Book excerpt: "This edited volume examines the historical development of Chinese-medium schools from the British colonial era to recent decades of divergent development after the 1965 separation of Singapore and Malaysia. Educational institutions have been a crucial state apparatus in shaping the cultural identity and ideology of ethnic Chinese in Singapore and Malaysia. This volume applies various perspectives from education theory to heritage studies in dealing with the cultural legacy and memory of such schools as situated in larger contexts of society. The book offers comprehensive practice-based analysis and reflection about the complex relationships between language acquisition, identity construction, and state formation from socio-political-cultural perspectives. It covers a broad range of aspects from identities of culture, gender and religion, to the roles played by the state and the community in various aspects of education such as textbooks, cultural activities, adult education, as well as the representation of the culture in Chinese schools through cultural memory and literature. The readership includes academics, students and members of the public interested in history and society of Chinese diaspora especially in Southeast Asia. This also appeals to scholars interested in bilingual or multilingual outlook in education as well as diasporic studies"--