of or inside the school.

Many clan or village elementary schools were built in this way. For example, as early as 1913, the Kwong Tai (Guangda) School in Kwong Tai village received 20,000 Chinese silver dollars from the U.S. Toisanese from Kwong Tai and built a two-storied western-styled school building. In 1915, after ten years of construction, the Chung Ying (Zhongying) School was founded in Tikhoi (Dihai), supported by the powerful Toisanese Yu Fungchoitong. Even the county public school, the Toisan County Middle School, which suffered from insufficient funds, considered the possibility of collecting money from overseas Chinese communities.

During the period of the 1920s and the early 1930s, sending money-collecting booklets to the United States was still the primary method that most civilian administrated schools utilized to collect school funds. However, several new features of the chaufoon (choukuan) or fund-raising movement appeared with the rise of the educational reform movement.

One of the most common and effective methods was to publish a magazine. From the 1920s on, several dozen clan or regional magazines were published in Toisan, performing a key function in the overseas school fund-raising movements. The vast majority of the magazines were related to the construction of schools. The editors and contributors of the magazines were usually school teachers and members of the education committees. Some magazines were published solely for the purpose of building schools and collecting school funds. These magazines discussed the financial difficulties of construction; compared clan schools; and criticized conservatives opposed to reform. More importantly, overseas fellow countrymen were urged to donate and have their names and the amount of their donations published.

As the educational reform movement progressed in Toisan, education committees in various regional villages devoted their efforts to collect a large amount of money to establish a western-style school building. Rural modern elementary schools built in Toisan before the 1920s were usually located in Confucian temples or other temples such as Kwantai (Guandi). At these temples, sacrificial rites often hampered the regular school activities. Moreover, these temples were old and shabby, and vulnerable to rains and winds. Many elementary schools were forced to shut down due to dilapidated building conditions. School planners in the 1920s thus tried to collect as much money as possible to establish durable and permanent buildings.

To encourage donors, as variety of rewards were created. Carving the donors' names on a "memorial stone tablet" was popular. Donors' names were published in local clan or village magazines and some schools erected monuments with porcelain pictures of donors (which were manufactured in Japan).

For those U.S. Chinese whose donations exceeded the usual amount, special rewards were designed. For example, the Toisan County Middle School designed twelve different rewards for donors according to the amount of their donations. Porcelain pictures of those who donated more than fifty dollars were displayed in a memorial hall. Ten sizes of porcelain pictures ranging from four to twenty-six square inches were developed according to the amount of the donation. Those who donated over $15,000 were granted two permanent tuition waivers for their children or relatives, while donors of $10,000 received one permanent tuition waiver, and donors of $5,000 were granted one tuition waiver for ten years only. Every donor of over one hundred dollars received a memorial button and every donor of over five dollars had his name carved in a memorial hall. Those who donated less than five dollars had their names published in local magazines or newspapers, as well as newspapers published in America, such as The Chinese World in San Francisco. When the school building was completed, all donors received a memorial booklet.

Other schools devised different types of rewards. If one individual donated a large amount of money to a school, a memorial tower or hall would be built in his name. If a school was built solely by one individual's contribution, the school would be named after the person, such as the Bakhing Elementary School in Daosan (Doushan) region. Built with the contributions of a Chinese American bourgeois, Chin Bakhing (Chen Boxin), the school still exists.

The rewards for school fund donors were supported both by the county and the provincial government. The education department of Guangdong Province issued a regulation in 1927 encouraging donations from individuals inside and outside China. Chinese consulates abroad and local officers in China were responsible for investigating and reporting on overseas donors. Although the rewards to donors bestowed by the educational department of Guangdong Province were only medals or certificates of merit, they were greatly valued as patriotic symbols.

To strengthen the belief among Chinese donors abroad that their donations would be used to build schools, Toisan people developed school building preparatory committees to handle the processes of collecting, receiving donations, and building schools. The members of the committees might include education reformers and prominent clan or village leaders in local committees who also enjoyed a reputation among clan members in the United States. The duties of the school building preparatory committees include: 1. the formation of a detailed plan for the school building; 2. the collection of school funds in the local community and the U.S. Chinese community; 3. registration of donors and distribution of rewards according to the amount of contributions; and, 4. the purchase of construction materials and supervision of the construction of the school. Upon the school's completion, a board of directors would be established to manage the school's operation. If the school had a shortage of funds, the directors would initiate another campaign to solicit money from the U.S. Toisanese.

