The term "huana 蕃仔" (barbarian) seem to be quite commonly used in a 'racist manner' by the Hokkien people to refer to non-chinese in the past, esp. the Malays or dark-coloured aborigines in South-East Asia. It was also a term used previously by the Hokkien in Singapore or Taiwan to refer to Malays or aborigines. However, in today's Singapore or Taiwan, this term has almost disappeared since the last 30 years due to the fostering of multi-racial/ethno community in Singapore or Taiwan. I didn't know this term still exist in Philippine.

I can't believe I missed this post!



Most Filipinos are not related to the Aetas. The Aetas were some of the first immigrants to the Philippines many thousands of years ago. Most modern Filipinos now are believed to come from an Austronesian group who came later.



I made no such mistake. It is obvious to me that Filipinos trace their ancestry to some sort of immigrants, most likely the Austronesian settlers from Southern China or Taiwan. Where else could we have come from? The air?



It's a fact that a higher percentage of Filipinos can speak English than any other Asian country save MAYBE Singapore. The interchange between f's and p's and v with b's is just the accent because our native languages do not contain those sounds. As for the native languages, most Filipinos are fluent in their native language and Tagalog. In fact, this is true more so now than it would have been 30 years ago. What are you going on about?




Do you have a problem reading? When did I ever say that? In fact, if you check my post history, you'll find that I've said quite the opposite! What you're doing is deliberately taking my post out of context. I said you won't find the racism that happens in MALAYSIA AND INDONESIA in the Philippines. How many race riots have happened in the Philippines? There have been several in Indonesia against the Chinese. in the past 50 years. The racism in Malaysia by the muslim Malay majority is MUCH more blatant than in the Philippines especially nowadays.




I never said that. You did.



They are Indian and Arab influence only since the early middle ages when Arab and Indian traders came to those countries. They did not start out that way. Most of this influence either never got to the Philippines or was mostly wiped out by the Spaniards. Most Arab influence can still be found on Mindanao.



Look at the patterns of Islam in other countries. There have been many times where Islam had faced some sort or opposition opposition by the local rulers but kept on spreading anyway. Muhammad wasn't even initially accepted in his own country at first until he defeated his enemies in battle. There's no reason to think that Islam wouldn't have kept spreading in the Philippines had the Catholic Spaniards not arrived.

I think the term huana which literally means barbarian with the added "na" to give it a more extreme degree was widely used during our grandfathers time and is still use up to this date. It is also use to address or term people who are ignorant of proper ettiqute and manners, not exactly racial in nature but of character and moral standard.

Is the Philippine a racist nation? generally, the immigration law is racist, the majority of rural folks are friendly, accomodating and not racist that is why many Chinese or Fil-Chinese men are marreied to them. Generally in the urban areas where there is a larger population of mestizo Filipinos such as Spanish-Filipinos racism largely exist.

Ironically, Philippine lack national goal and have a misplace pride that has steer the Philippine to nowhere, from once a prosperous nation "pride of the orient" it is now a third world nation, neighboring nations such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia even Vietnam has and is surpassing the Philippines.

Filipinos are living or migrating because of hardship they wanted to find jobs, better jobs and security, Singaporeans are migrating because they are expanding their businesses.

True but that wasn't my point. My point is, with how Filipinos were taught by the society to be racist to people who have darker skin, I doubt anyone will be brave enough to proudly say I'm Aeta. Sadly, the Aeta minority suffer from this stigma. How many people who have aeta blood have proudly said that their are Aetas? None that I hard of, even amoth those who are obviously Aetas(by phyisical appearnces). Zambales and Quirino has a healthy number if Aeta but many people there, even though it is obvious with their physical apperace won't even admit that they have Aeta blood. Can't blame them. GENERALLY, Filipinos don't have a good impression on dark skinned people. The Ilocanos themselves are already discriminated as 'baluga', what more with the Aetas?





What am I going about? Many, not all, think too highly of themselves to the point of bringing down other countries. Many Filipinos have the habit of poking at one's accent(The tagalogs are famous for this!) without realizing that they themselves have accents and mispronunciations. In accents alone, a lot of Filipinos already discriminate other people, Filipinos or not yet when people comment on their accent, they take it to the personal level.

And from what I remember in your last post, you were mentioning about Filipino ancestry being from the Malays of Indonesia and Malaysia, not the Austronesians from Taiwan/Southern China.








Riots, maybe none. But remember the interval massacres back then. And no, it wasn't only by the Spaniards. The ideas were participants too. Of course, the Indios would always blame the Spaniards.

