Sangley (English plural: Sangleys; Spanish plural: Sangleyes) and Mestizo de Sangley (Sangley mestizo, mestisong Sangley, chino mestizo or Chinese mestizo) are archaic terms used in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era to describe respectively a person of pure overseas Chinese ancestry and a person of mixed Chinese and native Filipino ancestry.[1] The Sangley Chinese were ancestors to both modern Chinese Filipinos and modern Filipino mestizo descendants of the Mestizos de Sangley, also known as Chinese mestizos, which are mixed descendants of Sangley Chinese and native Filipinos. Chinese mestizos were mestizos (mixed peoples) in the Spanish Empire, classified together with other Filipino mestizos.
The Spanish had such categories as indios (Spanish: indio, lit.'Indian' for natives of the East Indies), mestizos de Español (descendants of colonial ethnic Spanish and native-born Filipinos), the tornatrás (Spanish-Chinese mestizos, descendants of colonial Spanish Filipinos and Sangley Chinese), the mestizos de Bombay (Indian mestizos, descendants of colonial Indian Filipinos and native Filipinos), mestizos de japoneses (Japanese mestizos, descendants of colonial Japanese Filipinos and native Filipinos), etc.
Overseas Chinese entered the Philippines as traders prior to Spanish colonization. Many emigrated to the Philippines, establishing concentrated communities first in Manila and throughout the island of Luzon, then in other cities and settlements throughout the archipelago, historically going from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao.
Chino or Tsino is derived from Spanish and literally means “Chinese”. "Tsino" is the formal and literary spelling in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages.
Chinito or Tsinito is a term derived from Spanish and means “a young Chinese man”, from Spanish: Chino, lit.'Chinese' with the diminutive suffix[[[wikt:-ito|-ito]]] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |lit= (help). "Tsinito" is the spelling in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages.
Chinita or Tsinita is the feminine form of the above, meaning “a young Chinese woman”, also from Spanish: Chino, lit.'Chinese' with [[[wikt:-ita|-ita]]] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |lit= (help). "Tsinita" is the spelling in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages.
Chekwa or Tsekwa is an offensive derogatory slang or slur referring to both Filipinos with Chinese ancestry, and Chinese people in general. It is derived from Cebuano Bisaya as an elidedcompound of [[[wikt:Insik|Insik]]] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |lit= (help) + [[[wikt:wakang#Cebuano|wákang]]] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |lit= (help), from “Insik wákang, káun, kalibang!",[3] a derogatory Visayan children's limerick from the late Spanish colonial era, where "Insik"/"Intsik" was originally the Philippine Hokkien Chinese:引叔; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:ín-chek; lit.'uncle', and "wákang" from 我工; guá kang; 'I work'. The last two words come from Cebuano: kaon, lit.'to eat' and Cebuano: kalibang, lit.'to defecate'; The full phrase was thus "Chinese (labourer), I work, eat, and shit!" and was when opium dens were rampant, with many Chinese migrants working as low-wage labourers.
There are multiple versions of the interpretation on the word Sangley, especially as it is also used in historical place names such as Punta Sangley (Sangley Point), the northern promontory point and former US naval base headquarters in the Cavite Peninsula. Generally, Sangley is usually believed or purported to literally mean "merchant traveler" or "frequent visitor."[5] According to Go Bon Juan, the most commonly accepted version is usually that the term "sangley" comes from the HokkienChinese:生理; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Seng-lí , IPA: /ɕiɪŋ³³ li⁵⁵⁴/; lit.'business', which is consistent with the business background of the early Chinese in the Philippines.[6] According to Saul Hofileña Jr on the history of Sangley Point, the name supposedly derived from 'xiangli, a Chinese word for 'trader', which became "sangley" to the Spaniards.[7] According to Go Bon Juan, Hofileña had apparently based this on the pronunciation of the word "trader" in Chinese:商旅; pinyin:shānglǚ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:siang-lú / siang-lír / siang-lí; lit.'traveling merchant', which Go Bon Juan considered "a rather literal term uncommon among early Chinese in the Philippines",[6] although HokkienChinese:商旅; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:siang-lú is indeed recorded in the Dictionario Hispanico Sinicum (1626-1642) that the DominicanSpanish friars recorded before in Manila as one of the terms listed as Spanish: mercader, lit.'merchant'. Another cited possible etymon is the HokkienChinese:常來; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:siâng lâi; lit.'frequently comes', which appeared beside "Sangley" labeled in the Boxer Codex (circa 1590s),[6]Dasmariñas record to the King of Spain, which also contains the probable earliest romanization of Japan as "Iapon." It is said that the late William Henry Scott, an authority on Philippine history, had seen this picture and supported this version.[6] Additionally, the Bocabulario de la lengua sangleya por las letraz de el A.B.C. (1617) also offers two explanations, it also gives HokkienChinese:常來; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:siâng lâi explaining it as "he who comes very often" and HokkienChinese:商來; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:siang lâi which it explains as "those who come to trade" which the Bocabulario however prefers the latter.[8] In Wenceslao Retana's Diccionario de filipinismos (1921), the entry for Sangley was also recorded before as (sic):[9]
Sangley (del chino xiang-lay, mercader.) adj. Nombre que en lo antiguo se dio en Filipinas a los mercaderes chinos, y que luego se hizo genérico de los de esta raza residentes en aquellas islas Sangley (from Chinese xiang-lay, merchant.) adj. Name that in ancient times was given in the Philippines to Chinese merchants, and that later became generic to those of this race residing in those islands.
