- The Philippines is the name
that was given to our nation, but our story
does not start there. With our long history
of global trade, colonization, and migration,
foreign influences took part in writing
our country's narrative, introducing us to dishes,
industries, and languages that we've made our own
and eventually seeped in our heritage. Among them
is the undeniable culture and historical impact of China. Given the location
of our country, we quickly became
a trading hub centuries before the Spanish
or the Galleon Trade. It's a connection
that runs deep, giving birth to a community
and a shared ancestry. In an era marred by societal
and political tensions, you can't help but wonder
how do Chinese-Filipino individuals navigate the delicate balance
between their roots and the ever-evolving relationship
between these two nations. Well, today, we're taking a seat
at their tables to learn more about how overtime these Chinoys
have seamlessly fused their two worlds, crafting a unique identity
that is just as Filipino as anyone else can claim. I've been to Chinatown a lot, mostly to eat,
never to deep dive into Chinese-Filipino culture. I met with our good friend
Anson Yu to learn more, and I was surprised
to find out that migration was still very much ongoing. - If you study Chinese migration
in the Philippines, in comes in forms like waves. So this one, the current wave
that is coming in, they are still like... they're not yet used
to life here. They have to learn the language,
they don't know the system, how it works. - So you wouldn't say,
like the new migrants coming in, they're not
necessarily coming in because they have relatives here
or they know anyone? - They're coming
from different parts of China that are not
from the southern part, some are from the northwest,
northeast, different parts, and they're bringing
their food culture, some of them
for the first time we're encountering here. - Anson gives great
walking tours around Binondo and is a great resource
to dig into Philippine history. And he thought
that a good first stop would be Eng Bee Tin. I've never been here.
This is like a... - It's a Chinese bakery
but it is Pinoy flavor, so that means hopia. - It's like a Chinese-Filipino
Disneyland. - Yes. (Anson laughs) This is their... They are known
for their ube hopia, but I'm going to let you
try this, this is one step better,
an ube custard hopia. - This is actual chocnut? - It's an actual one.
- It's an actual one. Okay. - And then, you have
the ube pastillas and you have the ube... Oh, I better get another one. This is ube langka. I'll get the ube keso. This is the mochipia,
tikoy and hopia in one. - Okay, cool. - So these
are all Filipino flavors. - It shows that mix.
I like it. - That's the thing,
when you come in here, you think it's a Chinese bakery,
but the longer you stay, the more you realize,
"Wait. I'm in the Philippines." It's very Filipino. I've seen places like this
in Beijing but it doesn't have the same energy as this one. - The longer you spend time here,
the more you realize that things here
aren't just Chinese, they really
are Chinese-Filipino, and that culture
is its own unique identity. So speaking of that,
is there... I mean, just like this place,
is there a new generation coming in to Binondo
to kind of bring in some new with the old and kind of
make it a little different? - There are some,
but not a whole lot. - Okay. - Like for example,
in Escolta, there's the First United Building
so they have the hub and they're trying to do that. - Is that still considered
Binondo as well? - Yeah. More like the edge
of Binondo, but people of Santa Cruz
will disagree with it. - I need to look at the map
'cause in my head, Binondo is so small,
but maybe that's just 'cause I'm basing it off
what I think it's trying to tell, but it expands further than that
for sure. - Even city hall doesn't have
like an exact map. - Okay. There's no map. - And then, if you ask a Chinoy,
they would... some of the areas of the streets
are actually considered part of Tondo, not Binondo. - Okay. I mean, when people talk
about Binondo, most of the time
they're thinking Ongpin streets, right? - But that's why when we turned
around the corner to Benavides,
people are shocked, like this is still part
of Chinatown. And if you walk all the way
across Recto, it's still... Some people
that's already Chinatown. That's not Chinatown anymore. - Have things have gotten
progressively busier or has it, more or less,
always been some kind of busy? - It has been some kind
of busy, but of course,
I can tell things are changing. There's a lot less community
or family spirit now. Whereas before... Like, when I was a kid,
there was a Chinese opera performance,
we would block off the whole street
and the entire neighborhood would come down. Even if they're not
paying attention what's going on stage,
they'll just be together and they'll spend time
communicating and talking. We grew up
under the same circumstances, educational system. We speak the same language.