Racism/Discrimination does not have to include race riots. A growing practice in the Philippine is the discrimination of the migrating muslims in Luzon and Visayas. Their religion plays a factor here. Even if they have the qualifications, just because they are followers of Islams, they will not be hired at all. Discrimination at its finest. One reason why a lot of migrating muslims usually end up as cellphone traders(second hand) and pirated DVD vendors. They are hardly left with any choice. In addition to that, several Catholic institutions, primarily in Mega Manila do not accept muslim students. That only University I know that accepts people from different religious background is SLU in the north. But most Catholic/Christians schools don't.

In addition to that, the riots in Indonesia and Malaysia is much more economic that actually racial. And just because hardly were there riots in the Philippines does not necessarily mean Filipinos are more tolerant than Indonesians nor Malaysians. None-Chinese love targeting the Chinese for their KFR businesses - a sign of anti-Chinese sentiment. They always kidnap the Chinese but they never kidnap the Ayalas who don't even arm themselves with bodyguards.

Filipinos are more creative that their Malaysian and Indonesian counterparts when it comes to discrimination. In riots, you don't get money; in kidnapping the ethnic Chinese, you get money... Not only do they scare the Chinese, they make money out of them. A more 'brilliant' strategy than Malaysia's affirmative action.



Because the Spaniards never intended to wipe out native cultures for that matter in addition to the fact that the Spanish culture itself IS PART Arab. So, in that case, the Arab influence will hard be erased because teh culture that influenced the local cultures most is PART ARAB.




Islam will not really be the primary religion in the Philippines. Islam failed to fully Islamized Mindanao within the 200 years, what more with the whole archipelago. Historically, only SW Mindanao was Islam. Only small portion of Maynilad was Islamized. It was never proven that Islam ever unified the Islands nor will it ever be. It failed to actually unify Mindanaoan tribes, what more with the philippines. The Arab language did not unify them. Muslims in Minadanao still identify themselves according to their ethnic group, not religion just as much as most Christian Filipinos do - Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano.

My point here is that most pre-Hispanic people most likely did not find Islam that appealing or it's either they were too loyal toward their Animistic culture.

it really pisses me of when people make a big deal about Islam in the philippines to the point that people say that ancient Filipinos were mostly muslims which is just a farce. Islam, even until the 1500's was limited to a few places - even in Mindanao.

The Christians 'unconsciously' know more Arab words than the Muslims in the south. Of course that's via Spanish and 20% of Tagalog vocabulary are of Spanish original(25% in Cebuano).

It's funny how some people 'romanticize' the huanas.

My experience is the opposite. People in rural areas tend to be more anti-Chinese and most anti-Chinese in cities such as Manila are actually from the rural areas. The "greedy Chinese" perception is more prevalent in the rural areas than Metro areas in the Philippines. I guess this is one reason why Chinese outside Metro Manila tend to be more 'closed' as compared to Manila.

It's not surprising why up to date, many Chinese dislike the huana po

In the Philippines, it's merely a distinction. lannang=Chinese, huana=not Chinese(the term to refer to the Filipino Filipinos...)

It is about the rise of islam nationalism. Notice how many Filipino folk indentity are identifying Filipinos as being muslim. If you look at it very carefully, Islam is not about being Filipino, Islam is as foreign as Christianity.

Present day muslim Mindanao are fighting for seperation from the Philippines because they do not view themselves as Filipinos but as muslims loyal to their religion and to Saudi Arabia. They wanted to establishe a muslim nation. While the Republic of The Philippines is a nation for all Filipinos regradless of religion.

You misread my post. These three countries are all mainly Austronesian. Did you know that Indonesian, Malaysian, and Filipino (meaning most of the dialects in the Philippines) are Austronesian languages? All of these people didn't just appear in their respective countries. They migrated from some specific place, mainly southern China and Taiwan. Austronesian is an umbrella term that encompasses the Malay people.

Wikipedia provides a quick and easy explanation

Malays (Malay: Melayu) are an ethnic group of Austronesian peoples predominantly inhabiting the Malay Peninsula and parts of Sumatra and Borneo. The Malay ethnic group is distinct from the concept of a Malay race, which encompasses a wider group of people, including most of Indonesia and the Philippines. The Malay language is a member of the Austronesian family of languages.



Never said it did. In fact, I don't believe I ever said that there was no racism in the Philippines.



Of course you can get money in riots. Break into someone's shop or home and steal their hard cash. As for making money off Chinese people, the Chinese control some 50% of the Filipino economy and are some of the wealthiest citizens in the Philippines.