—Wenceslao E. Retaña, Diccionario de filipinismos, con la revisión de lo que al respecto lleva publicado la Real academia española (1921)
SpanishGovernor-GeneralFrancisco de Sande also notes in his Relacion y Descripciones de las Islas Filipinas ("Relation and Description of the Filipinas Islands", 1576) as per Manuel (1948):[10]
Throughout these islands they call the Chinese 'Sangleyes', meaning 'a people who come and go,' on account of their habit of coming annually to these islands to trade, or, as they say there, 'the regular port'.
—Francisco de Sande, Relacion y Descripciones de las Islas Filipinas ("Relation and Description of the Filipinas Islands", circa 1576)
The majority of Chinese sojourners, traders, and settlers in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period came from southern Fujian and spoke Hokkien, leaving their mark on Filipino culture (especially the cuisine). Although mestizo de sangley literally means "mixed-race (person) of business," it implies a "mixed-race (person) of Chinese and indigenous/Indio (Filipino) descent" because many early Chinese immigrants were traders and intermixed with the local population. Outside the Philippines, the Spanish word mestizo (without the qualifying de sangley) is normally used to refer to persons of mixed European and non-European ancestry, but the lower number of European mestizos in the Philippines made the term mestizo come to mean mestizo de sangley. For example, Benito Legarda used this definition when talking to the United States Philippine Commission (1899–1900), citing Wenceslao Retana's Diccionario de filipinismos (1921).[11] The term chino mestizo was also used interchangeably with mestizo de sangley.
In 16th to 19th century Spanish Philippines, the term mestizo de sangley differentiated ethnic Chinese from other types of island mestizos (such as those of mixed Indio and Spanish ancestry, who were fewer in number. Their Indio ancestry (generally on the maternal side) made the Chinese mestizos be granted the legal status of colonial subjects of Spain, with certain rights and privileges denied to the pure-blooded Chinese immigrants (sangleys).
Mestizo de sangley is a term that arose during Spanish colonization of the Philippines, where circumstances were different from colonial settlement of the Americas. During the Spanish colonization of the Americas of the 16th and 17th centuries, numerous male Spaniards (conquistadors, explorers, missionaries, and soldiers) settled there. For decades most Spanish men made liaisons and intermarried with indigenous women; their children were considered mixed race and were called mestizo.
Male Chinese traders and workers came during the colonial period, most of whom intermarried with native women. The Spanish government classified the anyone who had ancestry from China as Sangley regardless of their ethnic makeup. Their mixed-race descendants with native women were classified as Mestizo de sangley; they were also known as chino mestizos.
As an example, in the late 19th century, the author and activist José Rizal was classified as mestizo de sangley due to his partial Chinese ancestry. But he also had indigenous, Japanese, and Spanish ancestors, and he asked to be classified as Indio.[12]
Spanish explorers and conquistadors landed in Las Islas de Filipinas, which they named in honor of Philip II of Spain. The Spanish colonization of the Philippines required more skilled laborers and they recruited Chinese immigrants. The economy became highly dependent upon the Chinese for their economic role as traders and artisans. Most of the Chinese living in the Manila area settled in a place called the Parían near Intramuros.
The Spanish encouraged those China traders to convert to Catholicism. Many of the Chinese men married native women, and over time the multi-cultural mestizo de sangleycaste developed. Although the colonial government never required them to adopt Spanish surnames, in many cases they chose to change their Chinese names. They adopted names such as Jalandoni, Laurel, Lopez, Osmeña, Palanca, Paterno, Rizal, etc., or used transliteration and Spanish phonetic spelling to make them appear Hispanic by concatenation, for example: Asico, Biazon, Chanco, Cojuangco, Cuyangkeng, Goquilay, Lacson, Landicho, Laoinco, Locsin, Ongpin, Quebengco, Sylianco, Tanbengco, Tanchanco, Tanjuatco, Tetangco, Tiongson, Tuazon, Yaptinchay, Yuchenco, Yuchengco, Yupangco, etc.
