Source: China News Network
Huang Dongxing: Is the earliest overseas Chinatown "Eight Lian"?
China News Service Manila, April 30 Title: Is the earliest overseas Chinatown the "Eight Lian"?
——Interview with Huang Dongxing, president of "Chinese Entrepreneurs Media" in the Philippines
China News Service reporter Guan Xiangdong
The Philippines is a multicultural country, after thousands of years of integration, the "Filipino-Chinese culture" formed by the integration of Filipino culture and Chinese culture has gradually become a part of Philippine culture: the Chinese New Year has become an official holiday in the Philippines, and the Chinese god "Mazu" has become one of the beliefs of the Filipino people... Cultural integration is of great significance to the common hearts and minds of the two countries, and Huang Dongxing, president of the Philippine "Chinese Entrepreneurs Vertical and Horizontal Media", recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Questions" to talk about how "Philippine-Chinese culture" has gradually "integrated" into Philippine culture.
The interview transcript is summarized below:
China News Service: How did the "Chinese society" in the Philippines form and evolve? How has Chinese culture changed over time?
Huang Dongxing: The population of the Philippines is 110 million, the overseas Chinese are nearly three million, most of the ancestral home is Fujian, and 10% are Guangdong nationals, and in recent years, there have been many new immigrants from many provinces. Most of the overseas Chinese live in major cities in the Philippines, with about 50% living in Metro Manila. Overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese have the fine tradition of bearing hardships and standing hard work and starting a business diligently, and after several generations of hard work, they have gradually gained a considerable status.
According to Kao, the emigration of overseas Chinese to the Philippines began at the end of the Tang Dynasty. When Spain colonized the Philippines in 1561, it occupied Manila. At that time, a large number of overseas Chinese from Fujian and Guangdong came to the Philippines as Chinese workers. In order to better control the Chinese, the Spanish colonists set up the first overseas Chinese settlement, "Parian", which was the earliest Chinatown overseas. During the 333 years of Spain's rule in the Philippines, it excluded, expelled and restricted the activities of overseas Chinese, slaughtered overseas Chinese 6 times, estimated to reach 300,000 people, and the early history of overseas Chinese in the Philippines is a history of blood and tears.
After generations of hard work, overseas Chinese have taken root in the Philippines. In 1915, the Manila City Council named the main thoroughfare of the Chinese ghettos as Wang Bin Street after the Sino-Filipinist philanthropist Roman Ongpin, which was the official beginning of Manila's Chinatown. The statue of Wang Bin, which stands in Manila Church Square, has been guarding the Chinese quarter for more than 100 years.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the overseas Chinese population in Manila increased to 100,000, forming a Chinese area of a certain size. The Philippines has gradually formed a "overseas Chinese society" with the Hokkien language as the main language and the blood, karma and geography as the link, and the most prominent symbol is the establishment of overseas Chinese community organizations. The earliest overseas Chinese society in the Philippines was the Changhe Langjun Society, which was established in 1812, and this Nanyin Society formed a society to solve "nostalgia", and it was sung for 210 years.
After independence in 1946, the Philippine government restricted the entry of overseas Chinese, but there was no unified policy of absorbing overseas Chinese into mainstream society, and overseas Chinese society became increasingly marginalized. From independence to the mid-1970s, Filipino nationalism was on the rise, and the government implemented a series of policies to democratize the diaspora. The "Filipino policy" was intended to suppress overseas Chinese, but unexpectedly let overseas Chinese "be blessed by misfortune", the retail industry could not do it, "successfully transformed" the development of manufacturing, and the rapid development of the overseas Chinese economy.
After the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines in 1975, a large number of overseas Chinese became Filipino nationals, the "overseas Chinese society" was transformed into a "Chinese society", and the Chinese society underwent a "qualitative change". The identity of "overseas Chinese" became Filipino citizens and changed to "Chinese", and in the early 21st century, Chinese people took root and became "Filipino Chinese", also known as Filipino Chinese.
China News Service reporter: What does "Chinese community culture" mean for overseas Chinese in the Philippines? How has it changed with the times? What is the opportunity for the formation of "Filipino-Chinese culture"?
Huang Dongxing: China's connection with Southeast Asia has a long history, and traditional Chinese culture represented by Confucianism has spread to this region very early with the migration of chinese. In the contact and exchange with local culture, traditional Chinese culture not only retains the core elements and essence, but also integrates local culture to form a "mixed culture" with Chinese characteristics.
In the long process of immigration, overseas Chinese and ethnic Chinese intermarried with locals, forming a large number of "Hua-Filipino mixed races" and creating a unique "Hua-Filipino mixed culture". The Philippines has obvious cultural imprints in southern Fujian in terms of food, clothing, daily necessities, architectural art, relatives' titles and customs.
At the same time, in the process of the development of the Philippine Chinese community, there have been two representative "Chinese cultures" coexisting, that is, the tendency to inherit the traditional Chinese culture and the "fusion" culture that seeks to integrate with the Philippine culture.
