The Chinese Studies Program and the Ateneo Center for Asian Studies (ACAS) cordially invite the community to the book launch of "Chinese and Chinese Mestizos of Manila: Family, Identity, and Culture 1860s to 1930s (E.J. Brill, 2010)" on July 23, 2010, Friday, 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Conference Room 1, 2nd Floor, Ricardo and Dr. Rosita Leong Hall, Ateneo Loyola Heights campus.Abstract
For centuries, the Chinese have been intermarrying with inhabitants of the Philippines, resulting in a creolized community of Chinese mestizos under the Spanish colonial regime. In contemporary Philippine society, the "Chinese" are seen as a racialized "Other" while
descendants from early Chinese-Filipino intermarriages as "Filipino." Previous scholarship attributes this development to the identification of Chinese mestizos with the equally "Hispanicized" and "Catholic" indios, and to the "clannish-ness" of the Chinese. Building on works
in Chinese transnationalism and cultural anthropology and utilizing a variety of never-used sources, this book examines the everyday commercial and domestic practices of Chinese merchant families in late colonial Manila. The result is a fascinating and rich study of how
families and individuals creatively negotiate their identities in ways that challenge our understanding of the genesis of ethnic identities in Philippine society.
The Author
Richard T. Chu received his A.B. from Ateneo de Manila University (1986), M.A. from Stanford University (1994), and Ph.D. from University of Southern California (2003). His research and
publications focus on the Chinese in the Philippines. His book Chinese and Chinese Mestizos of Manila: Family, Identity, and Culture 1860s to 1930s (E.J. Brill, 2010) analyzes the familial and commercial practices of Chinese-mestizo merchant families in colonial Philippines, and presents new ways of understanding their history, their ethnic identities, and the construction of a "Chinese" and "Filipino" binary in contemporary Philippine society. His second project "Building a Nation," "Othering" a Race: The Making and Unmaking of Chinese Identities in the Philippines? examines the construction of Chinese stereotypes during the American colonial period, and how families negotiated or contested these images. He is currently Five-College Associate Professor in History and teaches courses on the Philippine history, Asian American history, and Chinese diasporic history.
Comments will be given by Prof. Filomeno V. Aguilar, History
Department, ADMU and Ms. Teresita Ang See, President of Kaisa and
Philippine Association of Chinese Studies (PACS)
Buy the book here.
