Talk:The Chinese High School

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This article is really bad. Nonexistant history, no mention of being the communist school in Singapore, a single sentence on the consortium system...

Things todo:

• School history from 1919 to 1979, including Sino-Jap War, WW2, communist plotting, etc
• School history from 1979 to present, including SAP, independent school, consortium system, circumstances leading to IP, etc
• Student Union
• School song! I can remember the 1st stanza but it's definitely 'spelt' wrong, and I need stanza 2 and 3. Can some wikipedian who sings it everyday (ie someone from TCHS) fill in for me?

-Hmib 03:05, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 No merge 2 Let it be merged! 3 Chicken house 4 students' union 5 School song 6 language medium pre-independence

[edit] No merge

Saw the merge notice. Definitely not. TCHS and HCI are two different schools. HCI is not the school that was founded by Tan Kah Kee, and TCHS was not incorporated with HCJC. So no. -- Миборовский ^{U|T|C|M|E|Chugoku Banzai!} 00:18, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

The Chinese High School has a very long and independent history. Think about the long list of principals, famous alumni (under the name of The Chinese High School) and also famous teachers. The founding of TCHS is different from the founding of HCI. Their history may overlap at this current crossroad... but things will be different decades from now. minghan 12:56, 28 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Let it be merged!

Since the former HCJC and TCHS are at the current point in time merged and functioning as one school, with merged CCAs (e.g. EC³), staff departments, etc. I think that the three articles should be merged although the JC section & High School section should have their own separate sections for history,etc. in the new article. Information concerning the school from 2005 onwards should be in a combined section though. --Wonglkd 11:47, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

In case you haven't read, this article is about The Chinese High School, 1919-2004, not HCI. HCI does not and never will represent The Chinese High School 1919-2004. So, no merge. -- Миборовский ^{U|T|C|M|E|Chugoku Banzai!} 23:23, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

Disagreed. We can have the history of the school in a section under HCI. Frankchn 14:36, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

The section about TCHS in HCI should only be a brief intro. This merge is like asking to merge History of Colonial Singapore with History of Republican Singapore... Though the two are closely related, they are not equivalent. Each article should only cover its own area. 23:22, 20 January 2006 (UTC) -- Миборовский ^{U|T|C|M|E|Chugoku Banzai!} 23:22, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

There is enough history for both HCJC and TCHS to warrant their own pages. In a way, both institutions no longer exits, taken over by a new school called HCI, warranting the creation of a new page.--Huaiwei 11:08, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

I'll take down the merge message, hmmkay? -- Миборовский ^{U|T|C|M|E|Chugoku Banzai!} 04:13, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Chicken house

I can attest to it being called the chicken house, but I'm sure it's not notable. ;) -- Миборовский ^{U|T|C|M|E|Chugoku Banzai!} 00:48, 27 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] students' union

Wah lao. I think some of the anonymous editors keep emphasising the wrong schoolkruft. Forget the introduction of "numerous enrichment programmes" (unless they're specified on the depth and the field, ie. Chinese history - they're not particularly engaging). However, this Students' Union sounds interesting....it sounds, like a political association, almost. Is it the same type of union from the 1950s/1960s? Is it like a trade union, or something resembling student democracy? The alumni is one thing, but what the school did (or perhaps did not really do?) to cleanup/purge after those incidents might be an interesting subject that could almost lead to being quite a good school article if you emphasise the right history. :p Elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (Be eudaimonic!) 03:46, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Eh... lemme tell you a rather interesting anecdote. The Student Union is now called the Student Council. Reason: We (the disgruntled students fed up with the school's totalitarian decision-making and lack of student-teacher understanding and all that) reminded the student union, that the definition of a "union" is that they're supposed to be working for the benefits of the members. The next year they changed its name to the Student Council. Meaning, "we're in charge of you folks". ;) It pretty much serves as a mouthpiece of the administration to make unilateral decisions by the school board sound like student initiatives. -- Миборовский 04:55, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Eh, but it's a sharp distinction from the other schools, where students only have the power of suggestion, or simply prefectorial boards or "mentorship" schemes. This particular studentn council/union, is it the same type of entity (ie. despite renamings) that instigated the protests and eventually riots in the 1950s/1960s?

I still think having a student union is pretty cool, if they kept their history. I guess it's how the PAP is pretty cool for their efforts in 1959 (although they're kind of you know what, now). I mean even if it's a mouthpiece, the students seem to self-organise a lot on their own, don't they? Elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (Be eudaimonic!) 10:09, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Its now called Student Council because of the college side. It will be funny if there is a union at the high sch side and council at the college side. Anyway, the passing of bills and votings by teachers for such bills still stand. The new SALT centre will also feature a mock parliament. See the article Hwa Chong Institution (section on renovation). -- minghan 13:07, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

Does it come complete with an Elections Department and a Parliamentary Elections Act? :-P (j/k) Anyway, student elections are one thing, I thought it would be rather neat to have a student body that had some potential for real impact, ie. organise demonstrations/strikes (or a constructive purpose), rather than the usual stuff, ya know? Elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (Be eudaimonic!) 20:28, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

"Mock parliament" means exactly that: a mockery of the real parliament of SG which is itself a mockery of parliaments which actually have power. Actually, the SU has no actual clout, it cannot organise demonstrations or even express dissident opinions. Civil disobedience was carried out by individual students only. -- Миборовский 22:35, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

So it never played a role in the unrest of the 1950s and 1960s? Surely got some history? Elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (Be eudaimonic!) 23:58, 13 June 2006 (UTC)

The SU is a recent thing, after the consortium system. Actually, I think the year I went to TCHS (2001?) was the 2nd year of the SU. -- Миборовский 02:37, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Oh? Because the riot article seem to mention a thing or two about unions, some comprised of students, in the Chinese schools. Guess they must not be the same ones. Elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (Be eudaimonic!) 04:06, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Let me clarify... it has been the council thing all along, until 2001, when it finally changed to Student Union (SU). The SU is headed by the SUST (Students' Union Strategic Team), and overseen by a teacher-in-charge. 2001 was the 1st SU... and only lasted till 2004, the 4th SU. After that, 2005, HCJC and CHS merged to become HCI. The rest is history. Regarding the riots thing, there were many Chinese students who were discontented, so some students staged sit ins, etc (this is also true for Chung Cheng High School). However, I understand that for CHS, some matters were resolved after the Chairman of the Board of Governers, then Lee Kong Chian, a very influential figure in Singapore's history, stepped in to negotiate matters. -- minghan 13:50, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Please see Google Cache regarding school history. -- minghan 15:43, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] School song

Anyway, is there any point in having the school song there? Especially in a wikipedia article? -- minghan 15:59, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

Why not? It's relevant. -- Миборовский 22:20, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] language medium pre-independence

Was just curious, what mediums did Chinese schools like TCHS use before the standardisation into Putonghua, and later Simplified and whatnot? Since even in 1980 Mandarin speakers were only at 26%, goodness knows what it was in 1922. Since there would have been far more dialects than Standard Mandarin, did they have to use dialects in the classroom? Elle _{vécut heureuse} ^{à jamais} (Be eudaimonic!) 09:09, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

traditional chinese? don't forget that the current school song, although only written in the 1970s, is in traditional chinese. Lao She taught in the school in 1929. I think he would have used traditional chinese. However, I do admit that maybe dialects was used to communicate ideas as most youths at that time should know how to speak dialects -- most likely their first language before they picked up chinese. -- mh 12:42, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Traditional Guanhua (not called Putonghua at the time, IIRC). -- Миборовский 00:02, 5 July 2006 (UTC)