On the 2nd of October 2013, the Quezon City government unveiled two Chinese páifāng (arches that are also called pailou) at the north and south intersections of Banawe Road and Quezon Avenue, officially declaring the thirteen barangays of Doña Josefa Edralin Marcos, Lourdes, Maharlika, Manresa, Mayor Norberto Salandanan Amoranto, Paang Bundok, Saint Peter, Salvacion, San Isidro Labrador, Santa Teresa de Ávila, Santo Domingo de Guzman, Santa Caterina d’Siena, and Tatalon as part of the Quezon City Chinatown. The declaration of the Quezon City Chinatown was enacted via the city ordinance 3039 of the 25th of August 2005, as coordinated by the Quezon City Tourism Office, the Quezon City Association of Filipino Chinese Businessmen Inc. (QCAFCBI), the Quezon City Chinatown Development Foundation (QCCDF), and the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII).
The Quezon City Chinatown covers the area of 5.919 km² (591.9 hectares), making it the largest Chinatown in the world. The main road the bisects the whole Chinatown is the 3.2 kilometer long Banawe Road, which starts from the southern intersection of the Sen. Eulogio Adona Rodríguez Sr. Boulevard, and stretches to the northern intersection of Sergeant Emilio Rivera Avenue. Banawe Street is known for its many automobile parts businesses and restaurants, and was declared as a Special Economic Zone by the city, with the enactment of the 12th of October 2005 city ordinance 1573. And with the city ordinance 2453, the whole Chinatown was declared as a Tourism District of Quezon City, on the 5th of October 2015.
Although the 135, 727 residents of the QC Chinatown (as of 2015, per the National Statistics Office of the Philippines) are not all of Chinese descent, there is a clear evidence of the higher concentration of Tsinoys (a pop term for Chinese-Filipinos) and Chinese nationals residing in the area compared to the 1.2 to 1.5% of the national population (as of 2013, per the National Statistics Office of the Philippines). Although the area had already been a settlement of Filipino-Chinese families during the Spanish Occupation of the Philippines, more families were relocated to the locality during the post-war Reconstruction Era, after many people were displaced by the Japanese invasion of World War II.
However, the history of the Chinese community in Quezon City and the Philippines started long before the settling of the Spanish conquistadors in 1565. The ancient Austronesian ethnic groups in the Philippine archipelago were trading with Chinese merchants as early as the 10th century AD. In fact, the different peoples throughout the islands were trading with the Hindu Chăm Pa Kingdom of Cambodia and Vietnam (ចាម្ប៉ា, 192-1832), the Kampuchean Chakrphup Khmer Empire (ចក្រភពខ្មែរ, 802-1431), the Japanese of the Heian Jidai (平安時代, 794-1185) and Kamakura Jidai (鎌倉時代, 1185-1333) dynasties, the Indonesian Majapahit (1293-1527) and Srivijaya (650-1377) kingdoms, the Việtnamese Nhà Trần Dynasty (1225-1400), the Bornean P’o-ni Kingdom (1368–1888), and the Chinese of the Sòng (宋朝, 960–1279) to Ming (大明, 1368-1644) dynasties. It is even noted that Sulu Sultan Paduka Pahala (died 1417) is buried in Dézhōu, China, while the Visayan based P’i-She-yeh pirates were known to have raided different Chinese coastal towns in the 12th century.
To the Chinese, the earliest notes of trade with the communities of the Philippine archipelago the 971 AD historical account in the Sòng Shǐ (宋史) or History of Sòng (complied in 1345), where the ancient state of Má-It (or Má-I, 麻逸) in the island of Mindoro was mentioned as a trading partner. Later accounts would mention the trade with the Islamic Kingdom of Dōngdū (東都, Tondo) in the island of Liu-sin (Luzon), the Kingdom of Butuan (蒲端), and the pre-sultanate of Tausūg kingdoms of Sulu. The Chinese traded silk, porcelain, colored glass, beads and iron ware; which were highly prized the native aristocracy. In turn, the Philippine communities traded cotton from the kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra), yellow bees-wax of the Philippine honey bee (Apis nigrocincta), tortoise shell of the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), medicinal betel (Piper betle) and areca (Dypsis Intescens) plants, cloth and fibers of the abaca plant (Musa textilis), and pearls for the Philippine pearl oyster (Pinctada maxima). Another product that some Philippine communities had was gold; which the kingdoms of Butuan, Namayan, and Tondo traded in the form of bulawan coins and barter rings.
