A Business Graduate's Reviewing History Blog

I remembered one of the stories in Chinese class. Okay, I might be criticizing the way Chinese was taught back then but I'm not going to shy away from remembering life lessons. It's like a Chinese language teacher of mine said, "Was it true I was strict?" and then she followed up by saying, "Did you learn something?" The same was true for another Chinese language teacher who was mad at my quiz scores. Later, the other Chinese language teacher said, "Did you learn something" followed up by, "I'm glad you see Mandarin has its importance." I could only say "Yes." to the two Chinese language teachers. I feel that even wit that old system that I disliked--the two Chinese language teachers imparted special values.  One story was of Li Bai who, like Mencius, wasn't a bright start. Some of the best people today may share their embarrassing pasts. Such a story that I heard was that of Li Bai the scholar. It was said Li Bai didn...

As I'm trying to learn Mandarin, I recall the story of Mencius' mother. I remembered how a Chinese language teacher told me, "I wonder how your mother will react if you told her you don't like school." I revisited the story of Mencius (also known as 孟子, read as Mèng Kē) when he was younger. It was said that Mencius was once a lazy student. The story had it that Mencius became truant about school. What Mencius' mother did to get rid of his lazy behavior was to make him rethink his way of thinking. This was what the Shen Yun Performing Arts  says about the story: Her name was Zhang. She became a widow when Mencius was young, and legend has it she moved homes three times in search for a location suitable for raising her son. When Mencius was a child, he came home early one day, obviously cutting class. He walked in to find his mother weaving at her loom. Surprised to see him back, she asked if school was out early. “I left because I felt like it,” he said. This u...

I was doing some research on Taiwan finding out that the natives are indeed Austronesians . It seems that Indonesians and Malaysians may have also settled in Taiwan aside from the Philippines. A look at Mt. Alishan and Banaue Rice Terraces have a similarity. Taiwan has its famous tea terraces. Banaue has its famous rice terraces. Both are cultural heritages that must be preserved! I soon found an article which Ifugao OFWs in Taiwan. Not surprisingly, these Ifugao OFWs can point out several things that are pretty similar. An article called " A Gotad Picnic With Ifugaos Living in Taiwan " would tell of Armand Camhol, an Ifugao OFW, who met with other Ifugaos in Taiwan. Gotad is a thanksgiving festival for the Ifugaos. The News Lens International Edition What was noted by Armand at the end of the article is: The people of Ifugao value hospitality, and as a symbol of friendship, they shared their holiday with their invited guests, who, in return, sang, joined the dances, and made...

February becomes the time to celebrate the 1986 EDSA Revolution, right? I still believe that EDSA 1986 was an important event. My issue was what happened after EDSA in which the Philippines still maintained (in part) the protectionist policies of Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. and Carlos P. Garcia's Filipino First Policy. I did write about why the Marcos Sr. Administration was never a true parliamentary . Even the very words of Marcos Sr. had actually proven that the Philippines was, in fact, never a parliamentary system aside from Benigno Simeon A. Aquino Jr.'s speech in Los Angeles. Here are Marcos' own words from a speech in 1984: The adoption of certain aspects of a parliamentary system in the amended Constitution does not alter its essentially presidential character . Article VII on the Presidency starts with this provision:  ‘the President shall be the Head of State and Chief Executive of the Republic of the Philippines.’  Its last section is an even more emphatic affirmatio...

Back in my student days, I remembered having been a stranger to Chinese culture. One song was called "高山青 (read as Gāo Shān Qīng)" which literally means "High Green Mountain". The dancers wore the costumes used for traditional Ifugao dances. My interest in this topic came back because of a local tea company called Alishan Tea . Before that, other tea shops offered tea from Mt. Alishan. Chatime also promoted tea from Taiwan which was grown from Mt. Alishan. I'm afraid that the cultural revolution of Mao Zedong could've destroyed them if Chiang Kai Shek didn't split Taiwan from China. Hopefully, Taiwan's desire for independence would be granted if China becomes a democratic country.  I remembered being told that a trip to Taiwan's Mt. Alishan might remind one of Baguio or Nueva Ecija. It turns out that the Banaue Rice Terraces, as marvelous as it is, may not be so unique. I love the Banaue Rice Terraces and they should be preserved. Countries with ...

