At the end of the Qing Dynasty, after the war with the European powers, many parts of Southeast Asia became colonies of Britain, the Netherlands and other countries, in order to establish farms and factories in these colonies, the British and Dutch opened up very generous conditions to attract Chinese laborers to work in the Southeast Asia region.
Some of them give you money, some give you houses, some give land, in short, this attracts a large number of Chinese workers to go to Nanyang to work, they take a boat and leave their hometown, or drag their families with their mouths, or a person, so they go to Nanyang, which is full of dreams.
Corazon Aquino, the protagonist of our story today, is the 11th president of the Philippines and the first female president of the Philippines and Asia as a whole. The first female president in Asian history has publicly declared herself Chinese, so what is the story?
Corazon Aquino, the Chinese surname is Xu surname. His ancestral home was Hongwei Village, Jiaomei Town, Zhangzhou Taiwan Investment Zone, Fujian Province, and his grandfather was a Fujian native of China named Xu Shangzhi.
Xu Shangzhi, real name Xu Yuhuan, xu Shangzhi this name is the name he gave himself after he went to Manila, the Philippines, in 1861, only 20 years old Xu Shangzhi came to Manila, the Philippines to make a living, when the Philippines was still called Luzon. Xu Shangzhi in China used to be a businessman for a living, after arriving in the Philippines, Xu Shangzhi made a living by fishing, and then gradually earned some money, Opened a very small farm, married a Filipino girl as a wife, settled in the Philippines' Tara Province, and later Xu Shangzhi's business is booming, the farm is no longer that small farm, but a large farm with thousands of acres of land, Xu Shangzhi's farm is mainly growing sugar and rubber, not only that, Xu Shangzhi is also engaged in sugar and rice shop and other businesses. It's a bummer in the Philippines.
Xu Shangzhi, who gradually emerged in the Philippines, had a new faith and joined the Catholic Church, and after joining the Catholic Church, He Shangzhi gave himself a new name, that is, "Jose". Later, Xu Shangzhi began to engage in construction projects and other businesses, and under the unremitting efforts of Xu Shangzhi, Xu Shangzhi finally ascended to the throne of a rich man.
The Xu family's business can be said to be getting bigger and bigger, and the family has gradually become a local celebrity in the Philippines, that is, a new upstart. Xu Shangzhi was known as "Jose Hsu Huan Ge I". Crasson Aquino was the granddaughter of Xu Shangzhi, and his father was known as "Jose Hsu Huan GE II". So the excellent Philippine president often said that he was a Chinese, and presumably his grandfather would tell her this from an early age: "You are a Chinese!" ”
In that era, the people in Nanyang were All Chinese Fujian and Guangdong people, probably because these two provinces were relatively close to Nanyang, and it was easy to travel back and forth, and now many countries in Southeast Asia have a large number of Chinese, such as Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, etc. are more Chinese countries.
Because of the industriousness and wisdom of Chinese, the Chinese have accumulated a lot of wealth in southeast Asia, and with money, they have social status, and many people marry locals, and over time most of them stay there forever, according to statistics, in the more than 90 million Filipino population, there are about 20% of Chinese ancestry. So people in the Philippines often say that even their president is "Chinese. ”
Corazon Aquino, born on January 25, 1933 in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, Corazon's father had a total of eight children, and Classon ranked sixth among these eight children, and her father gave her a cute little name "Corrie". It's not unusual to say that Corrazon became president, it's the result of a family's generations of hard work.
After having money, Corazon's grandfather hoped to have a status and hope to seek certain benefits for the Chinese in the Philippines, so he chose to enter politics, and Xu Shangzhi was elected to the Philippine Congress as he wished. Not only that, But Corazon's father also took over his father's mantle and became a member of Congress, and later his brother also became a member of Congress, and even his cousins and uncles were elected to the Senate.
Corazon's family also worked very hard to cultivate the next generation, and at the age of 13, Corazon was sent to the United States to study, and studied until college graduation and received a bachelor's degree. Although many people in the family held important government positions, the young Ms. Corazon did not want to enter politics, and in 1954 Ms. Corazon married her to Benigno Aquino, the leader of the non-Filipino Liberal Party at the time, and it was because of this that Corri's name became Corazon Aquino, and later people called her "Mrs. Aquino".
During his 30-year marriage, Corazon and her husband had four daughters and one son, and their only son, the later famous Benigno Aquino III, was the 15th president of the Philippines.
