Asia-Pacific in the Making of the Americas: Toward a Global History

Chinese Mestizo: To Be “Filipino” or “Chinese”

During the first three decades of the twentieth century, citizenship laws in the Philippines continued to operate under the nation-based principle of creating a homogeneous group of people vis-à-vis a constructed “Other.” Thus, Chinese mestizos had to opt to be either a “Filipino” or “Chinese.” Following the principle of jus soli, the Philippine Supreme Court ruled in 1917 that anyone born in the Philippines acquired “Filipino” citizenship. This created a generation of Chinese mestizos who, when born in the Philippines, were automatically considered “Filipinos,” although there is no existing literature describing how this law was implemented or how much it was adhered to. The Commonwealth constitution reverted the citizenship law back to the pre-1917 condition in 1935. That is, Chinese mestizos born in the Philippine were considered “Chinese,” but could opt to become “Filipino” upon the age of majority.

 As the process of constructing a “Filipino” nation and identity went well underway, Chinese mestizos who had “Filipino” citizenship also started to self-identify mainly as “Filipino.” An example is Mariano Limjap, whose public identity was that of a “Filipino.” He engaged in various nation-building projects, including helping erect at Luneta Park the monument of the national hero Jose Rizal; giving out scholarships to “poor but deserving (Filipino) students at the University of the Philippines and other schools;” and founding the Liceo de Manila, the first school in Manila to have an “all Filipino faculty.”[40][41] When he died in 1926, the banner headline of one of the major newspapers in Manila ran: “Limjap, known for Altruism Passes Away: Noted Filipino Philanthropist Succumbs to Heart Failure.”[42] On the other hand, Chinese mestizos whose fathers were Chinese citizens, and who were born before 1917 and after 1935, grew up as “Chinese.”[43]
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[40] NHI,Filipinos in History, 152.
[41] Raul Boncan y Limjap, House of Limjap: The Third Generation: The Role of a Philippine Chinese Mestizo Family in the Founding and Development of a New Nation, Vol. 2, N.p.(2000): 4.
[42] Limjap, known for altruism passes away: Noted Filipino philanthropist succumbs to heart failure,The Tribune, 5 March 1926.
[43] One factor that helped in the “sinicization” of Chinese mestizos under the American colonial period was the establishment of several “Chinese” schools in the Philippines. The first school established was the Anglo-Chinese School (1899). Other schools established in the Philippines during the first two decades of the twentieth century included the Quiapo Anglo-Chinese School (1916) and the Chinese Patriotic School (Tan 1972, 157–8). The Chinese curricula and textbooks in these schools followed closely those prescribed by the Education Ministry in China, although most, like the Anglo-Chinese School, also had an English Department that followed the public school system in the Philippines. By the mid 1920s, there were more than five Chinese schools in Manila that had a total enrollment of more than 2,000 students (Tan 1972, 164). For the most part, the schools were “dedicated to preserving and reviving the interest of Philippine Chinese in Chinese culture, Chinese history and customs, and Chinese language and Chinese outlook” (Tan 1972, 165). 

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