A Window into Nanyang University: Controversy over the 1965 Wang Gungwu Report

Abstract

The dream of building a university to serve the Chinese community in Singapore and Malaya was first mooted by a group of rich Chinese businessmen in 1950 and then publicly announced in 1953. Formal classes began in 1956 and an official opening ceremony held in 1958. The birth of the Nanyang University was painful and the journey an arduous one. Eventually, the university was unceremoniously shut down in 1980 by the Singapore government through a merger scheme. Discussion for a full renaming of the university and some forms of resurrection was attempted in the early 2000s but yet were abruptly aborted by 2005. This chapter serves as one useful window to glimpse into its long and complicated history. It provides an in-depth examination of the controversy aroused over the 1965 University Curriculum Review Committee Report submitted by Professor Wang Gungwu as Chairman of the committee. It begins by exploring how the government methodically set the stage for a third major external review of Nantah, coming after the S.L. Prescott Report (1959) and the Gwee Ah Leng Report (1960). It then lays out the essence of the Wang Gungwu report and the storm of student protests it quickly unleashed, before examining three significant contextual issues: differing notions of “Being Malayan”, positioning the Chinese language, and perceiving “Anglicisation”.