Chu, " 'Catholic,' 'Mestizo,' 'Sangley': Negotiating 'Chinese' identities in Manila 1870--1905," 2003

Richard T. Chu, Ph.D.

Abstract (Summary)
Past studies on the Chinese and mestizos in the Philippines, following legal classifications and accounts of outside observers, have been historically portrayed as having little social and cultural interaction with one another. The Chinese during the Spanish colonial period were described as having formed an ethnic enclave and the mestizos as being Hispanicized and Catholic who rejected their Chinese-ness. Thus, when the Americans nationalized citizenship laws in the Philippines in 1899, the Chinese remained "Chinese," while the mestizos became "Filipino." However, using previously unused archival sources to look at these people's religious, business, and familial practices, I argue instead that during this period in Philippine history their ethnic identities were more problematic than past scholarship had described them to be. Many Chinese, especially those engaged in commerce, had wide interaction with various ethnic groups in Manila, spoke Spanish and practiced Catholicism that was not very different from other local Catholics. Mestizos, on the other hand, also entered into commercial and personal transactions with the Chinese, practiced Chinese rituals, traveled to China, and even spoke Chinese. Furthermore, both the Chinese and mestizos negotiated their identities by engaging in border-crossing practices that allowed them to segue from one identity into another. This dissertation therefore challenges the meta-narratives of nation-states that seek to classify people in binarist and exclusionary terms.

Advisor: Wills, John E., Jr.