The inclusion of many American returnees on the school building preparatory committees and the boards of directors greatly facilitated the building of schools. First, the returnees themselves were donors, and second, they could act as a bridge between the local people and the U.S. Toisanese, persuading them to donate when they returned to America.

Generally speaking, the returnees were more than willing to devote their efforts to their hometowns' educational development as well as to other public welfare facilities. They actively promoted the development of Toisan's educational institutions. In 1926, the returnees founded an Overseas Chinese Club to raise funds for the Toisan County Middle School in the Chinese communities of North and South America.

Other Toisan institutions also supported the building of schools. For example, when the Toisan County Middle School was expanding its campus in 1924, it obtained the supported of the Sunning Railway Company in the form of 20 percent discounts for one year on the transportation of building materials. Similarly, the Toisan Bricklayers' Association waived its "construction fee" which was usually levied on all construction within the boundaries of the county.

Clan School Fund-raising Campaign in the United States

Fund-raising activities in the United States took two forms. Toisanese clan organizations for several decades launched regular fund-raising campaigns among their members after receiving the money-collecting booklets from Toisan. The second form was more fascinating. The Toisan County public schools or the civilian regional united schools would send fund-raising representatives to America to launch donation movements with the support of the Ning Yung Association and clan organizations. Fund-raising of this nature mainly took place in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

In most cases, booklets from Toisan were necessary to arouse clan members to donate . But some clan organizations would collect and send money back to Toisan to build clan schools on their own initiative, especially when their clan's educational institutions were fewer than that of others.

After receiving money-collecting booklets from Toisan, the clan usually formed a school fund-raising committee comprised of prominent leaders, who acted as the supervisors, and volunteers, who acted as fund-raising advisors. Their duties were to encourage clan members to donate, to collect money, and to make a roster of donors. Because the U.S. Toisanese were dispersed throughout the United States, committee members were usually sent to the towns or cities where clan members resided.

The two major clan methods of raising funds consisted of "membership" donations and "free will" donations. The first required every member of a clan to donate a set amount of money, usually five dollars. In most cases, an individual was willing to donate the amount. Unwilling members might have their shops boycotted and were ostracized by clan members. In addition to a clan donation, everyone was encouraged to donate more to enchance [sic] the school fund, the "free will" donation. An extensive examination of donor rosters indicates that over half of the donors gave more than the minimum required.

The donations were consolidated by the school fund-raising committee and sent back to the clan in Toisan. In the 1910s, donations were sent directly to the county. But from the 1920s on, the U.S. Chines preferred to send the money to Hong Kong and entrust their clan members there to supervise the usage of the collected school fund. Their reluctance to entrust the funds to the local elites in Toisan stemmed from their experiences with campaigns such as the abortive Dwunfan (Duanfeng) School building.

In 1905, Moy clan members in America from the Dwunfan region initiated a fund-raising campaign to build a clan school in Toisan. The campaign amassed thirty thousand Hong Kong dollars and the clan sent the funds to Toisan. Unfortunately, the money caused fierce bickering and competition among the local elites. Each village tried to have the school built in its own region. The conflicts lasted for several years with no school constructed. Eventually, the money was returned to the Moy people in the United States. Some U.S. Toisanese refused to take back their donations or threw the money to the ground; others swore angrily at the local elites whose selfishness had aborted the plans for the school.

This episode gave the Moy people and other clan organizations in the United States a negative impression of the local elites. The U.S. Toisanese preferred to entrust their donations to the Hong Kong Toisan Businessmen's Association to supervise construction. As a consequence, during the educational reform movement of the 1920s, the Toisan people organized many "education committees" and "school building preparatory committees" to strengthen the donors' confidence. Nonetheless, it was not until 1932, almost thirty years after the Moy clan's first raised funds, that a middle school was built. The Dwunfan Middle School was one of the most splendid school buildings in the county.

The U.S. Toisanese commonly sent representatives to oversee the building of larger clan or united regional schools. Representatives from America joined the school building preparatory committees as supervisors. Due to the great travelling expenses incurred which were subtracted from the donations, only one or two representatives were sent. Sometimes the responsibility was entrusted to people who were travelling to Toisan. However, the representative supervised only the construction of the schools. After attending the inauguration ceremony, he would return to America, leaving the management of the school to a board of directors.