A lot of us, we do this thing
where we combine speaking, three different languages
in one sentence. - Tagalog, English, and Hokkien.
- And Hokkien. And then, the amazing thing,
it's grammatically correct. (laughs) - You might be surprised
to learn that some studies demonstrated that Filipinos
were already travelling to China before they came here
in the 9th century. Before we were actually considered
Filipinos as well. Our country was more
of a geographical group of kingdoms
and sultanates at that time. So you mentioned
this has been here now for 25 years. - Yes. - Always in this building? - Yes. And we just received
a three-year renovation since the start of the pandemic
three years ago. So we renovated it,
we fixed it up, we changed some
of the exhibits around. But pretty much
the message has been the same, like how the Chinese came
and changed the culture here but how they themselves
were changed by the culture here. - One of the kings of Sulu,
Paduka Batara, journeyed to China
to pay respect to the emperor. But the sultan got sick
and eventually died there. The emperor bestowed to him
a memorial tablet naming him reverent
and steadfast. The sultan's son remained
in China to look after Paduka Batara's tomb. It's still there today. They eventually had
their respective families. Today, more than
3,700 descendants came from the sultan's lineage,
disproving that the popular belief that the Chinese-Filipino influence
is one-sided. Based on ceramicware
that have been dug up from across the islands,
the Chinese have been bartering with our ancestors as far back
as thousands of years ago when China was
in its golden years in the Tang Dynasty. As the centuries passed,
trade grew not only in Butuan but also spread to other parts
of the archipelago like in Pangasinan, Sulu,
and even in Santa Ana, Manila. This relationship, however,
was solely for trading. It was only during
the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century
when the Chinese began settling in the country. So a lot of Filipino-Chinese... or the Chinese-Filipinos
were involved in the multiple revolutions, they just don't get
enough credit, right? - The thing is this,
I was listening to one podcast recently, she says that
the problem with now we have in the Philippines,
the way we perceive nationalism, it's based on race, that you only have the right
to fight for the Philippines if you're the right race.
- A full-blooded. - But there's a lot of instances
in Philippine history that the ones who fought
for the Filipinos were actually not full-blooded. For example, Pelaez
in the movie "Gomburza," they casted Piolo Pascual,
but in reality, he was someone who looked like
Jaime Zobel de Ayala. - Okay. - So he was someone
who looked more like... - Really? - Yeah. And you. - You're doing this
so I was like, you mean me?
Yeah. Okay. I get it. According to sinologist
Aileen Baviera, during this time,
more Chinese migrants travel to the Philippines
to become skilled workers, but as the population
of the Chinese community grew, it alarmed the colonial crown,
pushing the governor general to build the Parian,
an enclosed residential area outside Intramuros
for these Chinese migrants. Through the Parian,
the Spanish could impose taxes and control the movement
of the community. Later on, sparking numerous,
bloody Chinese uprisings. Eventually,
Binondo was established but primarily for Chinese people
who had converted to the Catholic faith. Here's an example
of what I would say its cultural influence scene. There's a shrine there
at the bottom of this building of the supermarket. It's a Catholic shrine, but then, you will notice
that people are offering incense. The building owner built this
as a way to tell... as a vow to clear up... 'Cause when he was building this,
he had a lot of sickness, illness, and all these things. So he built this shrine,
made a promise that if it's finished,
he would put a shrine here. So it's a very Catholic shrine, but the people
in the community began leaving incense. - I mean, "Sto. Cristo"
is very Spanish obviously. de Longos... - de Longos, it's a part
of San Nicolos District down there. - Ah, okay. - So when they
were repairing houses there after the war,
somebody found a cross. So they took the cross
