Filipino prejudice against the Chinese in the 50s

As a Chinese immigrant, I’ve experienced a lot of harassment (physical, verbal, sexual) and microaggression from Filipinos. I always just turn a blind eye kasi iyon ang turo ng parents sa amin, na makisama, magpakumbaba, etc because we owe our lives to this country. We expect to give more, to pay more, to work more, to endure more, sort of to buy acceptance. Part iyan ng life namin.

I remember an incident at a hotel, when I was with my family and we were in line to get a taxi. There was another family waiting for a cab din pala, but they were not in line so hindi namin alam na they weren’t waiting for their own car. So naturally, we approached agad the first taxi that arrived; they got mad and hurled insults immediately, saying we’re uneducated and such. Hindi ba pwedeng simple misunderstanding lang? I can’t help but think if we were white, they would probably be nicer. Tahimik lang kami. Never mind the regular micro-aggressive people at work pa, lahat sila highly educated.

My parents are uneducated, yes. Pero they came here with nothing and learnt the language, they respect the people, and make an honest living. Proud sila na educated kami ng siblings sa Big 4 ng Pilipinas, one sibling is even on the way to an Ivy League. My dad used to eat only kamote in China (literal), never half-full; my mom had to work while pregnant, we even lost a sibling to miscarriage dahil dito. I used to skip meals in school to save, more days than actually eating something since we weren’t doing well then.

I know that there are trashy Chinese people coming here recently for gambling and such, I’m sorry about those kinds of people. But all of this discrimination was already in place before pa. There are slurs against the Chinese but not a single one for the Spaniards, after their 300 years here? I hope you guys recognize that the Chinese diaspora who came here because our parents/grandparents were pushed out of their homes due to extreme poverty, came here in search for a better life, and they want to contribute to society.

Even the founder of Jollibee, which is loved by all, and which is now almost synonymous to Filipino food (at least abroad, especially for those who are not too familiar with actual Filipino food), and the founder of Philippine Airlines, our flag-carrier airline, are both from immigrant Chinese families. Isama na natin, other companies that have benefited us greatly: SM, Mercury Drug, and many more. Not a fan of billionaires but the point is, may value naman yata na kaming naidadala to Filipinos.

People always hate on us (globally) and say Chinese don’t have soft power etc, but that’s only because we never gatekeep our culture, we tailor them to fit others’ needs. The South Korean flag literally has the yin and yang symbol on it, even ramen, gyoza, chahan are Japanese Chinese food (ramen = la mian in Chinese, la: pull + mian: noodles = hand-pulled noodles), introduced to Japan by Chinese immigrants. Lomi is Chinese btw (mi = noodles), pero yung Shanghai rolls, inyo yan haha.

Btw many of us aren’t affiliated with either ROC or PRC; the ROC and the PRC both shed a lot of blood, it’s not just the latter, so stop thinking ROC = good and PRC = bad. China has a complicated history. It’s honestly ridiculous that Chinese communities in the world, who settled there before the formation of the PRC, are getting looted and burnt and such.

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