Chinese Filipinos (sometimes referred as Filipino Chinese or Chinoy/Tsinoy in the Philippines) are Filipinos of full or partial Chinese descent, although 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. These were mostly Hokkien-speaking people that later became the dominant group within the Filipino Chinese community.The Birth of Globalization: The World and the Beginnings of Philippine Sovereignty, 1565-1610 PhD Thesis. Ethan P. Hawkley. April 2014. Northeastern University. In the 19th century, migration was triggered by the corrupt and ineffective governance of the late Qing dynasty, combined with economic problems in China due to the Western and Japanese colonial wars as well as the Opium Wars. It subsequently continued during the 20th century, from American colonial times, through the post-independence era and the 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 (or pure) Chinese within the Philippine population, while Filipinos with any Chinese descent comprised 22.8 million of the population. However, current figures are not known since the Philippine census usually does not take into account questions about ethnicity. 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 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 of Spanish colonial-era Chinese mestizo (mestizo de Sangley) 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 in the creation of Filipino nationalism and the sparking of the Philippine Revolution as part of the foundation of the First Philippine Republic and subsequently sovereign independent Philippines.
Identity The organization Kaisa para sa Kaunlaran (Unity for Progress) 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.Hyphens, en dashes, em dashes . (n.d.) Chicago Style Q&A. Chicago Manual of Style Online. (15th ed.)
By the definition of "people with one Chinese parent", the ethnically Chinese Filipino comprise 1.8% (1.35 million) of the population.
History Early interactions The Han Chinese sailed around the Philippines from the 9th century onward and frequently interacted with the local Austronesian people. The Han that sailed to the Philippines were mostly Hokkien-speaking people. 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 the Song dynasty 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.
In the year 972 AD, the Song dynasty annals briefly mentioned Ma-i ("", ), 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 "" () and Sanmalan recorded as "" (), 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 other states from the Philippines Baipuer (Babuyan Islands) and the group of islands collectively known as "Sandao" or "Sanyu" which were Jamayan (now Calamian, recorded as "" ()), Balaoyu (Palawan, or "", )), and Pulihuan (approximate location is Manila, or areas near it, recorded as "", ). 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 stem 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 of 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 (or sometimes referring to Manila) 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.
Spanish colonization of the Philippines (16th century–1898)
"Sangley" was the term used during the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines to refer to any ethnic Chinese person, regardless of specific ancestral origin in China. In the case of the Philippines, the majority came from the province of Fujian in China, mostly the Southern Min people in Southern Fujian, specifically the Hokkien people, who speak southern Fujian's Hokkien language. The Hokkien people have their own unique culture, language, and religious belief systems, different from other ethnic groups in China.
The Chinese population originally occupied the Binondo area and eventually spread all over the islands, becoming traders, moneylenders and landowners.
In the late 18th century, Fr. Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga conducted a census of the Archdiocese of Manila, which held most of Luzon under its spiritual care, and he reported that the tributes represented an average family of 5 to 7 per tribute; in which case there were 90,243 native Filipino tributes; 10,512 Chinese (Sangley) and mixed Chinese Filipino mestizo tributes; and 10,517 mixed Spanish Filipino mestizo tributes. Pure Spaniards were not counted, as they were exempt from tribute. Out of these, Fr. Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga estimated a total population count exceeding half a million souls with Chinese and Chinese Mestizos forming 10,512 of the total tribute of 110,000+. In the provinces: Pampanga was home to 870 Chinese Filipino tributes/families, the City of Pasig had half of its 3,000 tributes/families to be Chinese Filipinos. In 1603, Manila itself was also home to 25,000 Chinese immigrants. Ilocos which was a separate bishopric from the Archdiocese of Manila had a comparatively large Chinese population which numbered 10,041 Chinese Filipino families.ESTADISMO DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS TOMO SEGUNDO By Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Original Spanish) The province of Laguna had 2,000 Chinese-Filipino farmers/families.Conquest and Pestilence in the Early Spanish Philippines By Linda A. Newson Biñan on the other hand had 256 Chinese-Filipino tributes.
The Spanish, who initially viewed the Sangley as a good source of manpower and commerce for the colony, gradually had shifting perspectives due to presupposed threats of Chinese invasion, which historically never materialized. Regardless, the Spanish, including the clergy, sought ways to justify the limiting or expulsion of the Sangley population in the Philippines. The main contentions were often on religious morality grounds, such as vices of sodomy by homosexuals, gambling, greed and the like that Spanish friars identified among non-Christian Sangley.
Chinese mestizos as Filipinos
During the Philippine Revolution of 1898, Mestizos de Sangley (Chinese mestizos) would eventually refer to themselves as Filipino, which during that time referred to Spaniards born in the Philippines. The Chinese mestizos would later fan the flames of the Philippine Revolution. Many leaders of the Philippine Revolution themselves have substantial Chinese ancestry. These include Emilio Aguinaldo, Andrés Bonifacio, Marcelo del Pilar, Antonio Luna, José Rizal and Manuel Tinio.
Chinese mestizos in the Visayas Sometime in 1750, an adventurous young man named Wo Sing Lok, also known as "Sin Lok" arrived in Manila, Philippines. The 12-year-old traveler came from Amoy, the old name for Xiamen, an island known in ancient times as "Gateway to China"—near the mouth of Jiulong "Nine Dragon" River in the southern part of Fujian Province.
Earlier in Manila, immigrants from China were herded to stay in the Chinese trading center called "Parian". After the Sangley Revolt of 1603, this was destroyed and burned by the Spanish authorities. Three decades later, Chinese traders built a new and bigger Parian near Intramuros.
For fear of a Chinese uprising similar to that in Manila, the Spanish authorities implementing the royal decree of Gov. Gen. Juan de Vargas dated July 17, 1679, rounded up the Chinese in Iloilo and hamletted them in the parian (now Avanceña Street). It compelled all local unmarried Chinese to live in the Parian and all married Chinese to stay in Binondo. Similar Chinese enclaves or "Parian" were later established in Camarines Sur, Cebu, and Iloilo.
Sin Lok together with the progenitors of the Lacson, Sayson, Ditching, Layson, Ganzon, Sanson and other families who fled Southern China during the reign of the despotic Qing dynasty (1644–1912) in the 18th century and arrived in Maynilad; finally, decided to sail farther south and landed at the port of Batiano river to settle permanently in "Parian" near La Villa Rica de Arevalo in Iloilo.
American colonial era (1898–1946)
During the American colonial period, the Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States was also put into effect in the Philippines. Nevertheless, the Chinese were able to settle in the Philippines with the help of other Chinese Filipinos, despite strict American law enforcement, usually through "adopting" relatives from Mainland or by assuming entirely new identities with new names. The privileged position of the Chinese as middlemen of the economy under Spanish colonial rule quickly fell, as the Americans favored the principalía (educated elite) formed by Chinese mestizos and Spanish mestizos. As American rule in the Philippines started, events in Mainland China starting from the Taiping Rebellion, Chinese Civil War and Boxer Rebellion led to the fall of the Qing dynasty, which led thousands of Chinese from Fujian in China to migrate en masse to the Philippines to avoid poverty, worsening famine and political persecution. This group eventually formed the bulk of the current population of unmixed Chinese Filipinos.