Brief History of Chinese in the Philippines

(From Charles Ongs A Bridge Too Far: Thoughts on Filipino-Chinese

Writing)
The Chinese have been in the Philippines for centuries. The Chinese
came to the Philippines as traders, artisans, and laborers in several waves of
migration since the twelfth century. (Such history of how the Chinese came
to the Philippines and what influences they brought can be found in
Philippines history books). The first generations of ethnic Chinese wrote
about their experiences in the country raising their mother language, works
published in community organs.
But pertaining to Chinese Language Literature, which is connected to
the history of Chinese in the country, there are already three generations of
writers:
1. First generations of immigrants came to the Philippines in the
1930s. They were educated in China and were influenced by the May
4, 1919 new literature movement in China;
2. Second generation of Philippines born Chinese received a
bilingual education and started writing in the sixties;
3. Present generation consists of new immigrants from China, Hong
Kong and Taiwan who came during the 70s and 80s.
Filipino-Chinese writing of their experience as overseas Chinese in
the Philippines, or as hua chiao, not the other way around, made
their writings.
Historically, before 1974, Chinese writers were actually Chinese
nationals living in the Philippines. The naturalization process was expensive
and complicated until 1974, and then President Ferdinand E. Marcos moved
to facilitate the naturalization of Chinese because he wanted to recognize the
Peoples Republic of China instead of Chinese Taipei.
Before the 1960s when Chinese schools were nationalized, Chinese schools
followed a dual curriculum one a local Department of Education
curriculum the other a Kuomintang system. Students has stronger political
commitments to China, because of this Filipinization (1960s) resulted in

standardization of Chinese schools curriculum with Chinese taught only for

ten hours. Chinese writers in this era write as Filipinos of Chinese descent
(Third generation).
In the 1970s most Chinese literature were written by the new
immigrants from East Asia. Third-generation writers wrote mostly in
English/Filipino, because most are products of Catholic-Protestant schools
with English as medium of instruction. Chinese language had deteriorated
since the 1970s, and so literature written by this time had little tradition,
working only from what little oral tradition they could get. So cultural
recovery and reconstruction is of concern today, preservation of
Putonghua, the lingua franca of Chinese throughout the world.
Overseas Chinese early immigrants call themselves hua-chiao
(Chinese bridges) as a bridge between cultures. But today, ChineseFilipinos call themselves hua-yi, acknowledging their ethnicity, but
accepting membership in the national polity of Filipinos trying to look back
at the bridges of the past.