The mainland Chinese has historically had racist views towards people from the Philippines, who they refer as savages. This view intensified after the Spanish colonized the archipelago, where the people, including Spanish officials, were referred by the Chinese as "xiao xiyang" or barbarians.[13] In 1574, a few years after the Spaniards established Manila as the colonial capital of the Philippines, the Chinese pirate Limahong (TeochiuChinese:林阿鳳; Pe̍h-ōe-jī:Lîm A-hŏng) attacked Manila and burned it to the ground. He retreated later to other places around the Luzon coast, where his forces continued killing and looting. Some of them stayed in the Philippines such as Limahong's male lover Eng Kang who later became the godson of the Spanish governor and renamed as Juan Baptista de Vera, allowing him to assimilate and partake in Philippine society without fear of consequences from Spanish authorities.[14] Some crew of Limahang settled down and had children with native Indios.[15] Many Sangleys, like Limahong and Eng Kang, had traditional homosexual relationships with either other Sangleys or native Indios. The Spanish, who themselves has racist views towards the Sangleys or Chinese, wanted to expel all Sangleys from the Philippines for a long time. After learning of the Sangley traditional homosexual bond system, the Spanish, especially the clergy, weaponized it to justify the massacre of many Sangley male lovers, with the intention of clearing the Philippines from any Sangleys.[16]
Economy
A native Filipino trades with a Sangley vendorSangley vendor among other local vendors
Most of the sangleys worked as skilled artisans or traders. Aside from shopkeeping, the sangleys earned their livelihood as carpenters, tailors, cobblers, locksmiths, masons, metalsmiths, weavers, bakers, carvers and other skilled craftsmen. As metalsmiths, they helped to build the Spanish galleons in shipyards located in Cavite. As masons, they built Intramuros and its numerous structures.
The Spanish gave the mestizos de sangley special rights and privileges as colonial subjects of the Spanish Crown and as baptized converts to the Catholic Church. They were given preference to handle the domestic trade of the islands. In addition, they were allowed to lease land from the friar estates through the inquilino or lessee system, that allowed them to sublet those lands.
Later, the mestizos de sangley came to acquire many native lands, chiefly through a legal instrument called pacto de retro or contract of retrocession. Through this instrument, a moneylender extended loans to farmers, who in exchange for cash, pawned their land with the option of buying it back. In the event of default, the moneylender recovered the loan by foreclosing on the land from the farmer. Many local farmers lost their lands to mestizos de sangley in this manner.
The Spanish Galleon Trade (1565–1815) tied China to Europe via Manila and Acapulco, Mexico. Acting as a transshipment port, Manila attracted Chinese traders from Xiamen (Amoy); they traveled in armed ships to trade with the Spanish. Chinese luxury goods, such as silk, porcelain and finely crafted furniture, were exchanged for silver from Mexican and Peruvian mines. Twice a year the galleons sailed across the Pacific Ocean from Manila to Acapulco and back. The goods were later shipped to Spain via Veracruz, a Gulf Coast port on the Atlantic side of Mexico.
As the Spanish galleons carried mostly Chinese luxury goods destined for Europe, Mexicans called them náos de China (Chinese ships). The Spanish galleon trade was mainly a business affair involving Spanish officials in Manila, Mexico and Spain, and Chinese traders from Xiamen. The highly lucrative galleon trade carried few products originating from the Philippine islands or involving resident domestic traders. The trade was so profitable that Mexican silver became an unofficial currency of Southern China; an estimated one-third of silver mined from the Americas flowed into China during that period. The Spanish galleons also transported Filipino crew and militia men to the Americas, among which were many Sangleys; Some of them chose to settle in Mexico, Louisiana, and parts of present United States, specially California. Americans called these immigrants Manilamen and the Mexicans called them los indios Chinos.
Apart from the Portuguese-controlled Macao-Manila trade in the 17th century and the British-controlled Madras-Manila trade in the 18th century, it was chiefly the Spanish-controlled Manila-Acapulco trade that sustained the colony for much of the period. When the trade ended with the last ship's sailing in 1815, the Spaniards needed new sources of revenue. With the Spanish American wars of independence resulting in the loss of Spain's colonies in the Americas, the Spanish government quickly lost its position of pre-eminence amongst the Western powers.
After losing Mexico when it became independent in 1821, Spain took over direct control of the Philippines. It had been governed by the Virreinato de Nueva España or Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico) during much of the colonial period. Coinciding with the advent of steamships and the consequent expansion of the global economy, the Spaniards decided to open up the Philippines to foreign trade. They appointed Governor-General Basco y Vargas, who was instrumental in establishing the tobacco monopoly in the Philippines, though with much help from other Spanish interests and reliance on Filipino local elites, called the principalía.[17]
As the subsistence economy shifted to an export crop economy, for sugar, abaca and tobacco, in 1834 the Spanish allowed both non-Spanish Westerners and Chinese immigrants to settle anywhere in the islands. The mestizos de sangley had been displaced from tobacco marketing as the Spanish established their monopoly.[17] Some wholesale and retail traders converted their capital into larger landholdings. They developed sugar plantations for the new export market, particularly in Central Luzon, and on the islands of Cebu, Iloilo and Negros. The mestizos de sangley took advantage of the rapid changes as the colonial economy was integrated into the markets of the Western world.