and brought it inside Binondo Church. So now, there's a group
of devotees that are worshipping this. That one is inside Binondo Church,
the original, this is just a copy. - So would you say
this is something you would only ever see... - I've seen quite
a few Chinatowns. Manila is the only one
that you could see something like this. - Where you see
a Catholic cross ornated by Chinese like temples. And there's tons of temples
around Binondo, right? And you're saying most of them
are either family associations. - Yes. Or like, they are fruits
of someone's promise to the gods. Others are started
by temples from China, started here. So they're very... And some of them
are always hidden. You don't exactly... From the outside,
they look like an office building, apartment building. You don't realize
until someone tells you, "Oh, there's a temple
on the top floor there." - And are temples
always religious? - Yeah. More or less. Spiritual is maybe a better word. - Yeah. I mean, if you didn't tell me,
I would have walked pass this. - Until you see people
offering incense. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they were like,
"Oh, this is a little strange." It is. - So it was only
when the Spaniards came that the Chinese
began settling in, and the reason
that gave them that incentive was that silver. - Yes. Okay. - Silver that was brought
over from Mexico and Peru, and then the Chinese
that bought them... Sorry. Because of this,
the Chinese began coming here, not only the traders
but also construction workers, kitchen staff, jewelers. Their goal was like
the OFWs of today, go there, earn enough silver
to come back home and retire. - Asides from being converted
to Catholism and themselves being colonized, the Chinese-Filipinos
became an integral part of our history. By the mid-19th century,
Chinese mestizos or mestizo de sangley
were educated abroad, securing a seat in political
and economic discussions that were once only
for the Spanish elites. Consequently,
the Chinese mestizos fought alongside the Filipinos
during the Spanish revolution, fighting courageously
for the freedom of their country. From World War II
to the Chinese revolution, going through the museum,
you start realizing that Bahay Tsinoy
is not about Chinese people, it's really about
the Chinese-Filipinos. To learn more about Binondo,
I met up with Ivan Dy who gives in-depth tours
of this area as well. To Ho Panciteria Antigua claims
to be the oldest restaurant in the Philippines
and was apparently one of Rizal's favorite spots. - Thank you! - So this is all like fried,
fried, fried, fried, fried. (laughs) Fried. - Sometimes that's
the best thing. What can you tell me
about this restaurant, particularly? - Ah, okay. It's an old restaurant
in Chinatown. Well, the food,
I call it Panciteria Chinese food which is very different
from the modern take of Chinese food that we know. These are the foods
that a lot of people grew up. - Yeah. - For the longest time,
these were people's ideas of what Manila
Chinese food was. - A lot of it is fried
and stir-fried. - And brown and fatty
and delicious. - And starchy, you know. So this is the classic
lumpiang shanghai which is fried spring rolls. And this is lechon kawali. This is asado. - Which is what they are
very famous for. - In Hokkien, in Chinese,
we call this "char siu." - Char siu. Yeah. - This is the kikiam. This dish is called pinsec prito. It's basically like fried wantons
and it's something that you don't really find anymore
these days. - This is the one
where they put like a tiny bit of meat inside, right?
- Yes, exactly. With more skin
and a little dot of, you know, meat. And that's how people like it,
I guess. And of course,
their pancit canton which is brimming with sauce. - Browning in sauce. - Yes. Exactly. That's how a lot
of people like it. - Correct. Okay. - And of course,
since we have pancit canton, we have fried rice. - So this would be food
that was originally inspired by Southern China mostly? - Mostly Cantonese,
Hokkien, 'cause those were the areas
where the Chinese... - But if I go there today,
will I find these dishes there or are these very much
Filipino dishes now? - Most likely you might find
something that is similar, but I'm sure over the years,
it has sort of had its own local flavor. - And adapt it.
