“To Work Like Indios” The decree, issued on June 19, 1867, was clear. All physically-capable male Chinese residents in the Philippines, between 18 and 60 years old, were required to render forced labor to the state. While the indios (i.e. Filipinos) had been under this labor system called polo y servicio (or polo) since the [...]
by Lucio Blanco Pitlo III New Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. aims to take Philippines-China relations to the next level, and rightly so. The past six years under his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, showed how managing disputes despite challenges and fostering productive ties between the two neighbors redound to the country’s benefit. Broader ties should [...]
by Joseph Ching Velasco, Ph.D. 19 November 2021 - After social unrest plagued Hong Kong in 2019, doubts have emerged about the robustness of China’s “One Country, Two Systems.” When colonial rule over Hong Kong and Macau officially ended in the 1990s, these territories returned to the fold of mainland China under a special arrangement [...]
by Aaron Jed Rabena, Ph.D. 12 October 2021 - In the wake of growing anti-China sentiment in Western liberal democracies such as the US, Europe, and Australia due to political (i.e., human rights issues in Hong Kong and Xinjiang) and geopolitical differences (South China Sea and Taiwan), not only have China’s technological companies been at [...]
by Richard T. Chu, Ph.D. ~24 August 2021 Who am I? I have lived in the U.S. since 1992 and have pursued a career in academia. My area of expertise pertains to historical roots of racism and other forms of discrimination. I have published works on the Chinese and Chinese mestizos in the Philippines [...]
by Frances Antoinette Cruz I. The Digital Humanities 12 August 2021 - In what would arguably become his most famous monograph, Benedict Anderson put forward the idea that a main driver of the spread of nationalism was print capitalism, which allowed for the dissemination of texts in appropriate local languages across the globe (Anderson 1991). [...]
by Jely A. Galang, Ph.D. Chinese Workers and “Criminals” 18 June 2021 - At midnight, on June 19, 1877, some members of the Guardia Civil Veterana (city police) found Lim Oco sleeping in front of a closed shop in Sta. Cruz, Manila. When asked for his cedula (tax registration certificate), this drunk Chinese could not [...]
by Darlene Estrada April 23, 2021 - China has been cast as “a climate leader and villain”[1] because of the reality that it is both the world leader in clean energy development and the world’s top coal consuming country at present. But getting better understanding of China’s ironic situation means recognizing that behind both energy-related [...]
by Jan Robert Go 26 March 2021 - 武汉，每天不一样。 Wuhan, different every day. For many, Beijing and Shanghai are the go-to places in China, while Chinese Filipinos would also know Fujian's Xiamen. But Wuhan is most likely a never-heard-of place. Located in central China, the city is a bustling metropolis and is traversed by the Yangtze [...]
by Theresa Carino 18 February 2021 - China’s New Coast Guard Law, which came into force on 1 February 2021, explicitly specifies for the first time the conditions under which the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) would be allowed to use weapons against foreign vessels. What appeared as an effort to institutionalize a maritime law enforcement [...]