From the late 18th century through much of the 19th century, the Spanish encouraged development of tobacco as another commodity crop, controlling it as a monopoly. Cultivation was concentrated in Cagayan, where the Spanish relied on the principalía to have their workers produce and deliver the tobacco.[17]
With the opening of the colony to foreign trade in 1834, Western merchants established import/export and financial companies in Binondo. They partnered with Chinese wholesale/retail traders throughout the islands. The mestizos de sangley shifted to the export crop economy by developing and enlarging plantations devoted to agricultural commodities.
The increase in the late 19th century of British and American commercial interests in Manila coincided with the British founding of a network of treaty port-cities in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. They also expanded the Nanyang trade, previously limited to Xiamen, Quanzhou and Macao.
In 1868, the United States and China signed the Treaty of Burlingame, legalizing and liberalizing Chinese emigration, which had been illegal since the Ming dynasty. This led to a rapid increase in the population of Overseas Chinese traders in the Philippines. By the 1870s, the economic dominance of the British and American merchants and their Chinese trading partners was said by some observers to turn the Philippines into an "Anglo-Chinese Colony under the Spanish Flag".[18]
The Spanish authorities had initially depended upon the sangleys to both supply the labor and manage the colonial economy of the islands. However, after the attacks of the Chinese pirate Limahong, the Spanish colonists viewed the sangleys differently, fearing them as enemy aliens who posed a security threat due to their number. To protect their precarious position, the Spaniards enacted policies designed to control the residents of the islands by means of racial segregation and cultural assimilation, such as limiting the number of resident sangleys to around 6,000, a measure that was proved soon impossible to maintain.
The Spanish founded the Parían in 1581 in what became Manila as the official marketplace and designated residence for the sangleys who did not convert to Catholicism. Circumventing a royal decree outlawing the sangleys, as governor-general of the Philippines, Gómez Pérez Dasmariñas created Binondo in 1594 for the Catholic sangleys and their indio wives and their mestizos de sangley children and descendants. He gave the sangleys and mestizo de sangleys a land grant in perpetuity. They were allowed to establish a self-governing organization, called Gremio de Mestizos de Binondo (Guild of Mestizos of Binondo).
The Spanish colonists attempted to assimilate the sangleys into the Hispanic culture and converted many to Catholicism. They allowed Catholic sangleys to intermarry with indio women. They did not recognize marriages of the unconverted sangleys, as they did not officially sanction marriages among subjects that were performed outside the Catholic Church.
French Illustration of a Chinese-Filipino mestizo couple, c.1846 by Jean Mallat de Bassilan
Beginning in 1600, the first generation of mestizos de sangley formed a small community of several hundred in Binondo. This is where San Lorenzo Ruiz grew up in the early 1600s. He was martyred under torture in Japan with three missionaries; none would recant their Christian beliefs. Long venerated in the Philippines, he later was beatified by the Catholic Church and canonized in 1987 as the first Filipino saint.
During the 17th century, the Spaniards carried out four great massacres and expulsions against the unconverted sangleys, usually generated from real or imagined fears of an imminent invasion from China. In the aftermath, many sangleys converted at least nominally to Catholicism, adopted Hispanicized names, and intermarried with indio women.
Contemporary 21st century historians have studied demographic and social changes in the Philippines during this period. They note the changes in how mestizo de sangley fared in Philippine society. In the late 18th century, the mestizo de sangley began to markedly improved their position. After the violence and turmoil of the Spanish expulsion of Chinese-Filipino population for having sided with the British in their 1762 capture of Manila,
mestizo economic power increased in conjunction with its social and political clout. The formation of auxiliary units called Real Princípe in Tondo mirrored these trends. Spanish military commanders publicly expressed a preference for mestizo regiments over native militias, enraging Filipino indio elites and requiring a deft negotiation of the political realities in Manila.
The founding of Chinese mestizo regiments in the Philippines was part of New Spain's military modernization during the reformist Bourbon era. At the same time, New Spain created a colonial militia in Latin America, also enrolling mestizos there. While the colonies developed in distinct ways, there were similarities in the rise of the mestizo classes in Latin American and the Philippines. When colonial authorities accepted them into the militias and armed them, it was in recognition of their rising social position and integration into the colonial economies.[19]
After the Spanish colonists abolished the Parían in 1790, they allowed the sangleys to settle in Binondo. In the 19th century, the population of mestizos de sangley grew rapidly over the years as more Chinese male immigrants arrived, converted to Catholicism, settled in Binondo and intermarried with indio or mestizo de sangley women. With no legal restrictions on their movement, mestizos de sangley migrated to other areas in the course of work and business, such as Tondo, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, Cavite, Cebu, Iloilo, Samar, Capiz, etc. The number of unconverted sangleys dropped from a high of 25,000 prior to the first great massacre of 1603 to below 10,000 by 1850.
