Summers in the 1980s were in part spent in my mother’s home province Pakil, Laguna. The last week of our stay was often Holy Week. Good Friday meant visiting the traditional stations of the cross. Except Pakil had its own tradition with the stations of the cross. Towering over Pakil is Mt. Ping-as. Every year, […]
Filipino and Chinese drug law enforcers have joined hands in anti-narcotics operations that paid off big time: a drug bust that netted 604 kilos of shabu with street value of P3 billion, in Valenzuela City last May 26. The cooperative effort was made possible after President Duterte’s state visit to China on Oct. 16 to […]
The Ties that Bind – the Saga of the Sultan of Sulu in China (Kaisa Para Sa Kaunlaran, 2017, 109 pp.) uses references and resources from China and the Philippines – including valuable photographs – to document the historic visit of the Sultan of Sulu to pay tribute to the imperial court of Ming Emperor […]
No doctor to the royal family would have thought his prescriptions could fetch princely sums some 200 years after his death. Yet, Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) imperial physician Wang Bichang’s manuscript which records 540 kinds of prescriptions, has been valued recently at RMB216 million (P1.576 billion). Born in 1764, Wang was selected for the Imperial Hospital […]
The 23rd day of the third month of the lunar calendar is the birthday of Maza (媽祖), prompting festivals in her honor around the world. In Singapore, her birthday is observed in a four-day festival in her honor. Mazu is probably one of the most-worshipped Chinese goddesses. Yet, she began life like anyone: a baby […]
A restoration is more than a new coat of paint to freshen up a relic’s appearance. This was underlined in China’s third list of 10 best cultural relic restoration projects – including the thousand-armed Avalokitesvara (Guanyin) in Dazu, Chongqing municipality – recently released by a government agency. On International Day on Monuments and Sites, the […]
Tsinoys off to Quanzhou, Fujian province to visit ancestral homes and villages should drop by Qingjing Mosque 清淨寺on Tumen Street, one of China’s oldest mosques. A mosque is a place of worship for Muslims. Also known as Masjid al-Ashab, Qingjing Mosque was built 1,010 years ago during the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) in the Arabian […]
Luningning Tan-Gatue, 86, has kept the Philippine flag flying for decades. Flag-making is her family’s business. And the period leading up to Independence Day is extremely busy for her. Granddaughter Addrianne Marie goes over the orders, which could come in the “hundreds of thousands” during the “peak season” from mid-May to June 12. Addrianne’s twin, […]
In February 466 AD, during the Southern Dynasties period (420-589), Liu Zi Xun (劉子勛), the king of Jin An (晉安王), declared a rebellion against the emperor, Song Ming Di (宋明帝). He proclaimed himself emperor at Xun Yang (尋陽) in Jiangxi (江西) province and gained support from many prefectures. With only a few prefectures and counties […]
Crisis in Marawi, martial law in Mindanao, suffering of evacuees, tragedy at Resorts World Manila, fake news from the Department of Justice. These filled the front pages of newspapers and topped the newscasts on the eve of celebrations for the nation’s 119th Independence Day. It was as if the events had conspired to thumb collective […]