JEDDAH, 7 March 2004 — If it is Thursday, it must be Chinese school day. The Chinese Language School (CLS) at the Taiwan Center caters to a small Chinese community of less than 500 in Jeddah and holds classes only on Thursdays. Students are taught Chinese and classes are held for about five hours in the afternoon. In the evening there are cultural activities, followed by dinner. Parents, family and friends join in.
“Anything related to Chinese is a specialization of the school, and foreigners who want to learn Chinese are also welcome,” Chin Ray Liu, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Jeddah, sponsor of the school, said.
Chin said there was a plan to turn the school into an international school, as there is no school for the Chinese community. Last year it was renamed Taiwan Community School.
According to Chin, of the nearly 20,000 Chinese in the Kingdom, some 18,000 have become Saudi citizens. A majority of them live in Taif and they all came to Saudi Arabia about 50 years ago. The remaining 2,000 have Taiwanese passports.
Children of the Chinese Saudis are able to attend government schools and attend Saudi universities. Children of those with Taiwan passports, even though they were born here, have a problem especially when it comes to college education. Being born here, they do not speak Chinese.
“They need a regular school,” Chin said. They can go to Saudi schools but not to Saudi universities. If there were a full Chinese school, those students could go to universities in Taiwan, China or the United States. He explained that the school would follow the Taiwanese system which is one of the best in the world.
“Taiwan is a country with limited natural resources, so we put a lot of emphasis on education, laying a strong foundation so that our students are capable of continuing their studies abroad,” he added.
Chang Yi, consul general of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Jeddah, said the Chinese Ministry of Education has a policy of encouraging Taiwanese students to study in China in order to maintain good cultural relations. He said that if they met ministry rules and regulations they were welcome to study in China. According to Chang, nearly 95 percent of the Kingdom’s Chinese are from a Muslim area in China. They live mainly in Makkah and Madinah and since few live in Jeddah and those who do have their children in local or international schools, no need was felt for a school for them.
“The present school, which was established in 1978 when the Chinese Embassy was in Jeddah, continued off and on for six years,” said Dawood Ting, commissioner of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission (OCAC).
Dawood came to Jeddah in 1978 and took over as chairman of the school’s board of directors last year. He is a gentle busy 77-year-old man, with a constant smile on his face. He started the Tak-Yan Construction Co., Ltd., in 1978 in partnership with Ahmed Salah Jamjoom, his sponsor for 24 years. Now Dawood is running the company independently and is its director. He has worked on projects in Riyadh, Dammam, Jubail, Taif, Madinah, Jizan, and Qassim.
The OCAC, whose objective is to look after the welfare of Chinese living abroad, especially concerning education, is nearly 90 years old. It is found everywhere in the world where Chinese live. The main office is in Taipei.
Yasmin Tseng, one of the school’s founders, said it was originally established in a villa at King Fahd Hospital at a time when there were many Chinese doctors and nurses at the hospital and Chinese engineers working on infrastructure development. She has served as principal and director and is now a consultant.
She said foreign students were welcome at the school and would learn about Taiwan, culture, tourism and language. She hoped that Saudis would take advantage of the two scholarships for university study instituted four years ago by the Taiwan Ministry of Education.
The school is run by a nine-member board of directors which elected Aladdin Nouruddin Mabofan as principal two years ago. It has eight teachers, including Chin, and all are volunteers. There are 35-40 students and the school is equipped with a library, computer room, educational videos, CDs, books and magazines.
Mabofan, now 56, retired from Abdullah Hashim Company two years ago as general manager (administration), after 27 years of service. He has been supporting the school since its inception. He came to Saudi Arabia at the age of 12 with his grandfather Gen. Mohammad Hussain Mabofan who was governor of a Muslim area in the northwest of China. He was accompanied by about 200 families which included some 1,200 people.
They left China in 1949 and lived in Egypt for about 7 years before coming to Saudi Arabia. Gen. Mabofan had a Republic of China (ROC) passport and was appointed the first ambassador to the Kingdom. After retiring he stayed on and was given Saudi citizenship by King Saud in 1960.