By the mid-12th century, Chinese trading communities were set up in different areas of the Philippine archipelago, with some villages having as much as a thousand families. These Chinese settlers were from the Hokkien speaking (福建儂; Hok-kiàn-lâng) Minnan people (閩南人, also called the Bân-lâm-lâng, 閩南儂) from the Fujian province (福建) and the Cantonese speaking Gwóngfú Yàhn people (廣府人) from the Léuhng Gwóng (兩廣, now the modern day Guangdong province, 广东省). These Chinese settlements were first trade posts for the mainland merchants, but soon became refugee villages for people fleeing the Mongol invasions led by Genghis Khan (born Temüjin Borjigin, 1158-1227), which brought about the Mongol dominated Yuán Dynasty (元朝, 1271-1368). The exodus was further spurred by the 1330s bubonic plague, which started in Mongolia and became known as the Black Death in Europe. Some early settlers would intermarry with Philippine natives, giving rise to the fair-skinned chino mestizo.
The Yuán Dynasty would later fall due to the continued wars of territorial expansion of the Yuán emperors severely depleted the empire’s resources, the impact of the plague, and the Hóngjīn Qǐyì Red Turban rebellion (紅巾起義); which would lead to the rise of the Ming Dynasty (大明, 1368-1644). And in 1371, the Hongwu Emperor (born Zhu Yuanzhang, 1328-1398) declared a Haijin sea ban (海禁) on foreign maritime trade to cut off the access of Japanese pirates to the Chinese trading ships. This cut the flow of Chinese settlers and traders to the Philippine archipelago, as well as preventing some settlers from returning to the mainland. However, the Haijin had greatly affected the earnings of many Chinese traders, leading to an international black market of foreign goods, as well as a rise in piracy led this time by some Chinese who were displaced by the ban.
During the Spanish Occupation of the Philippines, some trade restrictions were lifted from the Haijin, bringing in new migrants to the Philippine islands, and by the 17th century, there were over 20,000 Chinese families in the Manila. The Spanish looked towards these migrants as valuable to the colonial economy, as they were more adept in trade, crafts and the arts; which the indio (native) population was not yet skilled at. Called Sangley (merchant traveler) by the Spaniards, the Chinese settlers were not trusted by the Spanish colonizers, as they outnumbered them. This distrust grew further the indios were much easier to convert to Catholicism and adopt the Hispanic lifestyle. This led to the 1581 creation of a district for segregation of the Sangley, called a Parían. The parían was not just the residential neighborhood of the Sangley, but also a commercial hub with wet and dry markets, and ateliers for shipbuilders, carpenters, sculptors, weavers, and other trades. Hence the word parián is actually a variation of the Tagalog word puntahan or a “place to go to.”
However, the suspicion of the Sangley grew when the Chinese pirate Limahong (林鳳), whose fleet of 62 to 70 ships and 3400 pirates attacked Manila on the 29th of November 1574. In 1583, a fire of mysterious origins razed the Parían de Aroceros (now Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila) caused unrest among the Chinese settlers, and further suppressive policies of the Spaniards pushed them towards rebellions in 1603 and 1639, where more than 40,000 Sangley were killed, and the parían was burned to the ground. Although the parían was rebuilt after the rebellions, some Sangley families moved to the towns outside Manila, such as the Franciscan founded San Francisco del Monte, the Jesuit’s Hermanidad de Santa Mesa de la Misericordi (Holy Table of Mercy or Brotherhood of the Holy Table of Mercy), the municipalities of San Juan del Monte and Kalookan (now Caloocan City), and the Hacienda Sauza-Berenguer de Mariquiña (now Marikina City). One such suppressive rule was the 1755 closing of all non-Catholic Chinese restaurants by Governor General Pedro Manuel de Arandía Santisteban (1699-1759) and the denial of burial of non-Catholic Sangley leads to the late 19th century opening of the Manila Chinese Cemetery (華僑義山, Huáqiáo Yìshān or Overseas Chinese Cemetery).
