Chinese Filipinos


Chinese Filipinos are Filipinos of full or partial Chinese descent, but are typically born and raised in the Philippines. A large proportion of Chinese Filipinos can trace their ancestry back to the Chinese province of Fujian.
Chinese immigration to the Philippines predates the Spanish colonization of the islands, but intensified between the 16th and 19th centuries, attracted by the lucrative trade of the Manila galleons. During this era, they were referred to as Sangley. They were mostly the Hokkien-speaking Hokkien people that later became the dominant group within the Filipino-Chinese community. In the 19th century, migration was triggered by the corrupt and bad governance of the late Qing dynasty, combined with economic problems in China due to the Western and Japanese colonial wars and Opium Wars. It subsequently continued during the 20th century, from American colonial times, through the post-independence era to Cold War, to the present. In 2013, according to older records held by the Senate of the Philippines, there were approximately 1.35 million ethnic Chinese within the Philippine population, while Filipinos with any Chinese descent comprised 22.8 million of the population. However, the actual current figures are not known since the Philippine census does not usually take into account questions about ethnicity. Accordingly, the oldest Chinatown in the world is located in Binondo, Manila, founded on December 8, 1594.
Chinese Filipinos are a well established middle class ethnic group and are well represented in all of the levels of Filipino society. Chinese Filipinos also play a leading role in the Philippine business sector and dominate the Philippine economy today. Most in the current list of the Philippines' richest each year comprise Taipan billionaires of Chinese Filipino background. Some in the list of the political families in the Philippines are also of Chinese Filipino background, meanwhile the bulk are also of Spanish-colonial-era Chinese mestizo descent, of which, many families of such background also compose a considerable part of the Philippine population especially its bourgeois, who during the late Spanish Colonial Era in the late 19th century, produced a major part of the ilustrado intelligentsia of the late Spanish Colonial Philippines, that were very influential with the creation of Filipino nationalism and the sparking of the Philippine Revolution as part of the foundation of the First Philippine Republic and subsequent sovereign independent Philippines.

Identity

The organization Kaisa para sa Kaunlaran omits the hyphen for the term Chinese Filipino, as the term is a noun. The Chicago Manual of Style and the APA, among others, also omits the hyphen. When used as an adjective as a whole, it may take on a hyphenated form or may remain unchanged.
There are various universally accepted terms used in the Philippines to refer to Chinese Filipinos:
  • Chinese —generalized term referring to any and all Chinese people in or outside the Philippines in general regardless of nationality or place of birth.
  • Chinese Filipino, Filipino Chinese or Philippine Chinese —refers to people with some level of Han Chinese ethnicity with Philippine nationality and to people of Han Chinese ethnicity with Chinese nationality or whichever nationality but were born or mainly raised in the Philippines and usually have permanent residency. This also includes Chinese Filipinos who now live and/or were born overseas, but still have close ties to the community in the Philippines.
  • *Hokkienese / Fukienese / Fujianese / Fookienese —terms referring to Chinese Filipinos whose predominant ancestry is from Fujian Province in China, especially the Hokkien-speaking region in Southern Fujian. Chinese Filipinos of this background typically have Philippine Hokkien as a heritage language, though just as any Chinese Filipino may also normally speak Philippine English, Filipino/Tagalog or other Philippine languages and may also code-switch any and all of these languages, such as Taglish, Bislish, Hokaglish, etc.
  • *Cantonese —terms referring to Chinese Filipinos whose ancestry is from Guangdong Province in China, especially the Taishanese or Cantonese-speaking regions.
  • Chinese mestizo —refers to people who are of mixed Han Chinese and indigenous Filipino ancestry, a common and historical phenomenon in the Philippines especially families tracing from the Spanish colonial times. Those with 75% Han Chinese ancestry or more are typically not considered to be characteristically mestizo. Many Chinese mestizos are still Chinese Filipinos, though some with more indigenous Filipino ancestry or family or have just had a very long family history of living and assimilating to life in the Philippines may no longer identify as Chinese Filipino. Those with less than half of their ancestry or those with only one Chinese grandparent are generally not considered mixed as they identify more as Filipino only.
  • Mainland Chinese, Mainlander —refers to any PRC citizens from China, especially those of Han Chinese ethnicity with Chinese nationality that were raised in China.
  • Taiwanese —refers to ROC citizens from Taiwan, especially those of Han Chinese ethnicity with Republic of China nationality that were raised in Taiwan.
  • Hongkonger —refers to people from Hong Kong, especially those of Han Chinese ethnicity with Hong Kong residency or Hong Kong British National status that were born or raised in Hong Kong or British Hong Kong.
  • Macanese —refers to people from Macau, especially those of Han Chinese ethnicity with Macau permanent residency that were born or raised in Macau or Portuguese Macau.
  • tornatrás or torna atrás—obsolete Spanish term referring to people who are of varying mixtures of Han Chinese, Spanish and indigenous Filipino during the Spanish Colonial Period of the Philippines.
  • Sangley—obsolete term referring to people of unmixed Chinese ancestry, especially fresh first generation Chinese migrants, during the Spanish Colonial Period of the Philippines. The mixed equivalents were likewise the above terms, mestizo de Sangley and tornatrás.
Other terms being used with reference to China include:
  • 華人 – Hoâ-jîn or Huárén—a generic term for referring to Chinese people, without implication as to nationality
  • 華僑 – Hoâ-kiâo or Huáqiáo—Overseas Chinese, usually China-born Chinese who have emigrated elsewhere
  • 華裔 – Hoâ-è or Huáyì—People of Chinese ancestry who were born in, residents of and citizens of another country
"Indigenous Filipino" or simply "Filipino", is used in this article to refer to the Austronesian inhabitants prior to the Spanish Conquest of the islands. During the Spanish Colonial Period, the term indio was used.
However, intermarriages occurred mostly during the Spanish colonial period because Chinese immigrants to the Philippines up to the 19th century were predominantly male. It was only in the 20th century that Chinese women and children came in comparable numbers. Today, Chinese Filipino male and female populations are practically equal in numbers. Chinese mestizos, as a result from intermarriages during the Spanish colonial period, then often opted to marry other Chinese or Chinese mestizos. Generally, Chinese mestizos is a term referring to people with one Chinese parent.
By this definition, the ethnically Chinese Filipino comprise 1.8% of the population. This figure however does not include the Chinese mestizos who since Spanish times have formed a part of the middle class in Philippine society nor does it include Chinese immigrants from the People's Republic of China since 1949.