From the 18th century until the latter half of the 19th century, Spanish authorities came to depend upon the mestizos de sangley as the bourgeoisie of the colonial economy. From their concentration in Binondo, Manila, the mestizos de sangley migrated to Central Luzon, Cebu, Iloilo, Negros and Cavite to handle the domestic trade of the islands. From trading, they branched out into landleasing, moneylending and later landholding. With wealth, they gained the ability to give their children elite education at the best schools in the islands and later in Europe.
Following the promulgation of the Cádiz Constitution of 1812, the Philippines was granted the status of a Spanish province, with representation in the Spanish Cortes. These subjects were granted Spanish citizenship, thus acquiring legal equality in the Philippines with Spanish-born Spaniards. Toward the end of Spanish rule in the 19th century, the mestizos de sangley identified as Filipinos, showing their identification with these islands.
Also identifying as the "true sons of Spain", the mestizos de sangley tended to side with the white Spanish colonists during the numerous indio revolts against Spanish rule. In the late 19th century, José Rizal, a fifth-generation mestizo de sangley, arose as an intellectual from the relatively wealthy, middle-class, Spanish-educated Filipinos known as Ilustrados. He was among those who called for reforms in the administration of the colony, integration as a province of Spain, and political representation for the Philippines in the Spanish Cortes.
From the beginning of the colonial period in the Philippines, the Spanish administration had the goal of converting natives to Catholicism. Missionaries were among the Spanish settlers in the colony. With the help of the colonial government, religious orders built traditional stone-and-brick churches throughout the islands in the Spanish or Mexican Baroque style. Constructed within the walled-city of Intramuros, San Agustin Church was the first stone church built in the archipelago. It became the spiritual center of Christianity in the Philippines, and also in Asia. The remains of Miguel López de Legazpi, Juan de Salcedo and Martín de Goiti (who was killed during Limahong's siege) were interred in that church. The church was sacked during the Battle of Manila in 1762, before being rebuilt in 1854.[20]
The Spanish colonial government established schools and colleges run mostly by religious orders, including the Colegio de San Juan de Letran, the Ateneo Municipal, the Universidad de Santo Tomás in Manila, or the Colegio de San Ildefonso in Cebu, that accepted all types of students, regardless of race, gender or financial status in the case of primary grade instruction.[citation needed] In 1863, the Spanish government established a modern system of free public education, the first of its kind in Asia.[citation needed]
Binondo served as the traditional center of community life for the Catholic sangleys and mestizos de sangley. The Gremio de Mestizos de Binondo was the official guild chartered to administer community affairs. Born in Binondo, San Lorenzo Ruiz was a mestizo de sangley who served as an altar boy in the Binondo Church (which has since been named after him). Established by the Spanish Dominicans for Catholic sangleys, the Binondo Church is now known as the Minor Basilica of San Lorenzo Ruiz. It became the center site for the religious rites of the community. The Catholic mestizos de sangley expressed religious devotion with processions marking important occasions, such as the Feast of La Naval de Manila, commemorating the naval victory of the Spanish over the Dutch off Manila Bay in 1646.
In the late 19th century, cosmopolitan mercantilism emerged in Binondo, at the same time that Western and overseas Chinese merchants entered the island's economy, which was being integrated into the global trading system. The Spaniards tended to be more isolated from the new urban environment. They lived in Intramuros, where Hispanic Catholicism dominated the walled city. The rapid urbanization elsewhere transformed the ethnic enclave of Binondo into a thriving commercial district within an expanding urban core. The overseas Chinese (traditional Chinese: 華僑; pinyin: Huáqiáo) merchants essentially displaced the mestizos de sangley from their role as the domestic traders of the islands. Although officially under Spanish rule, cosmopolitan Binondo became the semi-official capital of an "Anglo-Chinese colony" in the late 19th-century Philippines.[citation needed]
Chinese-Filipino merchants dominated the textile industry in Molo and Jaro. Iloilo produced sinamay, a hand-woven cloth made from fine abaca threads, which was used for the casual camisa de chino; jusi (Chinese term for raw silk), a translucent fabric woven from silk yarn for the formal barong tagalog; and piña, a handwoven fabric made of pineapple fiber for heirloom garments. During the late 19th century, the mestizos de sangley wore embroidered barong tagalog while indios wore multicolored camisa de chino. As a means of maintaining social stratification, the Spanish prohibited the indios from wearing European-style clothing, as a means of separating the groups.[citation needed]
In food, Chinese-Filipinos adapted Hokkien food from Fujian. They used indigenous ingredients and Spanish names to improvise what became part of an evolving creole Filipino cuisine. During the 19th century, noodle shops called panciterias serving comida China (Chinese food) dotted the islands. The ubiquitous pancit (meaning "noodle" from the Hokkien word pian-e-sit) became pancit luglog and lomi (flavored with sauce); mami (served with broth); pancit molo (cooked as pasta) and pancit Malabon (mixed with seafood). The Chinese brought their use of rice as a staple (and wet-rice agriculture). One result was the local rice porridge called arroz caldo. Other well-known Filipino dishes such as lumpia (egg-roll), maki (soup dish), kiampong (fried rice) and ma-chang (sticky rice,) among others, trace their origins to the Chinese immigrants.