The development of the Quezon City Chinatown started before the founding of the city, and with the establishment of the Santa Cruz district of Manila by the Jesuits in 1581. By 1643, the area was occupied predominantly by the Sangley, and the community continued to expand to the La Loma district (the Hill) of Tondo (then later Kalookan). The next area to be developed was the establishment of a parish for the small farming community at the hill beside the San Juan River, by the Spanish Franciscan missionary Pedro Blazquez (now San Pedro Bautista, 1542- 1597). This small community would be called the San Francisco del Monte district (Saint Francis of the Mount), while more Sangley settlers moved into the region. By the late 1900s, the road dividing the Santa Cruz and La Loma districts was named Calle Sangleyes (now the Ferdinand Blumentritt Road). In 1939 during the Commonwealth Era, the districts of La Loma, Santa Mesa Heights, San Francisco del Monte, San Jose, Balintawak and Kaingin would be taken from Caloocan and incorporated to the new established Quezon City.
The next event in the development of the Mestizo de Sangley settlements of Quezon City was the establishment of the Dilimán Estate, during the Spanish Occupation of the Philippines. The area was named after the Dilim fern (Stenochlaena palustris) that grew abundantly in the area. The Dilimán Estate was bestowed to the Chinese trader, Son Tua (1679-1794, married to Justa Leonor Zaballa, + 1788), who financed and commanded an armed militia of 1,500 Chinese mestizos to support the Spanish forces during the British invasion of 1762 to 1763, which was part of the Seven Years’ War of 1756-1763. Previously in 1755, Son Tua adopted the Hispanic-sounding name of Antonio Maria Tuason as to gain a greater acceptance among the Spaniards and indios he traded with. Upon the recommendation of Governor-General Simón de Anda y Salazar (1701-1776), King Carlos III of Spain (born Carlos Sebastián, 1717-1788) decreed in 1775 that Son Tua and his family were except from paying tribute from two generations. Then in 1783, King Carlos III proclaimed Son Tua and his family as hidalguía or nobility, with the Antonio taking the title of Don (or duke) and military rank of colonel of the Regiment of the Prince Royal by the Spanish Crown; while the family name was stricken from the census as Mestizo de Sangley, and placed in the list of Spanish royalty. And in 1794, the noble title of Don (or duke) and military rank of colonel of the Regiment of the Prince Royal by the Spanish Crown was finally conferred to Son Tua. And on the 25th of February of the same year, Son Tua requested to establish a “mayorazgo” or noble estate, which allowed the holder to collect ⅕th of the net revenues of the estate and expand the Tuason’s wealth exponentially. The Governor General Félix Ignacio Juan Nicolás Antonio José Joaquín Buenaventura Berenguer de Marquina y FitzGerald (1733-1826) told Son Tua that the property to be awarded to him was land that he could encircle by horseback between sun rise and sunset of one day. Son Tua was able to cover the area of the Dilimán Estate, between Kalookan to the northeast, Manila to the southwest, San Juan del Monte to the southeast, and Mariquiña to the east; by placing several stations with horses throughout the route. Although the Dilimán Estate was not all arable land, its central position to Manila and the areas of Novaliches, Mariquiña, Morong (now the province of Rizal), and Pasig, made the estate a viable trading post.
Although the ownership and administration over the estate of the mayorazgo was not transferable to any other family member, except the first born (or eldest living son), the other members of the Tuason family were still considered as hidalguía and were able to capitalize on their links to Son Tua and his heirs and build their own successful enterprises. Such as Son Tua’s younger brother, Gregorio Tuason, settled in the province of Pampanga and established the northern Tuason clan of Central Luzon, including the Tuazon family. From this branch of the Tuason clan came such notable personalities, such as Judge Pedro Tiangco Tuazon (1884-1961) and the Ambassador to the Holy See Maria Mercedes Reinares y Arrastia-Tuason (born 1930). Upon his death, the title mayorazgo transferred from Son Tua to his eldest son, but he had had also equally subdivided ⅔’s of his property to his other eight children, while the other ⅓ was owned and administered by the new mayorazgo. In fact, before his death, Son Tua had already ensured that ⅕th of his earning be equally distributed to his other children: Eustaquia (married to a de los Reyes), Santos (married Rufina Augustina), Petrona, Felix (married Teresa Aranas Bargas), Eusebia, Pablo (married Magdalena de los Reyes), Martina (died 1792), and Gregoria (married Luis Rocha). Other noted members of the Tuason clan during the colonial Spanish and American periods are the Martyr of Bagumbayan Domingo Franco y Tuason (1856–1897), the 1939 Ms. Philippines, Illuminada Mojica Tuason-Fernandez (died 1949, married Judge Ramon Calleja Fernandez, Sr.), and the founder the Arms Corporation of the Philippines (Armscor) and the Valley Golf and Country Club Celso Salvador Tuason.
