LLG Cultural Development Centre expresses its deepest condolence on the demise of Mr. Zhang Ya Shan (张雅山), the permanent advisor to Dong Jiao Zong and the veteran Chinese Educationist. Mr. Zhang has contributed his service to Malacca Pay Fong High School (Independent) for half of his lifespan. He never failed to take the lead in the fundraising campaigns for Pay Fong High School. The fortress of Chinese education was built brick-by-brick and roof tile-by-roof tile by selfless and devoted people like Mr. Zhang Ya Shan.
Due to Mr. Zhang’s brave resistance, Pay Fong High School survived the tide of ‘conformation’ of Chinese Secondary Schools in 1960 and remained the only Chinese Secondary School in Malacca with its medium of instruction intact. This is a triumph in the history of Chinese education movement which cannot be separated from the persistence of Mr. Zhang.
It is through his spirit of protecting Chinese education and preserving the root of the Malaysian Chinese that LLG Cultural Development Centre awarded the 9th “Lim Lian Geok Spiritual Award” to Mr. Zhang Ya Shan in 1996. In the long road of Chinese education, Mr. Zhang Ya Shan has left an immortal and illustrious legacy. His life achievements will be narrated from generation to generation, and continue to guide and motivate numberless Chinese educationists in their struggle for the unfinished task of a just and democratic mother tongue education policy in Malaysia!
Dr. Toh Kin Woon
President of LLG Cultural Development Centre