Any decent sailor would not let innocents go down with a sinking ship. Any country that plays fair would own up to maritime errors and try to make amends. But that’s not what happened on June 9 when a Chinese vessel hit a Filipino fishing boat near Recto Bank in the West Philippine Sea. The […]
During the reign of Emperor Sui Wen Di (隋文帝, 581-601 AD), founder of the Sui Dynasty (581-618), Wang Jia (王枷) of Qi Zhou (齊州), a military aide, was tasked to escort more than 70 prisoners to the capital to stand trial. Chained and shackled, the prisoners walked with great difficulty and were utterly exhausted. When […]
June 9 marked the 44th year of the opening of our diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China. Unlike previous years, there appears to be fewer commemorative activities organized, whether officially by the government or by nongovernment organizations promoting Philippines-China relations. No symposiums, conferences, exhibits and cultural performances to celebrate the event except those […]
John Pomfret’s The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present (2017) contains a lot of historical material about the Philippines, although it is mainly a history of America and China. America in Chinese is 美國, which literally means beautiful country (美 mei in Mandarin, bi in Hokkien; 國 guo […]
Where there is trouble, there is opportunity. Recent events have given new life to this old cliché. The past months have been filled with news on the debacle created by a hostile United States government against Chinese telecommunication equipment maker Huawei Technologies. The tough measures imposed by President Donald Trump are intended to stymie the […]
Yang Zhu (揚翥), the minister of rites of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) during the 15th century, was the sincerest, noblest person held in the highest esteem in his time. Born to a poor family, he would join his elder brother in the Wu Chang (武昌) countryside when he was old enough and made a living […]
The election frenzy is over, the dust is settling down. We are all sad, angry, disappointed and frustrated. We don’t deserve these people in the Senate. But they are the chosen ones, so let them be. “What’s meant to happen, will happen,” as I’ve always said. We must move on, buckle down to work and […]
We have two anecdotes for this issue. Around 1453 (Ming Dynasty), when Xu Pu (徐溥) was still a student, he placed two bottles at the side of his study table. He also prepared black and yellow beans to drop into each bottle. Whenever he had a good idea, uttered a good word and exercised a […]
Last April 9, we commemorated Araw ng Kagitingan or Day of Valor and remembered the brave heroes and heroines who gave up their lives for Philippine freedom – during the revolution against Spain, the Filipino-American war and the anti-Japanese war. We also recalled the many lives lost during the repressive martial rule of former president […]
We lost another pillar in the academic community. He was an enabler. As a teacher, he taught students to reach beyond the boundaries of the prescribed lesson, leading their minds into new territory. An acknowledged expert on matters in Philippine society and politics, his insight often guided national policies. One of these led the late […]