Son Tua died right before his 1795 conferment of the mayorazgo by Royal Cedula on the 20th of August 1795, and his son and lieutenant-colonel of the Regiment of the Prince Royal, Don Vicente Dolores Zaballa Tuason (born 1744, married Potenciana Clara de Jesus Soriano) became the 2nd Mayorazgo. Don Vicente was able to expand the his family territories by purchasing the former Jesuit friar lands of Hacienda de San Isidro de Mariquiña and Hacienda de Maysilo in Tambobon (now Malabon) in 1794, since the Jesuits were expelled from the Philippine islands between 1768 to 1771, by a decree of King King Carlos IV (born Carlos Antonio Pascual Francisco Javier Juan Nepomuceno José Januario Serafín Diego, 1748-1819). At the same time, Son Tua’s daughter Petrona the Dominican nun and prioress of the Beaterio-Colegio de Sta. Rosa, was able to procure the Hacienda de Nagtajan in Pandacan in Manila. The 3rd Mayorazgo, Don José María Fabié Tuason (died 1856) established the import-export company JM Tuason & Company, elected as the Real Sociedad Economica de Arnigos del Pais (Royal Economic Society of the Friends of the Colony), and was the first gerente/manager of Banco Español Filipino de Isabela II (now Bank of the Philippine Islands) in 1853. The 4th Mayorazgo, Don José Severo Tuason y Patiño (1833-1874) expands the family lands by purchasing the Hacienda de Santa Mesa in San Juan del Monte and co-establishes the Philippines’ first mechanical sawmill Aserradora de Mecánica in Manila. The 5th Mayorazgo, Don Gonzalo Tuason y Patiño (died 1910, married to Isabel Gil de Sola) co-founds the La Fabrica de Cerveza de San Miguel (now the San Miguel Corporation).
Don José Severo had seven children with his wife Doña Teresa de la Paz y de los Santos (1841-1890), the daughter of the Mariquina gobernadorcillo (mayor) Tomás dela Paz: José Victorino de la Paz Tuason (1865-1878), Don Juan José Tuason (1865-1916, married Maria Paz Gonzalez), Doña Maria Teresa Eriberta (1867-1951), Don Mariano Severo (1868-ca. 1940), Don Demetrio Asuncion (1870-1927, married Ellen Foley and Natividad Zaragoza), Don Augusto Huberto (1872-1936, married Maria Paves), and Doña Maria Soterrañea Cristina Tuason Valdez (1872-1936, married Vicente “El Pajaro Verde” Garcia Valdés). Since his eldest son, José Victorino died at a young age in Metz (formerly Germany, now France); the title of Mayorazgo was transferred to his brother, Gonzalo. After Don Severino’s death, Doña Teresa took control of the management of Tuason estates, instead of the title of the mayorazgo transferring to Severino’s brother, Juan José. When Doña Teresa married Severino’s third cousin, the Resident Commissioner from the Philippine Islands to the United States Congress and former vice-president to the Philippine Congress, Benito Legarda y Tuason (1853-1915), joint administration of the Dilimán and Mariquiña estates was held between Doña Teresa and Severino’s brother, Gonzalo Tuason y Patiño, who was now the 5th mayorazgo.
During the Spanish Occupation of the Philippines, the Tuason clan was unable to fully develop the Dilimán Estate, which stretched from the current boundary of the San Juan and Quezon City in the west to the boundary of Marikina and Quezon City to the east. This was because part of the land could not be converted into vast farms, being a hilly in many areas, with much of the ground below the soil was comprised of the “adobe” or tuffaceious sediment rock. Whereas the Mariquiña Estate was very profitable, being a low flat valley beside the Mariquina River. The same went for the Nagtajan and Santa Mesa estates, which were flat lands right beside the Pasig and San Juan Rivers. Hence the Dilimán Estate was comprised of small farming communities, mostly near the San Juan River and the San Francisco River, as well as the many smaller tributaries. When the 1812 Spanish Constitution was enacted, there was a move to abolish the mayorazgo land system throughout Spain and its colonies, including the lone mayorazgo in the Philippines. Despite the 1814, 1820 and 1836 attempts to dissolve the mayorazgo of the Tuason clan, the 3rd Mayorazgo, Don José María Fabié Tuason, openly defied these orders.
