I have finished my Buddhist studies with wise senior Buddhist nuns in a nunnery on top of a hill. Time to take the final exams – attend a Nepali wedding! A word of caution: Do not take the same curriculum –this ‘exam’ only happens once in a blue moon! It just so happen that the […]
Hokkien, on the tongues of Tsinoys, has grown and evolved, taking on a life of its own. Sometimes words simply fail us. With some creativity, Tsinoys have strung together words to form colorful phrases that simply hit the bull’s eye. Here are some expressions unique to Hokkien as favored by Tsinoys. 個個猛 kê kê bi-eng […]
Growing up in Binondo, I always wondered about other Overseas Chinese communities. What fascinates me is the integration process – how they combine their culture with that of the country they now call home. So, whenever I visit a country that has a Chinatown, I check it out. When I visited Japan this year, I […]
My father grew up in Davao but left in the late 1930s to study in Shanghai. When he returned in 1947, he decided to settle in Manila where he married. My sister and I were both born and raised in Manila. I was about five when I took my first plane ride, my mother bringing […]
“The Angry Christ” is a play by Floy Quintos that follows the creation of Alfonso Ossorio’s iconic painting – from conceptualization up to the reveal of the finished obra maestra. The story opens with a short background of the painting and a brief summary of Ossorio’s childhood before he came to the family sugar mill […]
The historical account of Sulu’s Sultan Paduka Batara who visited China in 1417, the subsequent bond that grew between two ancient kingdoms, is an inspiring tale of enduring friendship that transcends borders and time. For 600 years, China took care of the Sultan’s royal tomb in Dezhou, Shandong province where he died while on his […]
Road accidents are the fourth leading cause of deaths in the Philippines. This translates to around 36,000 preventable deaths every year. Reckless driving, cell phone use and drunk driving all contribute to fatal collisions. Here are major factors affecting road safety and what the government can do about it. I have also included some safety […]
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 […]