My point is the Spaniards oppressed the Filipino people and whether they intended it or not (I have no reason to believe they didn't) did a pretty good job at suppressing native Filipino traditions, which is why there is so much Spanish influence on Filipino culture.



It isn't that simple. It is inaccurate to say Spanish culture is "part" Arab. There is some Arab influence on Spain. And still, how much of it are you sure translated into Filipino culture?



Don't put words in my mouth. I never said that most Filipinos were Muslim. I'm well aware of the fact that most were polytheistic animists. However, judging from the way Islam spread in other countries I could easily see Islam spreading to the rest of the Philippines, not that it ACTUALLY did.



Besides the fact that most Muslims learn the actual Arabic language? That's about as Arabic as you can get. Again, what are you talking about.

That's not exactly true. China actively courts overseas Chinese investment and has for 20 years, and they have taken a special interest in Singapore (politically and economically since the mid-1980's).

Didn't the Chinese government do things to help out ethnic Chinese (Han, I believe) in north Vietnam who weren't Chinese citizens?

Yes huana is for those people who are ignorant of proper etiquette and things like that but like what shikamaru2 have said, some Tsinoy here are using it to refer to non-Chinese. I guess they are not racist, it is just their way of believe.

The reason it is being refer to non-Chinese is because majority of local Chinese do view the locals as huana and it also their way to respond to the locals racism towards Tsinoys. Locals who verbally attack Tsinoys with name calling, Tsinoys will respond back by calling them huana or tsua-huan.

Tsinoys also get call huana because of their lack of knowledege of Chinese tradition it is like being illiterate in fact me because I am illiterate in Chinese can't speak, write or read Chinese and I am of Chinese ancestry I am also sometimes refer as huana by some of my elder relatives

Chee-huan is another term that is refer to natives that live in the mountains and have no knowledge of modern civilization, such as the Igorots or Negritos.

It would seem, so I thought that locals racial ampythy towards Tsinoys have died down and in some degree it has because of the increased in mix marriages plus the many Pinoys having migrated and work overseas.

But lately I notice that there seem to be a rise of national misplaced pride in many overseas Pinoys. I can't help noticing it that here in North AMerica I have met many Pinoys and most of them have this sense of insecurity that whenever they expereince failure such as not getting a job or failing the driving test they blame it on racism.

Many Pinoys here especially the new arrivals are attacking the national system they claim that they are being discriminated or single out. Many have been speaking out boldly about Pinoy pride and promote Pinoy culture some have been openly attacking "whites" for stealing their culture. Many generation of local born Pinoys have also display a sense of racism towards their native born USA or Canada.

Early immigrants their mian reason of migrating to North America is to find and start a new life. This immigrants include Europeans, Asians and Orientals. Blacks have struggle and they have integrated most of them have identify themselves with their new home new country.

Personally, I get pissed when ever a Pinoy complaint about how they feel being discriminated just because it so happen the person on the otherside is white. But if it is between two Pinoys they can not claim discimination.

I guess this problem is what Europe and North America in general is facing no longer are can they be 100% sure that immigrants will integrate to the main stream and be ready to serve the nation? In UK with the many local born islamic terrorist captured as well as in France the growing problem of muslims resisting to integrate has become an issue of national security.

Will Pinoys be consider national security threat too?

I don't see Pinoy being a National Threat however, they see Pinoy as someone who is still from 3rd world country and doesn't have the right to speak up since they are from US or considered themselves superior. Just my two cents.

As a national threat not so yet because many Pinoys especially the early immigrants have integrated with the main stream very well.

Pilipinos enjoy more freedom of speech, better wages, better working condition, better social support, better pension and better health care than in the Philippines.

I disagree that Pinoys are not allowed to speak out, Pinoys are not being restrain to speak out in fact the authorities even tolerate public demonstration with flag waving Philippine flag attacking the USA government from immigration policy to all kinds of policy, but rather it is the other way around some Pinoys are so racist that every actions that the main stream takes they consider it as racial attack against Pinoys, just like I have pointed out if they fail the driving test they will say it is because the examiner is racist but if the examiner happens to be a Pinoy they'll say 'mayabang" yung examiner.

For now it is a figure of speech "national threat" to those who refused or can not integrate and are aggressively pushing for ethnic segregation, basically that is what's happening segregation from the main stream Americans or Canadians and if the trend continues just like the muslims and Mexicans are being suspectedly viewed as a "threat" mainly because of their failure to integrate then Pinoys will loose their special status.