In Vigan, Ilocos Sur, known as kasanglayan (meaning "where sangleys live"), prosperous Chinese-Filipino merchants built stone-and-wood houses (really brick and wood) called bahay na bato. These followed some of the tradition of Malay village houses-on-stilts, called bahay kubo, but instead of using bamboo and thatch, they used molave-wood structural beams to frame the two-story house. Walls were formed of brick coated with plaster. Sliding window panels made with translucent capiz shells, in latticework patterns, enclosed the typically large horizontal windows. On the outside, sliding wooden shutters could cover the windows for another layer of privacy and ventilation control. This area has been designated as an historic district.
In contrast to the typical stone-and-brick Spanish colonial houses, this style of residence was better suited to the tropical environment of the islands. It was more flexible, so could better withstand frequent earthquakes. The steep roofs with overhanging eaves provided shelter against rain and storms, and added to the sense of openness and space connecting the interior and exterior. These helped shield residents from seasonal monsoons. During less severe rain and in the hot summers, the sliding windows could be opened to allow greater circulation of air and more light into the house. When illuminated at night, such houses resemble giant Chinese lanterns. The stone/brick-and-wood house became so widespread throughout the islands that this Chinese-Filipino merchant's house came to be known as the "colonial Filipino" style.
The mestizos de sangley synthesized a hybrid culture incorporating Hispanic and European influences with both indigenous and Asian elements. In fashion, cuisine, design and architecture, a distinctive style emerged, especially among the wealthier segment. As the sangley prospered from trading, they built the first and in many cases the only stone-and-wood houses in the countryside. Like other rising elites, they created forms of conspicuous consumption to signify their status. The mestizos de sangley held feasts to commemorate baptisms, weddings, funerals and processions. As the 19th century drew to a close, the colonial Spanish empire in the Philippines was defeated by the rising Western empire of the United States following the Spanish–American War.
Following the war, the United States took possession of the Philippines and influenced its culture in turn. The Filipinos, including the mestizos de sangley, were referred to as "little brown Americans".[citation needed] The Philippines was made a protectorate in relation to the United States, with the residents given special status but not U.S. citizenship at the time.[21]
Peranakan of Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, and Thailand
Notes
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Chinese Filipinos are Filipinos of Chinese descent with ancestry mainly from Fujian, but are typically born and raised in the Philippines. Chinese Filipinos are one of the largest overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.
Binondo is a district in Manila and is referred to as the city's Chinatown. Its influence extends beyond to the places of Quiapo, Santa Cruz, San Nicolas and Tondo. It is the oldest Chinatown in the world, established in 1594 by the Spaniards as a settlement near Intramuros but across the Pasig River for Catholic Chinese; it was positioned so that the colonial administration could keep a close eye on their migrant subjects. It was already a hub of Chinese commerce even before the Spanish colonial period. Binondo is the center of commerce and trade of Manila, where all types of business run by Chinese Filipinos thrive.
Torna atrás or tornatrás is a term used in 18th century Casta paintings to portray a mestizo or mixed-race person who showed phenotypic characteristics of only one of the "original races", such as European or Amerindian ancestry. The term was also used to describe an individual whose parentage was half white and half "albino".
Filipinos are citizens or people identified with the country of the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today are predominantly Catholic and come from various Austronesian peoples, all typically speaking Tagalog, English, or other Philippine languages. Despite formerly being subject to Spanish colonialism, only around 2–4% of Filipinos are fluent in Spanish. Currently, there are more than 185 ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines each with its own language, identity, culture, tradition, and history.
