A Business Graduate's Reviewing History Blog

Kuwento ni Kapitan Kokak Being a Chinese Filipino can be a complicated thing. It took me years to figure out my place in the Philippines. It wasn't until I was in my fourth year high school (in 2001-2002) that the Filipino teacher spoke about Jose Rizal being Chinese by blood . The Filipino teacher asked if one had to be born ethnically Filipino (though it's best to view Filipino as a race, and most Filipinos are of Malay-Indo descent) to be a true Filipino patriot. The answer was no, where she cited several Filipinos of Chinese descent. However, seeing Communist China progress over the Philippines, tends to be my favorite justification whenever I become unreasonable. I even blamed democracy (rather than its misuse, or a wrong notion of it) for the ills the Philippines suffered. An irony is that Communist China should become more powerful than the Philippines. It's easy to brag about the EDSA 1986 Revolution and how it influenced the world. However, take note that the EDSA ...

As I look back on my college days, I recall learning more about Chinese history in a Chinese Language Class elective. Yes, it was going back to Grade 1 Chinese, but doing Grade 1 Chinese right. I looked at this video and thought of China's many dialects. A dialect is defined by the Oxford dictionary as, "a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group." The subject was taught in English, not requiring students to learn Hokkien first, and it was how the Chinese school system should've been. Most Chinese Filipinos (like myself) are Hokkien speakers. Amoy is known as Xiamen today, a coastal city of the Fujian Province. I was shocked to learn there are many different types of Chinese, such as Cantonese (used in Hong Kong), and I wasn't shocked to learn that Hainan and Hakka are other dialects in China. Similar to Filipino, China has several languages too! In the Philippines, we have Tagalog, Cebuano, Kapampangan, Waray, and Hilig...

An interesting tidbit about Chinese New Year is that, to no surprise, Chairman Mao Zedong had the festival banned under his regime. The World Treasures website gives this detail on Mao's banning of the said holiday: In 1912, the government abolished Chinese New Year and the lunar new year and adopted the Gregorian calendar which made January 1 the official start of the new year.  In 1949, under the reign of the Chinese Communist Party leader, Mao Zedong, the government outlawed the celebration of the traditional Chinese New Year.  At the end of the 20th century, Chinese leaders became more willing to accept the Chinese tradition.  In 1996, China instituted a weeklong vacation during the holiday which took the name of the Spring Festival.  During this week businesses come to a halt and people are given the chance to travel home and celebrate the new year with their family. Chinese New Year was a tradition brought by the Chinese. However, the Lunar New Year festival i...

It's the Chinese New Year once again. Some  ignorant people have their ill feelings towards Chinese Filipinos, never mind the long history of Chinese immigrants who have become Filipinos. A simple classroom history lesson to a Google search, will tell us what it meant to be a Filipino.  What does it mean to be a Filipino?  It's often said that Filipino is more of a nationality than a race. Here's the definition of what it means to be a Filipino: 1 : a native of the Philippine Islands 2 : a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines 3 : the Tagalog-based official language of the Republic of the Philippines Filipino adjective  According to the current constitution, these define what makes one a Filipino: Section 1. The following are citizens of the Philippines: [1] Those who are citizens of the Philippines at the time of the adoption of this Constitution; [2] Those whose fathers or mothers are citizens of the Philippines; [3] Those born before January 17, 1973, of Fili...

Should we panic or should we not panic? Life during the COVID-19 pandemic was deadly. What we must remember is that COVID-19 was a novel virus at that time. Meanwhile, the human metapneumovirus (HMPV) has surged in China. Should we immediately assume that "Oh no! Another lockdown is coming for the world!" or should we remain calm? I feel tense right now, even as I'm writing this. Partly, it's because I'm an outgoing person. Another reason is that I recall the number of Filipinos (both politicians and civilians) who do not follow simple guidelines. Right now, I can expect more racist attacks because I'm ethnically Chinese. I could even explain for all I care that (1) I was born in the Philippines, (2) I was raised in the Philippines, and (3) explain fluently that I never lived in China. The problem is that racist Filipinos do exist--never mind that the Philippines is a melting pot of several cultures! The recent Alice Guo (Guo Hua Ping) controversy where people...

Yes, disasters can happen during the Christmas Season. Google " Christmas Day disasters " and you will find that Christmas isn't immune to disasters. One of the worst Christmas season disasters aside from the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami would be the birth of Mao Zedong on December 26 , 1893. Yes, he was born during the Christmas Season. He wasn't there to spread Christmas cheer. Instead, he was born to cause disaster even beyond the Christmas Season! The Christmas season disaster that heralded a series of disasters It's amazing how some people still idolize this monster. Some victims of Christmas Season disasters may have gotten over and celebrated Christmas a few years later. However, Mao's rule caused one disaster after the other. A review of history would reveal the disastrous results of his dictatorship.  How Stuff Works reveals this detail on Mao's rule: His Controversial Rule   After solidifying his grasp on power, and winning over the ...

