Philippine E-Journals

Chinese and Chinese Mestizos of Manila Family, Identity, and Culture, 1860s-1930s

Bernardita Reyes Churchill

Discipline: History

 

Abstract:

RICHARD T. CHU

Chinese and Chinese Mestizos of Manila

Family, Identity, and Culture, 1860s-1930s

Leiden and Boston: Koninklijk Brill NV, 2010

 

This book is an important study, unprecedented in the study of the Chinese and Chinese mestizos of Manila on several counts – in terms of the theme of “the phenomenon of ethnic identity and interethnic relations” and “new paradigms” on the intersections of “family, identity and culture”; and in terms of the use of an impressive collection of source materials in several languages, including archival manuscripts, official publications and published and unpublished sources wherever they could be found (the Philippines and the United States). Equally significant is that it is a study by a historian who has had first-hand experience, through his family history, of what growing up in the Philippines means to him and his family – in other words, what it means to be a “Filipino” and “Chinese” in the Philippines.