- Yeah. You know, food changes. It's just that, I guess
when you run a restaurant and there is a recipe
that works for you for a hundred years, why change
when it's not broken, right? It's been around since 1888
and this is one of the last bastions
of panciteria dining in Chinatown. 'Cause a lot of the panciterias
have closed. And you know, back then,
even within the Chinese-Filipino community,
places like this was where they had events. - This is good.
Like the shanghai is not the shanghai
that I grew up eating. - Okay. - The shanghai is actually closer
to a kikiam in terms of how it's stocked
and rolled which is great. - And the meat is very fine. - Yeah. - It's not like
the modern lumpiang shanghai where it's really chunky, right? - Very fine and bouncy. - Yeah. - And this I've never tried before.
This is delicious. - It's squid. - And then, let me try
the asados since it's what they're famous for. One of the ex-presidents
would come here for the asado and the pancit. But again, it could be anecdotal.
I don't know. - I won't be surprised. 'Cause you know, back then,
panciterias were the only sort of like fancy places
that people ate in, right? 'Cause there wasn't
that much choices. You could have done
a European restaurant but that wasn't for everyone. Exactly. - The asado is very good. - Yeah. - Very, very good. - And it's not overly red. - And not overly sweet. - Yes. Exactly. It's very smoky. - Very smoky. - 'Cause from what I gathered,
they still cook this in the old style which is the pugon style, they have this huge pugon,
and then they just smoke everything. - So the Chinese
in the Philippines... I mean, trade with China, it's really hard to pinpoint
when that started, but we're talking about
way, way, way, way before the Spanish. But then, there was a period
when the Spanish came in and colonized the country, the Chinese were kind
of set apart. - Well, here's the thing. I wouldn't call it
like set apart but given
their cultural differences. You know, they had differences
but I think generally they also coexisted
because they needed each other, right?
I mean, the Spanish was the government, right?
And you need the government to run a business. And a lot of the things
that the Chinese brought in were things that
the Spanish actually wanted, because they wanted
to ship it to Mexico for the Galleon trade, right? So, it was a two-way thing. - The Chinese,
especially back in the day, like you said,
they're very good at adapting, simulating, cohabitating, whereas the Spanish kind
of came in with a very
different agenda, right? Is that why you think
the Chinese-Filipino community today is so strong and it's so part of the fabric
of the Philippines? - I think that's part
of the reason as well and that's why I would even
go further as saying that's why some of them
are very successful, 'cause they learned to adapt. It's just that some people,
a lot of people, they tend to see
the difference than the similarities, right? - Yeah. It's hard to pinpoint
a date in time where you say,
okay, you've been here for 150 years,
now you can consider yourselves Filipino, 'cause that's
a very unfair way of looking at it, right? - Right, right, right. - That's why each time
I talk about the Chinese-Filipino
community here, it's like I was telling you
a while ago, a province without... - Subculture.
I call it the subculture. - Without a location. - Yes. - But it's there, it's strong,
and regardless of where you are
in the Philippines, their values. Whether you're in Isabela
or Iloilo, you meet the Filipino,
the Chinese-Filipinos there. - Right. - The values
are very similar, right? - Yeah. Entrepreneurial. - Correct. Hard working. - Hard working. 'Cause I guess
it's an immigrant thing, right? You know, when you come here
and you have a shop to tend to, then you just do it.