The Ning Yung Association and the Public School Fund-raising Movements in the United States

Compared to the fund-raising movements for clan schools, the campaign organization for the county public schools or the civilian regional united schools was more complex. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the three Toisan County public middle schools, The Toisan County Middle School, The Toisan County Teachers' School, and the Toisan Women's Teachers' School, adopted the method of sending fund-raising representatives to America to raise funds. The civilian regional schools which included the Hong Wo (Kanghe) School and the Chisan (Jishan) Middle School also employed this method. Because the Toisan County Middle School occupied a top position in the county educational system and its fund-raising movement in America was typical, this section will discuss the characteristics of the middle school's 1930 fund-raising campaign.

The Toisan Middle School, founded in 1909, was known as the chui gou hok fu (zhuigao xuefu) or the academic high of Toisan. Though its main source of finances was the county government's educational fund, its school buildings were built completely with funds of Toisanese in the United States and Canada. In 1926, with the support of the Canadian Toisanese, the middle school constructed its first set of buildings. In 1929, in response to the need of the many graduates from the newly-developed junior high schools, the middle school set up a senor high section. The next year, the school launched a massive fund-raising campaign in U.S. Toisanese communities, in order to establish separate school buildings for a senior high section and to establish a permanent general operations fund.

Vital to the campaign was the selection of a fund-raising representative who had prestige in the local community and who possessed characteristics respected by the U.S. Toisanese. The fact that the Toisan County Middle School decided to send its principal to America for two years illustrates the importance of the position.

An important issue was how and by what means to solicit donations. Before going to America, the principal, Wong Tit Jang (Huang Tiezheng), developed a school building proposal with details on the expansion plan, the need for support from overseas countrymen, the amount of money needed, and the number of classrooms, student and teacher dormitories, and teaching facilities the donations could support (see Table 2). He wrote personally to the Ning Yung Association in San Francisco and its branches in other cities one month before he departed, stating the purpose of his trip and his hope that they would help him. He stressed that the school was the best in the entire Toisan school system and that the school's expansion was the hope of the local people and also of fellow countrymen abroad. Although the county government was responsible for the school's finances, it lacked the funds to develop the school. Wong noted that the county government always delayed paying out its school fund and that it was in debt to the school. Thus, he stated, the only way the school could expand was to seek assistance from overseas. He urged the U.S. Toisanese, with their "long, glorious tradition of contributing to the development of the hometown," to contribute again to the school.

TABLE 2: Fund-raising Plan of the Taishan County Middle School, 1930¹

Source: Taizhong Banyuekan (Taizhong biweekly), vol. 31/32 (Taishan, 1931).

Notes:

1. Fund-raising period was from January 1931 to December 1932. Two million Chinese dollars was equivalent to five hundred thousand American dollars.
2. Funds were deposited in a bank, earning an annual interest of about 50,000 dollars which could be used only for school management.
3. This amount was not in the regional proposal. Money and interest could only be used for tuition waiver and for stipends to poor students. The amount per student ranged from five to thirty dollars per semester.

Before Wong's departure, a variety of county organizations wrote support letters to the Ning Yung Association and other associations. Those who wrote included: the Toisan branch of the Guomindang (the nationalist party), and the Toisan County Autonomous Committee; the Businessmen's Association of Toisan, the Overseas Chinese Association of Toisan, and the Education Association of Toisan; the Chin, Wong, Yee, Lau, Lee, and Quon-Cheung-Chow clan organizations; the Toisan Student Association, and the Association of Toisan County Middle School Alumni.

In addition, one letter was signed on behalf of the entire county and another on behalf of all students and teachers of the Toisan County Middle School. It should be noted that even the head of the county, Lee Hoi Wan (Li Haiyun), wrote a letter to the Ning Yung Association and the Chinese Six Companies [sic] stating specifically that Principal Wong's campaign had been examined and endorsed by the county government.

Upon his arrival in San Francisco in October 1930, Wong went first to the Ning Yung Association to seek help. After the meeting, the association formulated a fund-raising charter and established a general committee in San Francisco and branches in cites such as Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, and New York.