During the American Occupation of the Philippines, the American colonial government did not recognize the noble estate and the right of the mayorazgo and the system to collect the ⅕th revenues from these estates, which was finalized a 1919 Philippine court ruling that forced the Tuason family to sell ⅕th of their landed properties, including that of the Dilimán Estate. This allowed the American government to develop much of the land by flattening some of the hills and creating roads and widening existing ones, through the army’s corps of engineers. One of the Dilimán properties sold was the Cubao District, which was purchased by the American conglomerate the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and developed after the war into the current commercial district by the industrialist José Amado Sitchon Araneta (1907-1985). However, the Tuason clan was able to gain more land before the ruling, by buying the properties of their distant relatives Don José Rocha y Ruiz Delgado (1880-1905) and Doña Remedios Aragon y Rocha, in 1905 and 1916.
During the Commonwealth Era, President Manuel Luis Molina Quezón (1878-1944) brokered the deal with the Tuason matriarch Doña Maria Teresa Eriberta De La Paz Tuason (1867-1951), through the mitigation of her nephew Angel “Bobby” M. Tuason Valdez (1899-1948), to purchase 1,600 hectares of the Dilimán Estate to build the proposed Balintawak City (now Quezon City). The purchase of the Dilimán Estate brought more developments in the area, especially the Dilimán Quadrangle, where Pres. Quezón had envisioned the construction of the new seat of the Philippine government. The area of the Dilimán Estate purchased in 1939 currently covers the barangays of Botocan, Kamuning, Krus na Ligas, Laging Handa, Malaya, Obrero, Old Capitol Site, Paligsahan, Sacred Heart, San Vicente, Sikatuna Village, South Triangle, Teacher’s Village, U.P. Campus, and U.P. Village.
Despite the expansions in the Dilimán Estate during the American Occupation of the Philippines, the area that would become the Quezon City Chinatown would not development until the post-war Reconstruction Era of 1945 to 1957. The last surviving parían of Manila, Binondo (岷倫洛區), is considered the oldest and first Chinatown (唐人街) in the world, and was the home of the Tuason clan since Son Tua’s family had migrated to Manila from China. However, between the World War II Japanese bombing of Manila in 1941 and the Battle of Manila in 1945, much of Binondo and the rest of Manila were devastated. Many of the old residents of Binondo soon started migrating to the nearby municipalities to start anew, and many chose to settle in Quezon City, which was hardly affected by the war.
There were already Chinese mestizos and settlers living within Quezon City before the war, such as in the wealthy residential neighborhoods of Hacienda Magdalena and Brixton Hills, as well as Chinese communities of the Spanish Era districts of La Loma and San Francisco del Monte. However, there were no specific areas in Quezon City that catered to the specific needs of the Chinese community, especially for spiritual needs of those who had not converted Christianity. This changed with the 1948 establishment of the Buddhist Poh Chong Temple (寶藏寺, Baozang Si) along Conrado Francia Benitez Street, in Cubao. After the founding of the Poh Chong Temple, the growth of other Chinese temples in Quezon City was slow, as it was followed by the 1960 Taoist Sheng Lian Temple (聖蓮寺) on Bayani Street, in Barangay Doña Imelda; the 1965 Buddhist Che Wan Temple (靈鷲寺, Lingjiu Si) on Santol Street, in Santa Mesa; the 1975 Holy Buddhist Temple (觀音寺, Guanyin Si) on N. Domingo Avenue, in Cubao; the 1977 Buddhist Tien Lian Temple (天蓮寺, Tianlian Si) along A. Bonifacio Road; the 1980 Thousand Buddha Temple (普濟禪寺, Puji Chan Si) on Don Pepe Street; the 2008 Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation’s Still Thoughts Hall on Cordillera Street; the Buddhist Avalokiteśvara Holy Temple (靈隱聖寺, Ling Yin Sheng Si) on D. Tuason Avenue; the Buddhist Guatama Temple (聖靈寺, Sheng Ling Si) and on Ubay Street, the Buddhist Kong Tiak Temple on Macopa Street; the Taoist Sun Tay Seng Temple on Times Street; the Buddhist Kuan Yin Tong Lotus Charity Center on N. Domingo Street; the Buddhist Southern Fragrance Temple on Santo Domingo Avenue; the Taoist Tai Shong Temple along Linaw Street; the Buddhist Three Kings Temple on Rosario Drive; and Buddhist Tzu Chi Historical Temple Retiro (慈濟基金會) on N.S. Amoranto Avenue. Other non-Chinese Buddhist temples in Quezon City are the 2012 Vajrayana Tibetan Buddhist Wisdom Park of the Universal Wisdom Foundation, Inc. in New Manila, the 1959-1964 Japanese Buddhist Soka Gakkai International of the Philippines on Timog Avenue, and the Japanese Nichiren Shoshu Hokaiji Temple on Rosario Drive.