History

Early interactions

Ethnic Han Chinese sailed around the Philippines from the 9th century onward and frequently interacted with the local Austronesian people. The "Han Chinese" that sailed to the Philippines mostly come from the Hokkien ethnic group. Chinese and Austronesian interactions initially commenced as bartering and items. This is evidenced by a collection of Chinese artifacts found throughout Philippine waters, dating back to the 10th century. Since Song dynasty times in China and precolonial times in the Philippines, evidence of trade contact can already be observed in the Chinese ceramics found in archaeological sites, like in Santa Ana, Manila.

File:Ming1.jpg|Chinese Couple Migrants in the Philippines, c. 1590
File:Ming2.jpg|Chinese Couple Migrants in the Philippines, c. 1590
File:畲客 Xaque Couple in the Philippines - Boxer Codex.jpg|She couple from Ming Dynasty China
File:Chinese General in Philippines.jpg|Ming dynasty Chinese General with Attendant, c. 1590
File:文官 Mandarín Letrado - Mandarin Official from China - Boxer Codex.jpg|Mandarin Bureaucrat with Wife from Ming dynasty, c. 1590
File:太子 Príncipe - Prince and Princess from China - Boxer Codex.jpg|Chinese nobility from Ming Dynasty China, c. 1590
In the year 972 AD, the Song dynasty annals briefly mentioned "麻逸" which is generally accepted to be located in Mindoro island, southwest of Manila. A year earlier, the annals recorded traders from Ma-i coming to Canton, and then in 982 AD. In the 11th century, the states—or chief settlements—recorded by the local Bureau of Maritime Trade are Butuan, written in records as "蒲端" and Sanmalan recorded as "三麻蘭", whose traders presented themselves as tribute-paying envoys to China. They continued trade with the Song court in the years 1004, 1007 and 1011 and brought home Chinese ceramics. A century later, in addition to Ma-i, the bureau then recorded another states from the Philippines Baipuer and the group of islands collectively known as "Sandao" or "Sanyu" which were Jamayan, Balaoyu, and Pulihuan. These native traders mostly belonged to the elite. In a Song dynasty record, a man from Sandao was treated with respect after he returned home from Quanzhou for a unique tradition seemed to have stemmed from the native's village that a man who had been to China was revered. In 1007 AD, a local chief from Butuan sent an envoy to China, requesting an equal status with Champa, however, this was rejected for the Song court appear to have favored Champa.
If indeed there was interaction in the Visayas archipelago, it was sporadic. While there is evidence that the Chinese had interactions with the island of Luzon and Mindanao, historians William Henry Scott and Isabelo de los Reyes are skeptical on the Chinese activity in the 16th century or earlier. Both authors assert the claim that the Chinese only began to arrive in the early colonial period, and the latter claimed that by the administration of Lakan Dula, Luzon monopolized the articles distributed by the Chinese and sometimes by the Japanese. In the Philippine Islands by Blair and Robertson, Chao Ju-Kua from the 13th century mentioned "San-hsii", which they believed to be the Visayas islands, however no other historian has affirmed nor investigated this claim, and written evidence is also absent.