The charter reveals the detailed organization of the fund-raising campaign. It consisted of twenty-one clauses related to the responsibilities and organization of committees for fund-raising; methods of collecting, depositing, and remitting the funds; and detailed items of different rewards for donors, etc. The charter stipulated that all donations should be remitted to the general committee in San Francisco and deposited in the American Trust Company. The money was drawn and remitted to Toisan only after the committee for the building of the middle school's senior high section mailed its budget to the general committee in San Francisco and after the signature of two-thirds or more members of the general committee had been obtained. The charter indicates that the Toisanese were very concerned about possible corruption in the course of fund-raising. One provision ruled that in cases of graft any person in America or China could be charged in court and his property confiscated as compensation.

After the establishment of committees, Wong began his fund-raising travels to various cities. Accompanied by representatives of the general committee, he arrived in a city where the local fund-raising committee and the Ning Yung Association branch would usually host a welcome banquet, There Wong would state the purpose of his trip and urge his fellow countrymen to donate. The leaders of the Ning Yung Association branch or of the clan organizations, who were usually the wealthy merchants, then responded with a public donation to the school. The elites usually donated several hundred or even thousands of dollars.

During his stay in a city, the principal and his committee went on a door-to-door campaign. If the donor gave more than fifty dollars, Wong requested a photo in order to make a porcelain picture. After each campaign, Wong mailed the donor roster to San Francisco to publish in The Chinese World, and sent the donations to the general committee in San Francisco.

From December 1930 to November 1932, The Chinese World frequently published the rosters of donors to the Toisan County Middle School. Examination of the rosters shows the majority of donors gave the obligatory five dollars. Thus it appears that except for a handful of wealthy merchants, most of the U.S. Toisanese belonged to the labouring class of laundrymen, cooks, domestic workers, restaurant workers, and so on. Spurred by patriotism to donate to the home county's educational development, they were, however, limited by their incomes. Moreover, the Great Depression which began in 1929 severely reduced the employment of Chinese Americans. Under the circumstances, the total amount of donations which the Toisan County Middle School expected - half a million U.S. dollars - seemed too high and the school building plan too ambitious.

Despite their limited financial capability, the U.S. Toisanese managed to donate $240,000. By the end of 1932, Wong returned to China. Because the funds were far less than expected, the school reduced its construction plans, and eliminated plans for a permanent school management fund and a tuition waiver fund for poor students. Construction was finished in 1936, with the addition of a female student dormitory; a senior section teaching building; a library, museum, and memorial hall; and cemented roads, gardens, pools, and lamp posts. Although the school did not fully realize its original plans, its new buildings were the best in the county.

Conclusion

The massive U.S. Toisanese donation movement for building modern schools in Toisan occurred in an era of rising nationalism in China. Seeking to abolish foreign oppression, the Chinese on both sides of the Pacific sought to modernized China. The fund-raising movements were a response to the drive "to help education to save China." In Toisan, an extensive education reform movement corresponding to national educational policy developed in the 1920s. One aspect of this movement was to obtain financial aid from the U.S. Chinese utilizing a variety of methods. In America, the powerful Ning Yung Association, along with other clan organizations, actively promoted fund-raising efforts.

Over a period of almost forty years, between the 1910s and the 1940s, the U.S. Toisanese donated a great deal of money to build or rebuild schools in Toisan. Chinese emigrants in other places, such as South America and Southeast Asia, also contributed to a lesser degree.

The substantial, continuing financial aid of the U.S. Toisanese during the country's education reform movement in the 1920s made it possible to realize one of the movement's objectives: to universalize primary education in Toisan. Although schools were fewer in areas with less emigration, modern elementary schools could be found throughout the county. As a result, most children of school age were attending school, a great achievement in those times. Universal primary education created a large pool of students from which the middle schools could select. The Toisan County Middle School, therefore, could select the best graduates from elementary schools and train many excellent students. Many of its graduates of the 1930s and 1940s went on to other parts of China, and became professors, musicians, engineers, doctors, and even chancellors and deans of universities.

However, it should be noted that the development of middle schools in the county did not keep pace with the growth of elementary schools. Table 1 indicates that there were 73,048 pupils in elementary schools in 1931. But there were only 2,879 students in middle schools (junior and senior high schools, middle teachers' schools, and vocational schools). This seems to indicate that the middle schools could only absorb about 4 percent of the elementary school graduates. As a result, many graduates of elementary schools had to go to other places, such as Guangzhou, to seek middle education opportunities.

