On Not Learning Chinese: Multiple Chineseness of the Chinese Schools in the Philippines Ker-wei Chien A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology University of Essex October 2018 0 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is a bit surreal for me to finally reach the end of the PhD and to have a chance writing acknowledgements at this moment. I am completely sure that I could have not kelp going without generous supports from many people. First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Yasemin Soysal who did not give up me when I almost gave up myself. I am not a particularly active PhD student and sometimes shied away from meeting supervisor. But she is always supportive, instructive, but strict in helping me complete the PhD step by step even when I faced extremely difficult situations. You are a good teacher for not only your intelligence, but your kindness and toughness. I am also indebted to the Ministry of Education of ROC (Taiwan) as my sponsor offering me the governmental scholarship. The reason why I choose to come back to Taiwan without second thought is because I feel obligated to pay it back to not only the scholarship, but my family and my homeland who nurture me. Many thanks to all my teachers, classmates, friends, colleagues, and students of National Chung Cheng University and National Tsinghua University. You all help me formulate my target as an educationalist and provide me a ground to practise my ideals. I am grateful to all administrators, teachers, students of the Chinese schools, all my friends, and those who have contributed to my PhD study in the Philippines. You are all so generous when I worked and subsequently conducted my fieldwork in Manila. See you soon! Finally, I would say that the thesis is dedicated to my family. I met my wife, Bing, in the beginning of my PhD and she gave birth to our daughter, Tonia, by the end of the PhD. Thanks for your supports and company during the journey we shared. I Love you. The completion of the PhD is particularly for my sister, my father, and my mother. Words fails me in terms of how grateful I am to them. My mother left me during the PhD. You always said you don’t have to see me if I am away somewhere but happy. Now we can’t see each other, but I believe you are in a place and happily pursuing your goal. I promise I try my best to happily pursue my goal too. I miss you. 1 Abstract In light of the ‘methodological cosmopolitanism’ of Ulrich Beck and Natan Sznaider (2006), this thesis aims to investigate the multiplicity of Chineseness produced in the Chinese schools in the Philippines. The study draws on participant observation based on my one-year teaching in a Philippine-Chinese school, on-site interviews with students, parents, administrators, educationalists and officials, and archival and documentary research. The major findings of the study reveal that: (i) viewed from different perspectives, three versions of Chineseness generated in Chinese school emerge: Huaqiao Chineseness with the nationalistic view of China as the motherland embodied by the traditional teaching approach involved in ‘teaching Mandarin as a national language’; Huaren Chineseness which proposes to seek a balance between the younger generations’ Mandarin learning and Filipino outlook; ‘communal Chineseness for integration’ by which the younger generations are provided with community-based resources to enter the upper-middle class in the social stratification of the Philippine mainstream society; (ii) Mandarin education practised in Chinese schools is predominated by the view of Huaqiao Chineseness which not only has a devastating effect on the effectiveness of its teaching but also impedes the educational reform launched by the supporters of Huaren Chineseness from promoting the teaching approach fit for Chinese-Filipino identity of the younger generations by means of teaching Mandarin as a second language; (iii) As the current Mandarin education fails to be adapted to the local environment, it is ‘communal Chineseness for integration’ that plays a role in their integration into the mainstream and in helping them enter upper-middle class positioning in the Philippine social stratification; by contrast, Mandarin education has become increasingly irrelevant to their everyday life and career development. These findings have implications for further researches that (1) the eye of methodological cosmopolitanism can help explore the extent of cosmopolitanisation in an overseas Chineseness community’s Chineseness in general and Chinese education in specific; (2) the extent of cosmopolitanisation of an overseas Chinese education in constructing and projecting Chineseness can affect its cultural preservation in the destination country and forge a unique path of integration into the mainstream society for an overseas Chinese community. Keywords: Cosmopolitanisation; Chineseness; Chinese