Philippine Hokkien is a dialect of the Hokkien language of the Southern Min branch of Min Chinese descended directly from Old Chinese of the Sinitic family, primarily spoken vernacularly by Chinese Filipinos in the Philippines, where it serves as the local Chinese lingua franca within the overseas Chinese community in the Philippines and acts as the heritage language of a majority of Chinese Filipinos. Despite currently acting mostly as an oral language, Hokkien as spoken in the Philippines did indeed historically have a written language and is actually one of the earliest sources for written Hokkien using both Chinese characters as early as around 1587 or 1593 through the Doctrina Christiana en letra y lengua china and using the Latin script as early as the 1590s in the Boxer Codex and was actually the earliest to systematically romanize the Hokkien language throughout the 1600s in the Hokkien-Spanish works of the Spanish friars especially by the Dominican Order, such as in the Dictionario Hispanico Sinicum (1626-1642) and the Arte de la Lengua Chiõ Chiu (1620) among others. The use of Hokkien in the Philippines was historically influenced by Philippine Spanish, Filipino (Tagalog) and Philippine English. As a lingua franca of the overseas Chinese community in the Philippines, the minority of Chinese Filipinos of Cantonese and Taishanese descent also uses Philippine Hokkien for business purposes due to its status as "the Chinoy business language" [sic]. It is also used as a liturgical language as one of the languages that Protestant Chinese Filipino churches typically minister in with their church service, which they sometimes also minister to students in Chinese Filipino schools that they also usually operate. It is also a liturgical language primarily used by Chinese Buddhist, Taoist, and Matsu veneration temples in the Philippines, especially in their sutra chanting services and temple sermons by monastics.
Filipino Chinese cuisine is a style of Filipino cuisine influenced by Chinese cuisine historically brought to the Philippines by Chinese Filipinos, starting with the Sangley Chinese and their Chinese mestizo descendants and modern descendants in the Chinese Filipino community of the Philippines. It is characterized as a fusion of Fujian/Hokkien cuisine and Cantonese cuisine adapted over the centuries to Filipino cuisine to suit the general Filipino palate/taste.
In the Philippines, Filipino Mestizo, or colloquially Tisoy, is a name used to refer to people of mixed native Filipino and any foreign ancestry. The word mestizo itself is of Spanish origin; it was first used in the Americas to describe people of mixed Amerindian and European ancestry. Currently and historically, the Chinese mestizos were and are still ordinarily the most populous subgroup among mestizos; they have historically been very influential in the creation of Filipino nationalism. The Spanish mestizos also historically and currently exist as a smaller population, but remain a significant minority among mestizos which historically enjoyed prestigious status in Philippine society during Spanish colonial times.
Siopao, is a Philippine steamed bun with various fillings. It is the indigenized version of the Fujianese baozi, introduced to the Philippines by Hokkien immigrants during the Spanish colonial period. It is a popular snack in the Philippines and is commonly sold by bakeries and restaurants.
Filipino Mexicans are Mexican citizens who are descendants of Filipino ancestry. There are approximately 1,200 Filipino nationals residing in Mexico. In addition, genetic studies indicate that about a third of people sampled from Guerrero have Asian ancestry with genetic markers matching those of the populations of the Philippines.
The Manila Chinese Cemetery is the second oldest cemetery in Manila after La Loma Cemetery. The cemetery includes Christian, Buddhist and Taoist burials. The present-day cemetery is a vaguely trapezoidal area of about 54 hectares with an irregular network of roads its old pre-war part along Rizal Avenue Extension, reflecting its gradual evolution and expansion. Meanwhile, the post-war portion has three major roads bisected by minor roads, aligned northwest to southeast. Matandang Sora, coming from the main entrance in Felix Huertas going towards Chong Hock Temple, is the main road today. Before the Pacific War the main entrances faced Avenida Rizal. This northwestern is the oldest and most historically significant part of the cemetery. The cemetery was witness to many executions during World War II. Among them were Girl Scouts organizer Josefa Llanes Escoda, Filipino Brigadier General and hero during World War II and Boy Scouts of the Philippines charter member Vicente Lim, literary geniuses Liling Roces and Manuel Arguilla, star athlete-turned-guerrilla spy Virgilio Lobregat, and Chinese Consul General Yang Guangsheng. Apolinario Mabini was also buried in the cemetery before his remains were transferred to Batangas on July 23, 1956.
The Sangley Rebellion was a series of armed confrontations between overseas Chinese, known as the Sangley, and the Spanish and their allied forces in Manila under the Captaincy General of the Philippines, in October 1603. The local ethnic Chinese residents dominated trade and outnumbered Spanish residents in Manila by a five-to-one ratio, although both were minorities to the indigenous Tagalog population. The ruling Spaniards feared and resented the rival Chinese minority. Policies of persecution were enacted against the local Chinese residents and they were expelled from the city to an undesirable swamp area in 1586, which the local Chinese turned into a thriving town. The local Chinese planned a strike due to worsening relations, but it resulted in the execution of their mayor, and became a rebellion. It ended in the massacre of more than 20,000 ethnic Chinese in Manila at the hands of the Spaniards, local Japanese, and indigenous Tagalog forces.
Huan-a is a Hokkien-language term used by Hokkien speakers in multiple countries, namely mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, etc. The word itself when dissected means 番; hoan; 'foreign', + 仔; á; 'diminutive noun suffix', but to the ethnic Chinese that settled overseas in Taiwan and Maritime Southeast Asia, it soon came to refer to native Southeast Asians and Taiwanese aborigines.