Around the nineteenth century, the number of overseas Chinese emigrating to the Philippines increased, and the ancestors of overseas Chinese had a major "sense of crisis", tried their best to maintain Chinese culture, created clubs, Chinese media and Chinese schools, insisted that their children receive Chinese education, and kept a distance from the cultural customs and social environment of the country of residence. With the rise of China in recent decades, the Chinese cultural atmosphere that has been gradually weakened by the Philippine-Chinese community has become stronger. At that time, the ancestors retained the "roots" of Chinese culture to resist being "assimilated", and now, the strength of China has made the "hometown of the soul" of the Philippines grow.
Since the new century, the new generation of Filipino Chinese has been integrated into the local mainstream culture, they have not denied that they are Chinese, but also identify themselves as Filipinos, and their external performance is different from that of overseas Chinese under the influence of traditional Chinese culture. Many new generations of Filipinos "returned" to the Chinese Society, and they "crossed" the Chinese and Philippine culture and became the "Pang Er" of the Chinese Society in the new era.
In recent years, a large number of new overseas Chinese have poured in, bringing new vitality to the Philippine real estate, catering, people's livelihood consumer goods, luxury goods and other markets, and mushrooming in the Philippines and Chinese provincial chambers of commerce. During the COVID-19 epidemic, these new immigrant groups have actively donated epidemic prevention materials to various governments and non-governmental organizations, showing love and expanding their "social circles" and inheriting the "philanthropic tradition" of the Chinese community.
At present, the Philippine Chinese Community has gathered a variety of forces, including traditional overseas Chinese, a large number of new immigrants who have moved in in recent years, and more are native Chinese, and their strength is even stronger. All kinds of forces in the Philippines are aware of "sharing honor and disgrace", strive to seek common ground while reserving differences, and create a harmonious Chinese society. Among them, how to promote the integration of "Filipino-Chinese culture" with Chinese culture as the matrix into Philippine culture has become an important issue.
China News Service reporter: How did "Filipino-Chinese culture" gradually become part of Filipino culture?
Huang Dongxing: With the improvement of the economic strength of the Chinese in the Philippines, since the 1980s, the awareness of the Chinese community to strive for legal status and rights has become increasingly strong. The Philippine-Chinese community and the Chinese-language media take the interests of the Philippines and China as the appeal, and seek to carry forward the Greater Chinese culture in the process of integrating into the mainstream society, and enrich the National Culture of the Philippines. One of the landmark actions is to actively promote the legislation of the Philippine Congress, and the Lunar New Year, which is popular in the Chinese quarter, is listed as a national holiday in the Philippines.
On the Chinese New Year's Eve of the lunar calendar in 2002, then-President Arroyo signed a special message to the Filipino Chinese to express new year congratulations. On January 14, 2004, she declared the Lunar New Year a "National Special Work Holiday". However, the announcement is only symbolic, and Filipino residents, including Chinese, are still required to go to work as usual on the same day. In 2011, the then president signed a proclamation that listed the 2012 Spring Festival as a "special non-working holiday" for the first time.
On Chinese New Year's Eve January 30, 2014, the then mayor of Manila, Estrada, held a "Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner" banquet at the Dalian Business Hotel in Chinatown, attended by major Chinese community leaders. The next day, Estrada, Together with Miss International 2013, Bea Rose Santiago, and some Philippine government officials took a float to the main street of the Chinese quarter to greet the citizens of Manila for the first time. At the beginning of the year, the Spring Festival has become an official public holiday in the Philippines.
January 25, 2020, the first day of the Lunar New Year. Huang Xilian, the new Chinese ambassador to the Philippines, and Mo Rennuo, the new mayor of Manila, rode on a Chinese archway-shaped Spring Festival float to participate in the Spring Festival celebration on Wang Bin Street. This was the last Chinese New Year parade in Chinatown before the COVID-19 pandemic. On the same day, President Duterte issued a message congratulating the Lunar New Year. At this point, "Filipino-Chinese culture" has in fact become an important part of Philippine culture.
After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, major Chinese community groups formed the Philippine Chinese Disaster Relief Fund Philippine-Chinese Anti-epidemic Committee to fight the epidemic with Filipinos. Chinese, English and Filipino anti-epidemic songs are sung on both sides of the Pasi River in Manila, reflecting the thousand-year-old friendship between the Chinese and Filipinos whose blood is thicker than water. (End)
Respondent Profiles:
Huang Dongxing: Senior media person in the Philippines and Chinese, president of The Philippine Chinese Businessmen Zongheng Media. He is a special commentator of Hong Kong Asia Zhou Infi, and a special commentator of Phoenix Satellite TV and Shenzhen Satellite TV. Articles are often published in the Global Times, Observer Network, and Ming Pao monthly magazines. He has long paid attention to the dynamics of Southeast Asian countries and Chinese communities, and often has unique views on the integration and analysis of Chinese culture and Southeast Asian culture.