After marriage, Corazon, who has been supporting her husband's work, but the bad news she did not expect suddenly struck, and in 1983, Benigno Aquino was shot and killed by gangsters at the Manila airport. Mrs. Aquino, who had lost her husband, did not give up on herself, and he chose to inherit her husband's dream. After that, on the front lines of the anti-Marcos regime in the Philippines, we saw a great woman, "Mrs. Aquino."
In 1985, Mrs. Aquino was recommended by the Catholic bishop of the Philippines to become the opposition's presidential candidate and publicly participated in the elections. Mrs. Aquino's move was supported by many Filipinos. After the election, both Marcos and Mrs. Aquino said they had been elected president of the country, so in February 1986, Mrs. Aquino organized a large rally attended by hundreds of thousands of people who held high flags to protest Marcos's fraud in the election.
In the end, many of the philippine top military leaders chose to re-take sides, and they finally chose to side with Mrs. Aquino, and the defection of the military top brass was coupled with the siege of the presidential palace where Marcos was located, and Marcos had to declare his resignation. In this Philippine Revolution, it was apparent that Mrs. Aquino had won, and marcos eventually went into exile and fled to Hawaii with his family.
Many people suspect that the death of Benigueno Aquino was sent by Marcos, a notorious dictatorial president who, during his days as president of the Philippines, engaged in nepotism, aroused great dissatisfaction among the Filipino people, and the anti-dictatorship symbol at that time was the protagonist of our story, "Mrs. Aquino". On February 25, 1986, after years of anti-dictatorship campaigns, Mrs. Aquino finally stood on Philippine television, and Mrs. Aquino announced that she had taken over the Philippine regime, and the Filipino people finally ushered in a new president.
After becoming the new president, Mrs. Aquino used her strength to show the boldness of the female president, and she quickly solved the crony political system of the authoritarian President Marcos. During her presidency, she carried out a series of orderly reforms that democratized the Philippines. In 1987, at the instigation of Mrs. Aquino, the system of elections for governors and mayors was implemented in all regions of the Philippines.
Mrs. Aquino is a very pro-people president. She herself has a very high sense of responsibility to the Country and the people of the Philippines, and he personally formulated a new constitution and stipulated that the president could not be re-elected. Mrs. Aquino also attaches great importance to the sovereignty of the Philippines, and she does not want the Philippines to become a bridgehead and vanguard of other countries. She is very opposed to U.S. regulation of the Philippines. Under the interference and pressure of the United States, it finally led the Philippines to the road of democratic autonomy.
During her presidency, Mrs. Aquino did not exterminate her political enemies, he did not want to imprison political prisoners like Marcos, Mrs. Aquino chose to treat political prisoners with tolerance, not only that, Mrs. Aquino was also very tolerant of soldiers who attempted to stage a coup, and once again the punishment for coup soldiers was nothing more than a hundred push-ups. Mrs. Aquino has always advocated a peaceful negotiated non-violent solution to the national question. Thanks to Mrs. Aquino's tireless efforts, many parties in the Philippines finally reached an armistice agreement, which also led the Philippines to peace.
Chinese have different feelings for their ancestors, they will remember their ancestors everywhere they go, and the family tree has a very important significance for Chinese, although Mrs. Aquino was born in the Philippines, she is still deeply influenced by Chinese culture. In his heart, he has always thought of his hometown, and before she became the president of the Philippines, Mrs. Aquino repeatedly asked her friends to go to China to find her roots.
After Mrs. Aquino became the president of the Philippines, she sent people to his hometown of Hongwei Village in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, many times. In many public events, Mrs. Aquino has publicly stated that not only herself, but also many Filipinos are descendants of Chinese, and they feel supreme glory because of this.
In April 1988, Mrs. Aquino was invited to China for a state visit. During this period, Mrs. Aquino expressed the hope that the Philippines and China would strengthen cooperation and help each other. As a descendant of the Chinese, Mrs. Aquino also came to the place where she raised her grandfather, Hongshi Village, Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province. Here he was warmly welcomed by the villagers, and she also visited the ancestral hall of the Xu family as she wished.
This is the first time that this Chinese descendant has returned to her ancestral homeland, and she has never forgotten her bond with this continent for many years. Mrs. Aquino said this to the villagers in Hongzhi Village, although I am now the president of the Philippines, I am also a descendant of the Chinese, and I am also the daughter of Hongzhi Village.
Mrs. Aquino's dedication to her hometown is inseparable from her own tutoring and family style, which must be her grandfather's education of her for many years, and Chinese has been using this inheritance to let their children and grandchildren remember where they came from.
Finding roots is a very important thing for the sons and daughters of China, those who have long been adrift overseas, although they were born in a foreign country, although they hold passports from other countries, they will still be proud to tell others that they are Chinese.