There is a Chinese saying, “In a nest that falls, there are no eggs left unbroken (傾窼之下無完卵).” And when we say we are the same people in one country – mother Philippines – we always say we are in the same boat, and share the same fate. For Chinese in the Philippines, we always emphasize …
The Ateneo de Manila University Press recently released Michael Cullinane’s new book, Arenas of Conspiracy and Rebellion in the late Nineteenth-Century Philippines: The Case of the April 1898 Uprising in Cebu. According to the back cover blurb, Cullinane’s new title “explores various aspects of late 19th-century Philippine society in an effort to locate the major …
Ferdinand Blumentritt (1853-1913), best friend of our national hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal, was one of the greatest experts on Philippine history, culture, language and geography in his day. He was an Austrian and had never been to the Philippines. Yet here we are referring to him in relation to the Chinese in the Philippines. …
A report that appeared in the Aug. 15, 1900 issue of Qing Yi Bao (清議報), a Chinese journal published in Tokyo, lauded Filipino revolutionaries who had refused to give up the fight even after America set up a military government in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century. The report, “Recent Situation in …
Ateneo de Manila University Press recently came out with A Visit to Manila and Its Environs, an English translation of a Dutch book by Jacob Adolf Bruno Wiselius published in 1876. Wiselius, a controller with the Dutch colonial administration in Java, visited Manila and neighboring Laguna province in 1875. He had prepared well for his …
On June 12, the nation celebrated our 113th year of independence. Between 1946 and 1962, our country celebrated Independence Day on July 4, the day we attained self-governance from American colonial rule. Our nation declared independence twice. The first time was when our country became the first Asian republic, throwing off the yoke of Spanish …
My previous column on “Balagtas and Binondo” mentioned that Balagtas’ deep immersion in the volatile environment of Binondo reached a crucial stage during the violent October 1820 massacre. The event must have jolted the foundations of his personal convictions and impelled what could have been his political epiphany. But what is the October 1820 massacre? …
Imagine, even during the time of Dr. Jose Rizal, Chinatown in Binondo had been the underground base of Filipino revolutionaries. This and other fascinating stories about the Philippine Revolution and the Filipino-American War are compiled in The I-Stories: The Philippine Revolution and the Filipino-American War as told by Its Eyewitnesses and Participants by Augusto V. …
We are fond of collecting and looking into books on Philippine local history. Almost without exception, we find materials or information on the ethnic Chinese in these books, whether they are about history, description of localities in a province, a city or municipality. Moreover, those materials or information about the Chinese in local history are …
Like many Filipinos, the country’s next president, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, is multiracial. In his case, though, Duterte is even more Chinese than President Benigno S. Aquino III. “My mother is a half-Maranao and half-Chinese. The lineage of incoming president Duterte would be half Cebuano from his father’s side and 25 percent Maranao and 25 percent …
