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History

70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC

A massive military parade in Beijing marked the 70th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China. As well, a grand display of achievements was at the Beijing Exhibition Center to mark milestones in China’s modern history. The 15,500-square-meter exhibition space is shaped like a time tunnel, chronicling historic events and symbolic people and […]

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History

Finding Rizal in Europe of the 21st century

Jose Rizal, our national hero, lived in the 19th century. A man for all seasons, he traveled far and wide, and while in Europe, wrote his greatest novels which exposed the ills of Philippine society and Spanish colonialism. The novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo live in the annals of Philippine history for all […]

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History

Living and working in China

Historically, China has always been an important job destination for Filipinos. During the 1920s to the 1940s, Filipino jazz musicians were in demand in cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong. But in 1949, job opportunities for Filipinos dried up in China, leaving pockets of opportunity in Hong Kong and Macau. But the job situation could […]

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History

Finding Lola: The case of the missing statue

There are “shadows forcing Lolas into silence.” Lola, the statue representing Filipino comfort women and other victims of sexual violence by Japanese invasion and occupation troops during World War II, has gone missing. The Lola Filipino Comfort Woman statue was to have been unveiled at its new home, in the garden sanctuary inside the Redemptorist […]

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History

Forty years of China-watching from the eyes of a Filipino

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. 千里之行,始於足下. For me, that first single step was deciding in 1979 to take graduate studies at the University of the Philippines and to specialize on contemporary China. This was what launched what has become a 40-year-long sojourn – and counting – as a China […]

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History

Mama Ma Cho as Mama Mary

Some 90 percent of Tsinoys are Christians belonging to Catholic, Protestant, or native Philippine churches. Only about five percent believe in Buddhism only or any form of Chinese folk religion. Yet, tradition dies hard. Centuries of living in the Philippines have embedded Chinese customs, beliefs and practices into the tapestry of local life, including religion. […]

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History

Chinatown Museum: The new kid in town

The list of museums in Metro Manila has grown longer with the opening of the new Chinatown Museum. Located at the Lucky Chinatown Mall, this is the second museum that Megaworld Corp. has opened, the first being the Iloilo Museum of Contemporary Arts in 2018. With several more museums in development, this is part of […]

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History

Incheon Chinatown

Until recently, there was no official Chinatown in South Korea, although there were Chinatowns in there up until the 1950s. In 1942, Chinese in the Korean peninsula numbered 82,661. But many left or perished during World War II. Many more migrated elsewhere during the 1960s and 1970s, due to restrictive government policies. Things began to […]

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History

Filipinos, Chinese: Fellow patriots in the Philippine revolution

In the Philippine struggle for independence from the Spanish overlords, and later from the American colonists, the Chinese were always in the picture. Across the sea, China’s reformists were inspired by Filipino revolutionaries who fought not one, but two, Western powers. Contacts were made between China’s leader of its revolution Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his […]

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History

CFBCI: Two decades of responsible stewardship

Organized in 1998, in response to the growing needs of the Tsinoy community to address the new challenges and issues in mainstream society, the Chinese Filipino Business Club, Inc. (CFBCI 菲華工商總會) has evolved into one of the key organizations recognized and depended on by the government and private sectors. For 20 years, through the efforts […]