Otherwise, you starve. - Yeah. - This restaurant,
at one point, was started by
a Cantonese immigrant. Like 100 years ago. So what was the difference
between them, 100 years ago, and circa 2024? - Correct. - They came here
for the same reason of, you know,
leaving everything behind. - New life. - New life,
new whatever, right? And yet, they persisted
over 100 years and they're still here. - For a better understanding
of what it's like to be Chinoy today,
I gave Chef Sharwin Tee a call. We decided to meet up
at Masuki, a restaurant that represents
Binondo perfectly. - I'm Ciara Gigante
and I am the head of the kitchen of Masuki. It started 1930. It's one of those old stories
wherein somebody from a different country
went here to the Philippines to introduce their food, and it was my grandfather,
they were selling mami on the streets of Quiapo
and Binondo. Eventually, that turned
into a restaurant. Eventually, my grandfather
and his cousins decided to have their own thing
and that's how Makong was born and that's how Masuki
was also born. When it was already Masuki,
it's already this big. This is what I've always known
since I was young. This is where we played
and where we ran. All of the family was here
in Binondo. When it was on the hands
of my uncle and my mom and that generation,
it wasn't as big as this before. When my mom handled it,
it grew. So my pressure now
is my mom was the one who grew it,
how am I going to do that? Me and my brother,
that's what we're thinking about because it's shocking
how Masuki's well-known but not really well-known. So our bestsellers literally
is just mami, siopao, siomai. Mami, boiled chicken breast
and asado, but our asado
is a different type of asado, it's the brown asado. So our siomai is also different
in that it's huge and it has a different recipe. It's not like
the normal siomai. I think one of the things
that specializes ours also, other than the skill,
is the quality of our ingredients. This is sir Jonathan. He's our expert. He's one of the two people
who knows how to do this. We cook it,
as in we just dip it and then that's that. So this is just a one-time cook
that's fast, and on the bottom,
it's also a fast cook. Our soy sauce is different. It's customized,
made from the store in Quiapo that we have
to go to and call and he makes
the soy sauce for us, the way that we want it. Masuki is customized for us. So if you're going to open
in Binondo, you have to that
established product already and you have to know
that this product you can really go by behind. No matter what happens,
"Oh, this is really delicious." Or whatever the product is,
you really have to make sure that it's good,
especially if it's food. - So this is the famous
brown sauce that you're talking about. - Yes. This is the king
of all sauces and I can't tell you
what it is. - What's the myth of the sauce? - So basically,
if you go to like a siopao place, they'll always have
this brown sauce, right? So that's why I thought
it was, but here, you put it on your noodles,
you put it on your siomai, you put it on your siopao,
nobody cares. - Okay. - It just goes well
with everything. (chuckles) - So we had a siopao
in Iloilo, this place called Roberto's. - Oh, Roberto's. - Oh, there you go. So I'm going to sound
like a broken record but it's unbeaten so far. So I'm going to start
with the siopai since they're very known
for their siopao here. I don't know if you're supposed
to split siopaos but that's what we're going
to do today. These are massive. This is looking promising. That is extremely filled. So you have the... - This is the bola-bola siopao.
- Bola-bola. And I'm thinking mine's
the beef asado. - So the funny thing about siopao
is people associate this with Chinese food, but the bola-bola siopao
doesn't exist outside of the Philippines. So this is actually
a Filipino food. - We finally have
a contender, I think. This is really moist. I think the filling
to breading ratio is super good, right? - It's pretty good, right? It's not a three-bite siopao
where you have three bites before you get to the filling. I hate that.
(Erwin laughs) Let's say you go to Malaysia
or Singapore and you go on their
normal food tour, the tour guide will tell you,
"Oh, we're going to show you Peranakan food
or we're going to show you Nyonya cuisine." And then, you ask them,
"What is Nyoya cuisine or Peranakan food?"
And they'll say, "Oh, it's Chinese food
that was adapted by the Straits people. - Correct. - And I'm like,
that sounds a lot like the food in Binondo. So why don't we have
a term for it? And so, for the past few years,
I've been trying to push the term Chinoy food
because a lot of the food here, you bring it to China,
they're going to be like, "This is whack." - Yeah. They're like,
"This is not how we make it." - It's really been adopted.
So a lot of the early Chinese settlers actually
would go around carrying the stick
with the two containers, right? So now we see that for taho but it used to be...
- For the mami, right? - Yeah. It used to be
for the mami. - So how do you eat a mami? - Basically, there are no rules. So some people would add
the brown sauce. - Okay. I'm going to try
without the sauce first. Sprinkle this.
- And then, the green onions. So this is not decoration.