Mandarin Chinese is the primary formal Chinese language taught academically to students in Chinese Filipino private schools and additionally across other private and public schools, universities, and institutions in the Philippines, especially as the formal written Chinese language.
Racism in the Philippines is multifarious and emerged in various portions of the history of people, institutions and territories coinciding to that of the present-day Philippines.
Parián or Pantin, also Parián de Arroceros was an area adjacent to Intramuros at its east built to house Sangley (Chinese) merchants in Manila in the 16th and 17th centuries during the Spanish rule in the Philippines. The place gave its name to the gate connecting it to Intramuros, the Puerta del Parián.
Pangasinan, referred to in Literary Chinese records as 馮嘉施蘭, historically romanized in an atonal Wade-Giles-inspired romanization of Mandarin as Feng-chia-hsi-lan although in Hokkien, it is phonetically read in Chinese: 馮嘉施蘭; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Pâng-ka-si-lân; lit. 'Pangasinan'; IPA:, was a sovereign coastal pre-colonial Philippine polity (panarian) located at the coasts of Lingayen Gulf. South of Pangasinan was the kingdom of Caboloan, located in the interior of Central Luzon, beside the Agno River basin.
Román Ongpin y Tanbensiang was a Chinese Filipino businessman and philanthropist who aided Filipino revolutionaries against the Spanish and American colonial administration in the Philippine islands.
Tipos del País, literally meaning Types of the Country, is a Filipino Miniature painting of watercolor method that shows the different types of inhabitants in the Philippines in their different native costumes that show their social status and occupation during colonial times.
Carlos Palanca (1844–1901), also known as Tan Quien Sien or Tan Chuey Leong or Tan Chueco, was a late 19th century local Sangley Chinese community leader, government official, diplomat, legal mediator, lawyer and businessman in the Philippines then part of the Spanish East indies of the Spanish Empire. During the latter part of the Spanish colonial era in the islands he served three times as the Gobernadorcillo de los Sangleyes or Capitan Chino or cabecilla (leader) in Binondo, Manila and two times as interim headman. He was also the first acting consul general of Qing China to Spanish Philippines from July 28, 1898 to January 1899.
Kiamoy, is a class of Filipino treats made with dried sour plums, prunes, or apricots preserved in brine and vinegar. They are sold covered in a powdery coating of an anise, li hing, salt, and sugar mixture called "kiamoy powder" or kiam-muy-hoon. They are characteristically bright red, orange, or light brown in color. They originate from Chinese Filipino immigrants and are derived from the li hing mui treats of Chinese cuisine. The name is derived from Philippine Hokkien Chinese: 鹹梅; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: kiâm-muî; lit. 'salted plum'.
↑ Wolff, John U. (1972). A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan. New York: Southeast Asia Program of Cornell University & Linguistic Society of the Philippines.
↑ San Buena Ventura, Fr. Pedro de (1613). de Silva, Juan (Don.) (ed.). Vocabulario de lengua tagala: El romance castellano puesto primero (in Tagalog & Early Modern Spanish). La Noble Villa de Pila. p.545. Sangley) Langlang (pc) anſi llamauan los viejos deſtos [a los] ſangleyes cuando venian [a tratar] con ellos[Sangley) Langlang (pc) this is what the elderlies called [the] Sangleyes when they came [to deal] with them]{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
1 2 3 4 Go, Bon Juan (December 23, 2014 – January 19, 2015). "Gems of History: Sangley". Tulay Fortnightly: Chinese-Filipino Digest. Vol.XXVII, no.14. Kaisa Para Sa Kaunlaran, Inc. pp.5–6. ISSN0116-6689.
↑ Hofileña, Saul (2011). "Sangley Point and the former U.S. Navy Yard in Cavite City". Under the Stacks. Manila. ISBN978-971-95130-0-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Retana, Wenceslao Emilio (Testimony of Benito Legarda) (1921). Diccionario de filipinismos. New York and Paris: Report of Philippine Commission. p.127.
1 2 3 Cruikshank, Bruce (1982). "Review of The Tobacco Monopoly in the Philippines: Bureaucratic Enterprise and Social Change, 1776-1880". The Journal of Asian Studies. 41 (4): 880–882. doi:10.2307/2055499. JSTOR2055499. S2CID162600587.
Tan, Hock Beng. (1994). Tropical Architecture and Interiors, Singapore: Page One Publishing Pte Ltd.
Tettoni, Luca Invernizzi and Sosrowardoyo, Tara. (1997). Filipino Style. Hong Kong, China: Periplus Editions Ltd.
Weightman, George H. (February 1960). The Philippine Chinese: A Cultural History of A Marginal Trading Company. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Dissertation Information Service.
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