In 1948, a few years after the close of World War II, the number of the Chinese in the Philippines decreased in proportion to the country’s total population. Of the 121,702 Chinese in the Philippines, 2,126 were cooks and 963 were carpenters. Interestingly, there were 1,114 Chinese bankers, 1,669 domestic helpers, 181 family drivers, 99 laundrymen, 75 yayas, 536 tailors and 296 sewers. With regards to the sewers, 135 were hand sewers while 161 were machine sewers. The number of Chinese shopkeepers totaled 9,029.
The present Chinese community basically developed from what it was after the war. This makes one wonder where the Chinese in the above-mentioned occupations had gone? What happened to them? Did the postwar era opened to this working class great opportunities to improve their lot?
First published in Tulay Fortnightly, Chinese-Filipino Digest 15, No. 17 (February 4, 2003): 5.
