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? […]
While still abroad, news that I get from the Philippines are still predominantly on the spate of extrajudicial and vigilante killings in the war on drugs. The public, long despairing of seeing an end to heinous crimes, majority of which are committed by drug-crazed people, are lauding President Rodrigo Duterte and the Philippine National Police […]
One day in February of 444 A.D., during the Northern Wei (北魏) Dynasty, Minister Gu Bi (古弼) went to pay respects to the emperor and suggest to him that part of the garden park in Shang Gu (上谷) be distributed to the landless peasants. At the time, the emperor was playing weiqi (圍棋) or Go […]
Sister Becky Ortega, a trainer at the Brahma Kumaris, ran an excellent workshop on “Building Inner Resilience and Inner Peace” for members of the Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order on July 2. Most MRPO members are kidnap victims or their relatives who experienced trauma from the ordeal. The grief and pain are life-changing, […]
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. […]
Filial piety is a time-honored tradition in Chinese culture. Chinese history abounds with stories of selfless sacrifice by offspring for their parents. In 399 to 402 A.D., during the Eastern Jin (東晉) Dynasty, Sun En (孫恩) led a rebellion. Pan Zong (韓綜) and his father Pan Piao (潘驃) left their county Wu Xing (吳興) to […]
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 […]
The senior high school program rolled out this school opening to mixed reviews. I believe, though, the K-12 program mandated by the 2103 Enhanced Basic Education Law, which prescribes two additional years in high school, is necessary and will, in the end, redound to the benefit of Filipino college graduates. Until basic education was lengthened […]
In 265 B.C., during the Warring States Period, Xiao Cheng Wang (孝成王) ascended the throne in the state of Zhao (趙). But it was his mother, Zhao Tai Hou (趙太后) or the Empress Dowager, who was the real power behind the throne. Qin (秦), the strongest state then, took advantage of the situation and dispatched […]
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 […]