One advantage of Pinoys have over other nationals is that Pinoys have the reputation of adopting, integrating and assimilating to the main stream community that is why many Americans and or Canadians in fact most develop nations have a favorable attitude towards Pilipinos especially when it comes to employment. That is why Pilipino nurses, engineers, maintenance workers, care givers even hospitality workers are sought after more than other nationalities.

What I mean not allowed to speak up is that whenever a Filipino would try to have his point get acrossed, only few will listen given that we are from third world country. I remember a Tsinay socialite was in HK and talking to another HK socialite. This socialite even said " I don't think the Philippine Society does exist". When this Tsinay asked why, they said, that because we are still in 3rd world country. Just imagine that. I was pissed off when this Tsinay told us what happened to her in HK and we are like, so I see, we are not still being treated that well because we are from 3rd world country. Btw, it is just my opinion okay?



I think Pinoy can adapt fast and well enough to any culture. That's why I think being mixed culture is better



That is so true. I think Pinoys can live anywhere the fact we can adapt to our environment fast. And most of the Pinoys according to other foreigners are very hardworking. And that we give importance to our job that makes us standout to other nationals.

The concept of "3rd world" shouldn't exist today (esp. after the cold war). It's only developed and developing nation. Among developing nation, there are upper, middle, lower developing nation.

IMO it is not because the Philippine is a third world country but it is more on how reputable the Pilipino speaker is. I remember back in the 60s one of the greatest Pilipino statesman Carlos P. Romulo when ever he speak the international community listen. You see back then, the Philippine had integrity and respectability now we don't.

And unfortunately, when something like this happens it is always associated with racial discrimination, when it is not.

In regards to the socialite, that is what I call social discrimination or class discrimination and it all boils down again to reputation of the Philippine. Class discrmination still exist very much in Asia here in North America it is being supress as much as possible that is why here we have all sorts of "politically correctness", we have to act in accordance to that.



For me, it is not about being or having mix culture it is more about stability, and recognizing right from wrong. North America was basically founded by immigrants who were tired of their old countries politics, discrimination of all sorts, oppression, inequality etc. they wanted to start a new society that is build in recognizing law and order, justice and fairness to all one does not have to marry a different race just to adopt, it is all in the individual desire to adopt and change. I immigrated to Canada because I believe in the Canadian way of life and I did not have to give up my ethnicity just be Canadian.



Actually that is the contradicting and sad or fustrating part because Pinoys who are so hardworking, respectable, trustworthy and industrious does not reflect to Pilipinos in the Philippines , Pinoys in the Philippines have a total opposite reputation The Philippines should have continue progressing since its independence back in 1945 to develop keeping step with Japan in fact the Philippine should have been an economic power house a key economic player in the international community.



That is the political correct term.

My family is Chinese - but they were born and lived in the Phillippines for most of their lives before they migrated over to the U.S.

In fact there are a ton, still back there.... around manila... hotspot is obviously the chinatown there.
in fact almost all of the major businesses in the phillippines are owned by Chinese.

We speak hokkien - or fukienese as main, also learn mandarin in addition.

However, i think the fukien we speak is not as 'pure' as they would say to those living in fujian, or around taiwan~





I've met a ton of people who didn't even know about this... and i was wondering how many people out their know?

I feel super alienated living here in Washington. So many Cantonese and Mandarin speakers.

I guess my family is one of a kind around here.

Hi jwuggles,

There were many Chinese in the Philippines centuries ago already. They were the victims of many unfortunate massacres by the Spanish colonists centuries ago because the Spaniards feared the Chinese were controling the economy and spying for the Chinese government. There is a long Wikipedia article called "Chinese Filipino" that explains the Chinese presence in the Philippines and lists many famous Filipinos with some Chinese ancestry, including José Rizal, Ferdinand Marcos, and Corazon Aquino.

Do you know, by the way, how long ago your family migrated to the Philippines? And I'm curious on one thing: have Chinese Filipinos kept some identifiably "Chinese" religious practices (ancestor worship, forms of shamanism, cults to certain gods, etc.) or did they convert to Catholicism a long time ago?

Finally, linguists refer to the dialect spoken by Chinese in the Philipines as "Lan-nang." As you said, it is very close to Hokkien, but it also borrows words from Tagalog, Spanish, and even Cantonese. This is what Wikipedia says, at least:


[Source: Wikipedia page on Lan-nang.]

Well, I just learned many things! I hope other members contribute to this thread too.

Cheers,
Madalibi

EDIT: a CHF member called galvatron has brought to my attention another long thread on people of Chinese descent in the Philippines. I have merged your thread with it.