I guess the fascination with the broken justice system can never end, right? After watching Give Up Tomorrow , my entire world was shattered. I never realized that, all along, the act done by the 35 (or more) witnesses for Juan Francisco G. Larrañaga aka Paco. Paco was in Quezon City in Manila during the night of the crime. Manila was 300 kilometers away from Cebu City, where the crime happened. One of my memories in high school was that a film based on the Chiong Sisters was being produced. The film was originally named Butakal meaning "male pig". Later, the film was renamed  Animal in 2004--the same year Paco was wrongfully on death row. There was a sense of urgency in making the film. Fortunately, Paco and his co-accused were spared. The film presented the case of how eight people were wrongfully tagged. Yes, I believe that Davidson V. Rusia was innocent regarding the crime. The documentary did show that Davidson was tortured repeatedly.  What we saw was only what was incl...

I guess the rainy days really can make me remember the Chiong Sisters' sudden disappearance, right? Right now, Jeepney TV on YouTube hasn't uploaded the Chiong Sisters episode. I watched Give Up Tomorrow where one blatant opponent of constitutional reform, Mrs. Solitas G. Collas-Monsod, was there. I could think about her colorful descriptions that helped the video. Mrs. Monsod did present a lot of valid points such as the late Judge Martin Ocampo's colorful imagination of how Francisco Juan G. Larranaga aka Paco could just hire a plane, land in Cebu, do the dastardly deed, and fly to Manila like nothing happened. I could agree with Mrs. Monsod's statements but I'm still appalled at one thing--she's very anti-reform! The video I'm sharing was most likely not included due to time constraints. However, it's a good thing that Michael Collins uploaded some of those scenes. These scenes included the owner of the house where the rape supposedly happened, the ...

Having grown up in the Philippines, I could remember some discrimination even if I'm a natural-born Filipino. There's the word "huan na" (spelled as 番仔 and known as fān zăi in Mandarin) which Chinese-Filipino call Filipinos to be. However, a deeper meaning of the word huan na may simply mean "foreigner" or "outside the Chinese race. It's very often seen that the Chinese tend to migrate, build communities, and become very exclusive. I wonder what's the point of leaving China (for freedom reasons) and then trying to live as if they're still in China? That's what's often portrayed by Amy Tan of the Joy Luck Club and Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by a Chinese-American lawyer, Amy Chua-Rubenfeld who was born to Chinese-Filipino parents. I remembered how often Filipinos of non-Chinese origin are called huan na. Yet, huan na can also mean, "The native of the land where Chinese are immigrants." Filipinos of either Malaysian or ...

I remembered writing some time ago about why the Marcos Sr. Regime couldn't be a parliamentary government . Yet, there are some people (and I assume many of these are boomers who were in their 20s during the martial law era, so they're old men by now like a certain irrelevant dancer) that the Marcos Sr. Years were a parliamentary system. It would be interesting to raise up again the very speech of the late Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. himself. January 17, 1984, was what some call the fake uplifting of martial law. It was also on that day Marcos Sr. himself revealed why the Marcos Sr. Years was still presidential even with his parliament taken from The Official Gazette :  The adoption of certain aspects of a parliamentary system in the amended Constitution does not alter its essentially presidential character . Article VII on the Presidency starts with this provision: ‘the President shall be the Head of State and Chief Executive of the Republic of the Philippines.’ Its last section ...

Right now, I feel like revisiting Chinese with a new understanding. Back then, we only memorized without understanding. Teachers, no matter how good he or she was, were forced to conform to a system that only taught how to memorize long sentences but not how to understand them. I felt the approach of reading in both Mandarin and Amoy can be distracting to one thing--learning Mandarin. Talk about not allowing vernacular to be spoken in Tagalog class. However, Amoy is spoken in class (and I got into trouble many times for breaking that rule) to learn Mandarin. I took basic Mandarin at the University of San Carlos (since a foreign language elective is required ), learned pinyin, and later one of my Chinese language teachers spoke to me in Amoy, "Now, you see how important Mandarin is. Good." She used the word 华语 (huá yǔ). Just because I had bad grades back then doesn't mean I'm unable to learn new things, right? We have seven ways to say Chinese? Many times, it's ver...

  As a person born in the 1980s, I would say I saw a significant amount of technology and methods develop, I remembered typing my high school thesis stuck with a very old PC , working on my college group paper with a better PC, and finally had a laptop during my graduate school days. Back then, I remembered when Chinese schools taught Zhuyin (which I really dislike), I didn't pass my Zhuyin subject (good thing, the Chinese language teacher didn't make me take summer since I should be applying for college), and how pinyin was barely taught. It was pretty much like how some older Taiwanese folks had a bad attitude toward pinyin. Barriotic people do exist and I'm afraid that pinyin's potential was never explored back then. It's going to be obvious that names in Chinese will be written in pinyin in the history books. I really thought there was a typographical error when Mao Zedong was spelled as such. I was used to hearing Mao Zedong as Mao Tse Tung. People read the z a...