Chung Hwa Confucian High School

Chung Hwa Confucian High School, or Sekolah Menengah Jenis Kebangsaan Chung Hwa Confucian, is a secondary boys' school in Island Park, Penang. Along with Chung Hwa Confucian Primary School off Ibbetson Road, Chung Hwa Confucian holds the distinction of being the oldest formally established Chinese school in Malaysia and the first to use Mandarin as the medium of instruction.

The founding of Chung Hwa Confucian can be attributed to a number of wealthy Chinese businessmen of the late 19th century, among them Cheong Fatt Tze, Khoo Sian Ewe, and Tye Kee Yoon. Concerned that the education provided by the English-oriented schools, among them the Penang Free School, St George's Girls School and Methodist Boys' School, is creating a new generation of Chinese who have lost touch with the Chinese culture and language, they set forth to create a school where the children of first-generation immigrants can continue their education in Chinese. However, as the Chinese community in Penang is composed of various dialect groups, and until then Chinese-oriented educated was provided in the mother tongue, most commonly Hokkien using Literary Chinese, the founders of Chung Hwa Confucian took the radical move to use Mandarin.

Chung Hwa Confucian High School (31 May 2012)


The founding of Chung Hwa School was sanctioned by the Qing government of China, becoming the only overseas Chinese school to receive the approval of the Chinese Imperial Government. This was in 1904, in the run-up to the 1911 Chinese Revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty.

Chung Hwa School began classes on 15 May, 1904. Its original location was within the premises of the Ping Zhang Hui Guan, a Chinese clan association located next to the Kuan Im Teng. This is where the Penang Chinese Town Hall is presently located.

After four year at Pitt Street, it moved into its own building in Maxwell Road. It was designed in 1907 by the architectural firm of H.A. Neubronner, who also designed the Penang Hong Kong Bank Building a year earlier (that building was however destroyed during the Second World War, and the present one dates from after the war). It was next to the Anglo-Chinese School. (The Anglo-Chinese School had been there from 1897 until 1929, when it relocated to the grounds of Suffolk House and was then renamed the Methodist Boys School).

1911 was a turbulent year for China. The Chinese Revolution resulted in the collapse of the Qing Dynasty Government and the establishment of the Republic of China. It had far reaching effect, as funding for Chung Hwa School from the Imperial Government came to a halt. It was then that the Confucian Temple, under the Penang Confucian Association, stepped in to allocate funds for the school. In gratitude, the school took on the name "Confucian", an adjective for Confucius, becoming known from then on as the Chung Hwa Confucian School.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Chung Hwa Confucian School provided space to the St John Ambulance Brigade, which had its headquarters at the school until the 1950s.

In 1972, the Chung Hwa Confucian High School relocated to its present premises at 2, Persiaran Tembaga, at the newly established residential estate of Island Park. The Chung Hwa Confucian Primary School remained at the Maxwell Road location until 1972, when it moved out to make way for the Komtar urban renewal project, and shifted to 2 Ibbetson Road.

Location of Chung Hwa Confucian High School on the map

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