As for the Chinese who have converted to Christianity, not all had professed to Catholicism, but towards the Protestant missionaries who had arrived during the American Occupation and after the war. Some of the Chinese Christian churches within and near the Quezon City Chinatown are the 1960 Manila Center Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Quezon Avenue, the 1963 Jubilee Evangelical Church in New Manila, the 1966 Quezon City Evangelical Church on Padre Florentino Street, the 1968 Grace Christian Church (est. 1952 as the Grace Gospel Church) in Barangay Apolonio Samson, the 2006 God is Our Refuge Full Gospel Church on Quezon Avenue, the Ai Ka Pe Christian Church on Maria Clara Street, the Christian Bible Church of The Philippines – Talayan Church at the intersection of Maria Clara and Talayan roads, the Cornerstone Community Baptist Church on Don José Street, the Frisco Seventh-Day Adventist Church on San José Street, the Jesus: “The Great I Am” Bible Church on Del Monte Avenue, the Parish of the Resurrection on Sen. Mariano J. Cuenco Street, and the Sta. Mesa Heights Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Mount Isarog Street. To counter the non-Catholic Christian movement in the Philippines, the Tsinoy Manila Archbishop Jaime Lachica Sin (1928-2005) established the Chinese-Filipino Catholic Apostolate in the Philippines and the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Catholic Women in 1991. The apostolate grew from the Lorenzo Mission Institute (LMI), which was formed to push for the canonization of the first Filipino saint, the mestizo de sangley San Lorenzo Ruiz (1594-1637). The Quezon City office of the Chinese-Filipino Catholic Apostolate is located at the Minor Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Broadway Avenue, in New Manila.
The growth of the Chinese community in Quezon City started when Doña Maria Teresa Eriberta Tuason sold the family’s land in Cubao and at the northwestern side of Quezon City, including donating land for the construction of the Saint Theresa’s College. The northwestern properties were part of the San Francisco del Monte district, which was first area developed during Spanish Occupation of the Philippines, when the Franciscan missionaries established the Paróquia de San Francisco in 1590 (now the Minor Basilica Santuario de San Pedro Bautista). The property of the Tuason clan would be later called Santa Mesa Heights, as it was situated on a hill overlooking the plains of the Hacienda de Santa Mesa. The current Santa Mesa Heights district covers the barangays of Lourdes, Maharlika, and Saint Peter; with its main road named D. Tuason Street, after Doña Maria Teresa’s father, Don José Severo Tuason, the 4th Mayorazgo.
As the Chinese population grew in the Quezon City, so did the demand for an educational system that would not just instill the lessons prescribed by the government’s Department of Education (DepEd), but also have a curriculum that would nurture the Chinese language and culture. One of the first Chinese schools to open in Quezon City was the 1963 Grace Christian College (est. 1950 as the Grace Christian High School in San Juan, 菲律賓基督教靈惠學院) in Balintawak. Other early Chinese schools that operate to this day are the 1964 Philippine Institute of Quezon City (計順市菲華中學) on Kitanlad Street, the 1967 Jubilee Christian Academy (基立学院) on Sen. Eulogio Adona Rodríguez Sr. Boulevard, and the 1973 Philadelphia High School (尚爱中學) in Talayan Village. The newer Chinese schools of Quezon City are the 1991 Quezon City Christian Academy (計順市基督學院) on Sen. Mariano Jesús Diosomito Cuenco Street, the 2001 Wisdom Light Christian Academy on Padre Florentino Street, the 2002 Pace Academy (培基中学) on Sgt. Emilio Rivera Street, the 2012 Philippine Cultural College (菲律滨侨中学院) on Sen. M. Cuenco Street, the Young Children Learning Center (三乖乖幼兒園) on Guirayan Street, the Mother Gonuy Memorial Institute(慈母玉蕊紀念學校) on Araqon Street, and the Life Spring Christian School (甘泉學院) on Maria Clara Street. The only Buddhist school in Quezon City is the 1997 Philippine Buddhacare Academy (菲律賓佛教普濟學院) on Maria Clara Street.
