Selangor may get two new Chinese schools

Compiled by C. ARUNO and PANG SHIANG YIH

SELANGOR may get two new independent Chinese schools in the near future following news of overcrowding, Sin Chew Daily reported.

It was earlier reported that the Selangor government had announced that a new independent Chinese school would be built in the state as the current capacity in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor could only cater to between 40% and 50% of applicants.

According to sources close to the matter, the authorities have identified two plots of land for the purpose.

When interviewed, United Chinese School Committees’ Associat-ion of Malaysia (Dong Zong) president Tan Tai Kim said he viewed the news positively and hoped that the matter would not be politicised.

Asked if he knew about the planned location of the two schools, Tan urged the public to wait for the announcement from the Selangor mentri besar.

As Selangor’s only four independent Chinese schools are all in Klang, it is expected that the two new ones will be built outside of the city.

It was earlier reported that independent Chinese schools in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur have had to turn away between 3,000 and 4,000 applicants each year due to a lack of vacancies.

Enrolment at independent Chinese schools nationwide reached an all-time high of 85,000 in 2017 but dropped to 82,000 in the most recent school year, a result of the decline in the country’s Chinese population.

> Hong Kong actor Chapman To, whose pro-Hong Kong stance has caused him to be blacklisted in mainland China, announced that he has migrated to Taiwan, China Press reported.

The 50-year-old, who has been based on the island for the past year, now holds a Taiwan national identification card.

“I am a Taiwanese,” he was heard saying in Hokkien recently.

He told reporters on Feb 22 that he was not staying in Taiwan on a business visa but had officially migrated there.

In an earlier Facebook post, To wrote that to promote more Hong Kong students to pursue their studies in Taiwan, he had set up a scholarship specifically to support them.

His political stand caused two of his 2014 movies to flop in the Chinese box office and ever since then, work in the film industry has dried up for him.

He now focuses on independently produced satirical videos online.

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> Renowned veteran Hong Kong film director Chor Yuen passed away on Feb 21 at the age of 87, China Press also reported.

Born on Oct 8, 1934, in Guangdong, China, to an actor father, Chor got into the movie industry as a film editor in 1956.

Within just two years, he directed and acted in his first film Lakeside Grass, making a name for himself.

In his 40-year career, the filmmaker would be best known for adapting the works of wuxia (martial arts) novelist Gu Long.

Chor was last seen in public in 2018 receiving a lifetime achievement award from his peers.

His most well-known films include The Great Devotion (1960), Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972) and The House of 72 Tenants (1973).

In his lifetime, Chor – who is survived by his wife, veteran actress Nam Hung, also 87 – was credited with over 120 films as director, over 70 films as a writer, and more than 40 movies as an actor.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.