education, the Chinese in the Philippines 2 Content CHAPTER 1: Introduction 7 1.1 Introduction 7 1.2 From National Culture of the Fatherland to Minority Ethnicity in Destination Country 12 1.3 Setting the Framework for the Study of Chineseness Production in Chinese Schools 16 1.3.1 Huaqiao and Chinese Diaspora 17 1.3.2 Chineseness as an Open Signifier 20 1.3.3 Methodological Nationalism versus Methodological Cosmopolitanism in Studies of Overseas Chinese Education 24 1.3.4 Exploring the Extent of Cosmopolitanisation of Chinese education 29 1.4 Research Method 31 1.5 Structure of the Thesis 38 CHAPTER 2: The Citizenship for the Philippine-Chinese and the Chinese-Filipino School System in Historical Perspective 46 2.1 Introduction 46 2.2 The General Condition and Education in the Spanish Period 47 2.3 Citizenship for the Chinese and the Origins of the Chinese School System under the American Rule 50 2.4 Citizenship and Education during the Cold War 56 2.5 Post-Cold War Citizenship and Education 63 CHAPTER 3: Huaqiao Chineseness and Huaqiao Education 66 3 3.1 Introduction 70 3.2 Huaqiao Citizenship as Transnational Mobilisation System 70 3.3 The Attributes of Huaqiao Citizenship 3.3.1 Citizenship beyond Consent 78 3.3.2 Sinocentric Culturalism 81 3.3.3 Borderlessness 83 3.4 The Connection between Huaqiao Citizenship and Huaqiao Education 84 3.4.1 Unity of National Language 86 3.4.2 Unity of Educational Pedagogy 87 3.4.3 Unity of National Identity 90 3.5 Underground Huaqiao Education in the Current Post-Huaqiao Period 92 3.5.1 Quasi-state/citizen Relationships through Education 95 3.5.2 Fatherland-centred Textbooks and Teacher Supplies 104 3.5.3 Teaching Mandarin as a National Language 110 3.6 Chinese Education as Undesirable Citizenship Education 116 3.7 Conclusion 122 CHAPTER 4: Huaren Chineseness, Huaren Education, and Its Predicament 125 4.1 Introduction 125 4.2 Huaren Chineseness and Huaren Education 128 4.2.1 Emergence of Huaren Chineseness in Chinese Community 128 4.2.2 Huaren Education and Teaching Mandarin as a Second Language 132 4.3 The Predicament of Huaren Education 139 4.3.1 Clashes between Huaqiao and Huaren Education in School 139 4.3.2 Entanglement with the PRC version of Chineseness 141 4.3.3 Crossfire between the Two Chinas' Huaqiao Chineseness 142 4.3.4 Lack of Support from the Community 147 4.4 Conclusion 148 4 CHAPTER 5: Communal Chineseness for Integration into Domestic Philippine Society 150 5.1 Introduction 150 5.2 Filipinization and Banal Nationalism at School Level 153 5.2.1 Ritual Display 154 5.2.2 National Curriculum 156 5.2.3 The Use of National Language 157 5.2.4 Interethnic Intimacy in School 159 5.3 Chinese Schools for Integration 160 5.3.1 Symbolic Chineseness 160 5.3.2 Social Capital for Upward Mobility 168 5.3.3 Mechanisms of Class Mobility and Social Reproduction 177 5.4 Conclusion 188 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION 190 6.1 Multiplicity as Cosmopolitanisation 190 6.2 Entanglement and Complexity 194 6.3 Theoretical Implications 197 APPENDIXES Appendix 1: The Interview Guide for Teachers and Administrators 202 Appendix 2: The Interview Guide for Students and Parents 204 Appendix 3: The Timeline of the Historical Development of the Chinese School System in the Philippines 206 References 209 5 Index of Tables Table 1: Interviewees and Schools during my Fieldwork 36 Table 2: Time line of the Whole Research Journey 42 Table 3: The Educational Aids provided by the PRC and ROC 99 Table 4: The Comparison between Huaqiao and Huaren Chineseness 126 Table 5: Three Types of Chinese Schools 181 Index of Figures Figure 1: News about a son's 'passing the exam for the qualification as a lawyer' in a local Chinese newspaper 165 Figure 2: A banner made by the PCC to honour three students who won in a Mathematical Olympiad Challenge 165 Figure 1: A Model of Socio-cultural Stratification and Mobility in Philippine-Chinese Society 172 6 Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Introduction This thesis is derived from a negative experience of teaching Mandarin. In 2009, I was a Mandarin teacher at a Chinese school in the Philippines sent by the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) of the Republic of China (ROC, Taiwan), one of two governments – the other being the People’s Republic of China (PRC) – that claims to legitimately represent all of China, on a mission to counterbalance the PRC’s influence on the Philippine Chinese community. Before my departure, I had discovered that Mandarin ability among the Chinese in the Philippines was in decline, despite news of ‘Mandarin fever’ and ‘the rise of China’ prevalent in the media. In contrast to a growing number of non-Chinese eagerly establishing ties with China by learning Mandarin, studying abroad and working in China, it is particularly astonishing to me that these ethnic Chinese appear reluctant to learn it.