Aside from the temples and schools, the obvious physical manifestation of the Chinese population in the Quezon City Chinatown are the many Chinese owned businesses, especially the restaurants that serve Chinese cuisine. In fact, one of the greatest influences of the Chinese migrants have had to the general Philippine culture is their food. This is most noticeable with the Filipino’s love for the many variations of the stir fried noodles of pancit, whose name is derived from the Hokkien word for “convenient food” or piān-ê-si̍t (便伊食). Other Chinese influences in Filipino cuisine are the use of the soy sauce toyò (jiàngyóu, 醬油) and fermented fish sauce patís in flavoring many dishes, the sautéed dishes or ginisa, spring rolls or lumpia (Hokkien: lun˩piã or soft cake, 潤餅), the soy-based sweet snack of tahò (from dòuhuā, 豆花), and the rice cakes, such as bibingka.
Another favorite Chinese-Filipino dish is the broth noodle soup call mami; which can be ordered in restaurants, made at home, or purchased as the easily prepared instant noodle packs. The mami dish was concocted by Ma Wen-lu (馬文祿, 1896-1961), aka Ma Mon Luk in his Manila restaurant, the Ma Mon Luk Mami King, which opened in Binondo in 1920. Ma Mon Luk opened his Quezon City branch in 1950, near the southwestern corner of Quezon Avenue and Banawe Street, making it the oldest restaurant in the area and paved the way to the many dining establishments within the Quezon City Chinatown. And in 1959, Ma Mon Luk opened another branch along Doña Aurora Quezon Boulevard, in Cubao, but it closed down by the 1970s.
The Tsinoys are often described as an ethno-cultural group that is separate from the general Filipino culture, due to the racial prejudice of some Filipinos. This is aggravated by some Chinese who still speak and write in the languages of the mainland and thus alienating ordinary Filipinos from understanding them, or some Chinese’ refusal to adopt Hispanized names. Or is this distrust wrought of some people’s envy of the success and wealth of many Chinese in the country, as many of the owners of the biggest businesses in the Philippines are Chinese-Filipinos. Even the Philippine “National Hero”, Dr. José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (1861-1896), who is of Chinese descent, disparaged the Sangley for their “cheating” of the indios in business. While the National Artist, Fernando Cueto Amorsolo (1892-1972) caricatured the Tsinoys with their success over their Filipino counterparts.
Despite these racial misgivings, the Tsinoys have been proud of their roots in the Philippines, and they have proven themselves ready to defend the Philippines is times of war, such as the heroism of Son Tua to the “Chilipinos” guerillas of World War II. In fact, the 48th Squardon Wha Chi and Ampaw Unit (named after puff rice balls) of Colonel Chua “Tomás” Sy Tiao operated in Sierra Madre region of the Rizal Province, and crossed through Quezon City to spy on and attack Japanese positions in the Marikina, Manila, Pasig, Quezon City and San Juan del Monte.
It should be seen that the Tsinoys are not separate from the Filipino people or the Filipino identity, given their community’s profound impact in Philippine history and culture. This can be seen by the many Mestizo de Sangley and Tsinoy figures in our history, such as the revolutionary general and first Filipino president, Emilio Famy Aguinaldo (1869-1964); the 4th president Sergio Osmeña (1878-1961); the 29th Manila Archbishop Rufino Jiao Santos (1908-1973); the 10th president, Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Sr. (1917-1989); the 11th president, Maria Corazon Cojuangco Aquino (1933-2009); 32nd Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle (born 1957); the 15th president Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (born 1960), and the 16th president Rodrigo Roa Duterte (born 1945), just to name a few.
It also cannot be denied on how many of the daily activities and annual celebrations people deem as Filipino are actually influenced by the Tsinoy culture. From the words we use, the food we eat, the superstitions that we still believe in, and even the neighborhood Sari-sari store, the Chinese influence is clear. In fact, the near 2% census of the Tsinoys in the Philippines may not be that accurate, as it is possible that a large population of the “native” Filipinos have hints of Chinese blood. And to celebrate the “Chineseness” of the Quezon City Chinatown is to celebrate that Chinese part in all of the Filipino people.
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