This is part of the meal. You can ask for more
with that here. - It's part of the flavor. - Yeah. - And I love the combination
of chicken and beef, right? I think the only one
I can think was like vitello tonnato from Italy
where they have like a tuna sauce for a veal. - For veal. Yeah. - So chicken and beef,
but in a lot of Chinese dishes, you actually see kind
of these combinations. - So I'm going to go
really nerdy on you. - Go for it. - So we have a ma... This is called mami
and there's chicken and there's beef, right? But if you translate
the term "mah-mee," it actually means pork noodles. - Pork noodles. - Yeah. So the original meaning
is pork noodles. - So how did you, growing up... Is the term Fil-Chi or Chinoy? - Yeah. So actually,
it's very funny because the term "Fil-Chi"
is wrong grammatically. So grammatically,
we're supposed to say Chinese-Filipino, right? Because we're Filipino citizens
so it's Filipino, and then the Chinese
is the descriptor. - Okay. - In the same way
that we say Filipino-Americans because they're Filipinos
but they're American citizens. - Correct. So you start
with the descriptor first. - Yeah.
- Got it. - But the funny thing is here,
I don't know Chi-Fil just doesn't sound... - It doesn't roll off right. Chi-Fil. - So even Chinoys,
like the communities, they've begun
to call themselves Fil-Chi as well. - And the traditional mindset
in most families would be, you want your son
to become an accountant, a doctor, which I'm pretty sure
those expectations were there. So what was the reaction
when it was like, "Oh, I'm going to be a chef." - Oh, they laughed first
because they thought it was a joke. - And then you're like,
"No, I'm dead serious." - So the mindset is always like,
if you're going to go into a thing,
you have to be successful. - And profit from it. Yeah. - You can't be like
coasting along. And so, I started studying
on Chinoy foods so it's very difficult to say
which one is the most typical but I would say mami, siopao... - Siomai. - Siomai are pretty big
in a sense that you can say their names as is
and people know what it is. - Correct. - We have some dishes
that we've always thought was Spanish influence
because it has a Spanish name and a Spanish counterpart. But if you really look at it,
it's Chinese. So for example, arroz caldo. It sounds super Spanish, right? - It's sounds exotic and sexy. - But there's no arroz caldo
in Spain. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And if you look
at the ingredients, it's basically ginger,
chicken, and porridge, right? - Correct. - It's basically our version of congee.
- Could not be more Chinese. Do you see any issues
in the Philippines now because of that? Do people feel more Chinese?
Do they feel more Filipino? - Thankfully, most people
are still, you know, pretty understanding
of the fact that we're Filipinos, right? But there have been
some newspaper columnists who tried to stoke some kind of thing, right?
- I've seen that. - Where you know,
"Oh, what if China comes to invade the Philippines? Will the Chinoys side
with the Chinese?" - Where does your allegiance lie? - Like, they won't even
take us, right? Like, I just came
from Taiwan and they feel the same thing, right?
Like they're different. So thankfully,
people understand that we're Filipinos first. - At what year does something
become inauthentic? If the Chinese
have been trading with the Philippines
for 500 years and have been making mami
for 500 years, isn't that now Filipino food? Like, why does it have
to be said, okay, it's from another country,
where you can see, okay, maybe it's influenced
from another country. Sure, fair game.
I think that's important to understand with history, but at the end of the day,
it is also Filipino food. Maybe a genre of Filipino food,
just like Kapampangan (Pampanga) is a genre of Filipino food. And that's kind of how
I like to look at it. And I think that's
how most people have to start kind
of like understanding it. It's like, you can... You can be Filipino
but you can have, you know, history
with the rest of the world. - Yeah. So I'm going to quote
a friend of mine who writes
for the New York Times. She said, like,
just because a dish was created somewhere else,
it doesn't mean it's not culturally significant
to another place. - So, last part of the tour. (laughs) - Yes. - So what could be more Chinoy
for Bahay Tsinoy than hopia? - Hopia. - So we got some here
from Eng Bee Tin Bakery earlier. - I love it. - Well, hopia,
if you break it down what it means, "ho" means good,
"pia" means roll. So when the Chinese bakers
bought it here, they usually put things
like the usual green beans, sometimes it's like
kundol (winter melon) with a little bit of pork lard. But in the 1980s,
things changed with Eng Bee Tin. They started creating
the ube hopia, and things that time,
all the bakers began... even other local Chinese bakeries
began changing the flavor. - This is the 1980s? - Yes. - So this is way
before the rise of ube basically, right?