Table 1 also shows that in 1931 there were only four public elementary schools, while 1,104 village elementary schools were private. Of these private elementary schools, all were clan schools except for a few united clan schools. Indeed, many clan elementary schools built imposing buildings and hired qualified teachers. However, some clan elementary schools did not meet the academic standards established by the Department of Education of Guangdong Province. Every school had to apply for accreditation with local education authorities who were responsible for examining the academic standards of schools. If the local education bureau approved a school's application, it would become a "registered school," officially sanctioned to operate. Denial of an application relegate the school to "unregistered" status. In 1919, 312, or 29 percent of the total schools in the county were unregistered. According to the accounts of the Taishan Chun Po of the 1920s, all these unregistered schools where clan schools. In theory unregistered schools should have been closed, but because they filled some gaps in the school system, the Department of Education allowed them to continue.

Another weakness in the Toisan educational system was the lopsided distribution of schools. Most of the schools with good equipment, sound school buildings, and qualified teachers were built in regions of higher emigration. Table 3 shows that in regions 2-11, where many Toisanese emigrated to the United States, schools were proportionately more numerous than in regions 12-19, where fewer people had emigrated to the United States or had gone to Southeast Asia.

TABLE 3: Comparison of the Registered and Unregistered Schools in Taishan, 1929

Source: The Taishan County Government Bulletin, Taishan, 1929, pp. 91-92.

The influence of U.S. Toisanese upon the county's educational development was mainly to provide great financial support for building ample, handsome school buildings. Overseas Chinese had little, if any, influence on Toisan's education in terms of curriculum or policy making. The whole county educational system followed the Guangdong provincial education regulations and national education decrees. Moreover, the U.S. Toisanese had only a general understanding of the kind of education necessary for the political and economic progress of the nation. Preoccupied with their own survival in America, they did not develop clear and systematic plans for modern educational development in Toisan. Nonetheless, without the school buildings and monetary support from the Chinese in America, modern educational reform in the county could not have been carried out.

In addition, by developing schools, the Toisanese abroad hoped to promote the growth of industry and agriculture in the county. They ultimately failed to realize their goal due to the complex relationship among the local bureaucracy, feudalism, foreign competition, etc., which is another topic in itself.

If the U.S. Toisanese wanted to develop industry and agriculture, why didn't they invest in them directly? Why did they actively fund schools but reluctantly invest in industry and agriculture?

Actually, at the turn of the century, the U.S. Toisanese had made several investment attempts in Toisan. In 1910, an emigrant returned to the county with modern equipment and set up Toisan's first textile mill. The products of the mill, however, could not compete with textiles imported from abroad. In the same period, Chin Yee Hee (Chen Yixi) had accumulated one and a half million U.S. dollars from his fellow countrymen to build the Sunning Railway, one of the three railways in China operated and built with private capital before 1949. From the construction of the first part of the railway, begun in 1906, the railway company suffered from chronic indebtedness. It was not until 1922 that the railway's shareholders received any dividends. Moreover, the Guangdong government's attempt to nationalize the civilian-administered railway in 1926 met with strong protest from local and overseas Toisanese. Due to the railway's bureaucratic and fiscal problems, especially after the Great Depression, the U.S. Toisanese believed that economic investment in the county was a losing proposition.

In ensuing years, the Japanese invasion of Guangdong and World War II were factors which also hampered further large scale investments by the U.S. Toisanese.

This essay suggests that historical research on Chinese Americans can be expanded by considering the political, social, and economic factors which exist in both China and America. Due to the long-term irregular relationship between the People's Republic of China and the United States, it has been difficult until recently for scholars in Chinese American studies to utilize local data in China. Attempting to fill this gap, the essay has utilized emigrant language materials to explore some of the factors which led to the development of school building in education in Toisan.

Further research would benefit from a closer examination of political and social conditions in Chinese American communities and in the broader society which affect the ability of the U.S. Chinese to contribute to the development of a modern education system in their emigrant homeland.

Taishan Genealogy
Copyright: ©2003 Jon Kehrer, Canberra