On June 2, 2023, the first seed of an idea to erect a Chinese school in Davao would be exactly a century old. This commemorates the organization of the 12-man Davao Chinese Educational Association on June 2, 1923, when Chuan Chin San was chosen as the first board chairman.
The idea is actually an offshoot of the suggestion four days earlier of Chinese (Taiwanese) consul-general Chou Kuo Shian who was in Davao to conduct an inspection tour. At the time, the Chinese population in Davao already breached the one-thousand mark.
A year later, Te Chiu Im, one of the group’s directors, sailed to Manila to recruit mentors and to appeal for government permission for them to conduct a fund drive and receive donations to match the money so far collected from donors as part of putting on track a provisional school.
The opening of Davao Chinese High School (now Davao Chong Hua High School) was launched on June 3, 1924. Originally, it was housed in a rented space along San Pedro Street with two classrooms and 30 pupils. Lee Leng Tee served as principal while Ho Leng Ortega and Te Lun Tek were employed as teachers.
Tee, between 1926 and 1931, was succeeded as principal by Ko Chi Gan, Lee Kimtong, Sy Siu Pek, and Liat Ku Khiam. During the same period, the student population trebled to 108. Sy served as principal until 1939 when he was replaced by Go Bun Ping.
Through the generosity of Lim Chuan Hun, a Chinese trader who assumed the Christian name Francisco Juna Lim Villa Abrille who donated a one-hectare land for use as a school site, the projected school building was started in October 1924; the structure was over in just two months. So, by January 1925, the classes had to be moved to the schools’ permanent home.
It was in October 1930 that the institute was given recognition by the Chinese Department of Education and Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission. It was not until August 9, 1938, that the school was accorded recognition by the Philippine government.
During the war, which cost the lives of three school board members. the school was turned into a Japanese hospital. After the conflict, what was left was only a solitary standing structure. Still, only months after the liberation of the city, the school reopened in November 1945 with 345 students; Liat Lu Kim assumed as the new principal.
To address the fast-growing student population, a two-story building was built in 1946 with a social hall on the second floor which the Board named Chuan Hun Memorial Hall, after the donor of the school site. It was in 1949 that the first batch of Chinse junior high school graduates numbering 15 was feted. That same year, an executive committee was formed to manage the institution.
A year later, under principal Liang Shi Chief, the school published its first gazette, Nan Tan Qiao Jia Zhi Jeng (The Mindanao Oversea Chinese Education News), and with it the introduction of the institute’s first-ever intramurals. The student population during this period rose to 1,027.
Davao City High School’s progress was so impressive that by 1956 a branch was opened in Tagum City. Two years later, another branch was inaugurated in Digos City.
The institute’s history has its highs and lows. In 1966, as part of road expansion, the government expropriated 3,000 square meters from the school site. This resulted in the separation of the high school department from the elementary. Fortunately, Wee Siu Yen, chairman of the Board, donated a basketball court in a vacant lot within the elementary department premises.
On April 23, 1973, under Presidential Decree 175, which Filipinized all foreign schools, the institution was renamed Davao Central High School and, decades later, as Davao Chong Hua High School. The school symbol is Mei Huan, the national flower of China.
