Tsino, Tsinoy, Pinoy

"We are now in the Golden Age of RP-CHINA relations," Hu Jintao said during his state visit to the Philippines last week of April. The same sentiment was echoed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Chinese President Hu Jintao has indeed brought much more than the windfall of billions in investments, soft loans and financial rewards. Short though his stay was, he showed that the Philippines is important to China and the centuries of ties that bind the two countries together are further strengthened. Small irritants like the conflict in the Spratly Islands pale in comparison to the rewards of strategic partnership.

He had only 44 hours in the Philippines from the time he landed to his departure. Packed within these short hours were visits to Malacañang, a state dinner, an address before a joint session of Congress, wreath laying at Rizal Park and a visit to the Rizal Shrine in Fort Santiago.

But being the Chief of State of 1.3 billion Chinese in the mainland, he showed great importance too to the ethnic Chinese in the Philippines by visiting Kaisa’s Bahay Tsinoy–Museum of the Chinese in Philippine Life, having lunch with 1,300 representatives from more than 200 organizations and a photo session with selected heads of these groups.

The Bahay Tsinoy tour was scheduled at 10:00 a.m. on the last day of his visit. The President’s advance party arrived on the dot, and the first thing they noticed was that the air-conditioning was too cold. They requested us first to turn the thermostat down but, after a few minutes, they ordered us to just turn it off because Hu had just come from outdoors in Luneta and Fort Santiago and was sweating profusely.

"We cannot let our Chief catch cold, he had just been directly under the hot sun," they hurriedly explained. We understood and were touched by their concern for their Chief’s health. At 10:05, the whole party arrived and was greeted with hearty applause from the Kaisa family.

Kaisa president Ang Chak Chi, Kaisa director and the museum guide for the day Mariano Trajano and myself as executive trustee of the Kaisa Heritage Center greeted the party at the door while Kaisa’s present and past officers lined up to welcome him.

Hu warmly shook hands with each of the officers, giving us the impression that of all of our past visitors, he was the one who was the least conscious of his official status, even if he is the first Chief of State to visit Bahay Tsinoy. Past China state guests of the museum were Li Peng, Wu Bangguo, Wu Guangzheng, Mme. Zhu Rongji and scores of high ranking members of the People’s Congress and mayors from different cities in China.

The highlights of the prehistoric and pre-hispanic section were shown to the President, including the ancient Chinese annals and maps that already showed the Chinese knowledge of the Philippines long before the Europeans were aware of our existence.

"What date was the oldest Chinese artifact found in the Philippines?" Hu asked. Trajano told him there were Tang wares found but the earliest record that mentioned the Philippines was the Song Dynasty annals.

At the Parian section, Hu was amused at the food vendor selling siopao, lumpia and pancit. He was even more impressed when we told him that the Filipino terms for the food were exactly the same as the Hokkien words. Images of the back-breaking labor of the early Chinese and the massacre of the Chinese during Spanish times were shown to him and his entourage.

Hu’s wife Liu Yongqing showed interest in the religious images and icons that looked very Chinese. We explained to her that those were indeed carved by Chinese artisans during the Spanish time and even the Mother Mary images looked like the Chinese goddess Guanyin.

President Hu was surprised at the Black Nazarene of Capalonga and the Virgen de Caysasay of Batangas with incense, divination sticks and tablets as well as food offerings in front of the altars. We explained how the Filipinos and the Chinese worship the images and how religious syncretism is shown in many aspects of Philippine daily life.

His close-in aides were insistently hurrying us along so we swiftly passed through the defense of freedom section showing Chinese mestizos in the reform and revolutionary movements and Dr. Jose Rizal’s family tree. But Hu stopped to listen to the story of Gen. Jose Ignacio Paua and took note of the Chinese name of the only pure-blooded Chinese general in the Philippine revolution.

We passed through the mestizo house with the antique Chinese furniture pieces handmade by Chinese artisans and stopped at the big photographs of famous Filipinos of Chinese descent: Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, Jaime Cardinal Sin and Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee. There was no time to show him Gen. Vicente Lim, Sr. Christine Tan, Ang Kiu Kok and others.

Despite the aide gesturing again to hurry up, Hu paused at the Chinese guerrillas section with the photos of the gallant Chinese who fought side by side with Filipinos against Japanese aggression. The intricate desk with the secret compartment, given to us by a Chinese guerrilla, intrigued him and he paused to look at how the secret compartment could hold 10 guns and propaganda materials.

Hu himself volunteered the information that the consul general in Manila, Young Kwangson, and 11 of the embassy staff at that time were executed by the Japanese in contravention of the convention on diplomatic immunity. He was reminded of the wounds of the Japanese war when he saw the memorials built in honor of Chinese war heroes.

We took the opportunity to unveil the new addition to the museum, the section on Gen. Ye Fei, son of Tiaong, in Quezon province. Born of a Chinese father and Filipino mother, Ye Fei was brought to China to study at age five. As a young man, he joined the revolutionary movement and had extraordinary contributions to the Chinese liberation. He rose to become Commander of the Chinese Navy and Deputy Chairman of the National People’s Congress.

The numerous pieces in the porcelain section were all excavated in the Philippines, evidence of the extensive and intensive trading with China. The central portion contained the four Tang porcelain pieces that Bahay Tsinoy owns.

Going down the stairs, Trajano told him that there was a last section which we could not visit because of time constraints. Hu asked what it contained and Trajano explained that it is the contemporary section, showing Chinese influence in religion, civic work, business and economy.

"Yes, even President Arroyo, at the State Dinner last night, told us how significant is the Chinese contribution in the Philippine economy," Hu said.

He left at 10:30 a.m. after signing our guest book, with the Kaisa family lined up behind him. Kaisa gave him a plaque which reads, "Mian Li Chang Jin, Xiu Yin Shi Sui" It is a metaphor derived from his given name "Jingtao" (meaning glorious wave). The metaphor translates: "Gold hidden inside cotton, strategies shaped like water."

Kaisa research director Go Bon Juan wrote the metaphor as a tribute to Hu’s being upright and a determined fighter against corruption. Hu may indeed appear soft as cotton but the purity of gold shines through him. His strategies are flexible like silent water if soft persuasion is needed; but if hard determination is demanded, the water can be a tidal wave. In return, Hu gave Kaisa a crystal decanter with etching of a flock of cranes.

Hu’s Bahay Tsinoy visit was not just a tribute to Kaisa Para Sa Kaunlaran for its efforts in putting up the museum, but a tribute to the whole Tsinoy community putting up such a monument to the Tsinoy heritage.

Most importantly, Hu left seeing the Philippines as a country that not only gave the golden opportunity to the early Chinese immigrants to succeed, but a country that whole-heartedly accepts Tsinoys as part of mainstream society and, unlike other Southeast Asian countries, allows the historical and cultural heritage of the ethnic Chinese in the country to flourish.