- Yeah. At the start,
It wasn't well-received until like... It took a while. When it became very popular,
it really took off. - So this is the original... - Not the original.
They updated it with an addition of custard. - So if it's chilled,
it's like you're eating ice cream. - It's light. That's a good little snack. And like you said,
it's a good representation of... - What being Chinoy
is all about. - Of everything
we talked about today. Like you said, it's... And just what
the museum represents, it's not necessarily
about the Chinese population, it's not necessarily
about the Filipinos, but it's about the culmination
of both, right? - Yeah. - Why do you think
it's always very much one-way? Like, talking about migration
in general, but specifically
for the Chinoy community, we always think
about Chinese people coming to the Philippines
and not necessarily the reverse where the Filipinos also have
the opportunity to influence the world? - I think maybe because
it's a relatively recent phenomena. Like, we have people
like Manny Pacquiao or Lea Salonga, but it has always been around
but we just never see... Like for me,
the earliest example would be Juan Luna. So he was a guy
who grew up in Ilocos, who was a seaman
who eventually decided to become an artist. And he set
the Spanish artworld on fire with his depictions, and he was the first one,
we could say, a Filipino celebrity
with a matching celebrity scandal. - Correct. - But because of that,
like, then, we had to fight the revolution,
we never thought about that, that we could really influence
the world. And I believe future generations
of Filipinos could be headed that way. We don't know how
but it might happen. I'm a strong believer of that. - The thing that has done
so well for Filipinos abroad is that we're very good
at assimilating and adapting
to different cultures, just like how the Chinese,
when they came here, they were very good
at assimilating and adapting. But I think we also forget,
because we're so used to adapting and assimilating,
you kind of lose a little bit of yourself. - We have to start
like learning to see, go inward within
what's Filipino about us, and then bringing that
to the rest of the world and then sharing with it. - That's how you bring
your culture abroad, right? It's just exactly the story
that we went through today where now, these things
are very much considered not Chinese
but they're considered Filipino, right? And it's really a part
of our culture, and eventually,
as we go out into the world, that's the influence
that we can have, right? It's powerful. - Because like, I think
the world wants things that are easy to understand,
sound bites, easy to adopt,
but they don't realize that sometimes
it defies explanation, it takes time to define it.
And that's why, like I think
Philippine culture, sometimes we find itself
hard to define to others, it's because we're still like
in the process of defining. - Of figuring it out. - Figuring it out. Sometimes we debate,
"Is this what we call a Filipino value?
Is this not what we call a Filipino value?" Do we like to share this
with the rest of the world or let's discuss this first? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are there any other weird... I know we bought
some weird stuff. I'll try one more weird one. - Well, there's chocnut. Ube pastillas.
This is very sweet. Chocnut flavor. - Let's try the chocnut flavor. I feel like this is
the funniest one. - Well, no. Actually,
I have another one. - I mean, we all grew up
with chocnut. - Yeah. This is not bad. There's the chocnut taste. - It's hard to navigate
and to distinguish who introduce what
and what predates all foreign influences. Unlike Western nations,
our histories were rarely inscribed. It is equally as impossible
to dictate how many centuries are needed to determine
whether something can or can't be considered
as fully Filipino. People like labels
because it helps compartmentalize things
in tidy little boxes. But you can't box in
a personality in four walls, so why do we expect
our nationality to fit? Our diversity, complexity,
and all the questions that may arise
from our provenance is what makes it beautiful
to be Filipino.
