The early life of Zhou En Lai shows the importance the Chinese places on education even in the warlord’s era of 1900s.
It also shows the support provided by relatives to enable Zhou to have an education and thus a better life.
He was born into a declining mandarin’s family in Jiangsu Province in 1898.
In 1910, his dad’s elder brother, an official with the Bureau of Finance, asked him to live with him in Manchuria so that he can further his study.
But there was no good school. So, his uncle asked a cousin, who lived in a nearby town, to help Zhou to live there and attend a school there.
In 1913, his uncle was transferred to Tianjin. He brought Zhou along and so he ended up studying in the famous Nankai School, set up by prominent Confucian and Qing officer Yan Xiu. (p 18 -22 Zhou Enlai A Life by Chen Jian 2024 published).
The Nanyang immigrants to Malaya similarly placed a premium in education as can be seen from this book on Chinese education in Malaysia, 200 years of Chinese Education in Malaysia by Kua Kia Soong.