I've observed that Filipino humor can get way too far. I used to fight a lot with two housemaids who had their tactless sense of humor. What do you expect from a nation that adores ill humor on television? Reading the tactless humor made on Facebook on Ju Wenjun (and I doubt this woman can even speak Tagalog) and comparing her to Bamban's suspended mayor Alice Leal Guo (who I believe might be a fugitive on the run from the CCP), gets really tactless comments.  Do I need to state the fact that a person can't be in two places at the same time ? Wenjun is in Norway and it's doubtful she's ever been to the Philippines. Looking at the face of Alice vs. Wenjun--one can tell the difference. It's like a closer look at the face of the alleged "Marijoy Jimenea Chiong" photos--one can tell that's the sister-in-law . Also, a closer look at Debbie Jane Chiong-Sia would show she's not her presumably deceased older sister Jacqueline Jimenea Chiong.  Watching...

I went to China in 2007. It pains me that going to China now might not be the best thing to do. When I think of Tiananmen--I think of the brutal massacre that happened on June 4, 1989. I guess not all peaceful protests work. It's effortless to talk about the EDSA Revolution of 1986 and how it encouraged others to do something similar. We have the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany. Before that, Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma" Gandhi did peaceful protests to get the British colonization out of India, without firing a bullet. Benigno Simeon "Ninoy" A. Aquino Jr. admired Gandhi's peaceful efforts. Did the Chinese students think that the same thing could work against a Communist totalitarian regime ? BBC News The protests happened after the death of the beloved Chinese President Hu Yaobang. Hu was considered a great reformer of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Students mourned for Hu as a national hero. Details from BBC show these details why the protests happe...

As a Chinese of Hokkien descent, I'm really not going to deny how often the word "si" or "death" was used in connection to exasperation. I hear the expression "ya si yo" to express how one is sick and tired. I remember saying "Ya si yo" when meeting people I knew I couldn't get anything out of them except useless gossip .  The meme I got from Bahay Tsinoy also made me think of using "death" to overemphasize. I don't think it's just limited to Fujian Chinese. I got into Chinese Grammar Wiki and found this interesting note: In English, you might use the expression "you scared me to death!" In Chinese, 死了 (sǐ le) is used similarly to intensify an adjective with an unpleasant connotation. It's pretty much a hyperbole . A good example would be like: 我 饿 死了. (Wǒ è sǐ le) which means "Hungry to death".  This would be another important tool in studying the Chinese language and culture. More often, the Ch...

When I started doing some research on Chinese food, I got curious about the food of Communist Chinese revolutionaries. I guess it's time to cook with Communism. I tasted Yang Hero at Ayala Central Bloc IT Park. The soup sizes were rather huge so I just went for the rice bowl. It was a full house and I got to taste the food of the revolutionaries. I went for a smoked pork belly rice bowl which I believe was one of Chairman Mao's favorite foods. Mao himself had Sichuan braised pork which is spicier than the Filipino version of humba. Humba is derived from hóngshāoròu which the latter is spicier. I was laughing when I read this interesting piece of information about Mao's love for spicy food as written by Otto Braun :   The shrewd peasant organizer had a mean, even “spiteful” streak. “For example, for a long time I could not accustom myself to the strongly spiced food, such as hot fried peppers, which is traditional to southern China, especially in Hunan, Mao’s birthplace.” Th...

It's crazy how Mao Zedong is still praised as a hero when he wasn't. I remember being told about his unhealthy habits which this video covers. This is entertaining but at the same time disgusting.  I think about his love for hong mah (where the Filipino dish humba was based) or red braised pork belly was just one. As a man watching his diet--I certainly want to avoid anything fatty. I usually prefer beef (preferably halal since it's leaner) or chicken. I try to eat more vegetables than usual to lose more weight. Mao was considerably overweight. I guess you are what you eat, right? Mao's hygiene makes me wonder why he had all his infidelities. He was divorced more than once. His last wife Madame Mao was a very wicked woman. He never brushed his teeth but gargled tea. He never bathed but only wiped himself. It's amazing he still reached 82 in spite of his hygiene habits worse than some of my elders. It's alleged he never brushed his teeth because it was a "fi...

Bahay Tsinoy, museum of Chinese life in the Philippines  This textbook was a symbol of my past  trauma, especially during my high school years. I didn't have formal Chinese education and I had to face off with someone who was pretty much like the late Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Sure, that MDS-like teacher taught me a lot of stuff that I learned later in life. I'm still grateful I ran into that MDS-like teacher who still helped me after she flunked me. However, I feel the traditional Chinese textbooks were a really big hurdle to learning how to speak Mandarin. It's no joke that Mandarin has become more and more widely spoken. According to Langoly , this isn't a surprise to me as to why I viewed Mandarin as very important: There are around 1.118 billion speakers of Mandarin Chinese , and it has been spoken in China for more than 3,000 years. Mandarin Chinese is also the official language of Singapore and Taiwan. There are many other languages in China (like Cantonese), but...