Culture Appreciation

I grew up in the Philippines, but all throughout my early years, I was surrounded by Chinese people. I had little idea what other cultures were all about.

When I went to a non-Chinese college, my perspectives changed. Back in High School when every person in my class was Chinese, here in college, I belonged to the minority. The rest were pure Filipinos. My Chinese features made some classmates think that I was a foreign student from Mainland China.

Many of my classmates became curious about my culture. They would approach me and ask me to translate different words in Chinese. They would even ask me to translate their names to Chinese. Seeing me write Chinese characters amazed them.

Looking at how my Filipino friends got so interested in my culture made me feel proud of my heritage. It was also then that I started seeing the difference between Filipino and Chinese culture. I learned some stuffs from my Filipino friends, my Tagalog vocabulary widened, and I came to love Filipino songs. 

Teaching each other about one's own culture was a very interesting and educational experience.

What is Chinese Culture

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When you hear the words 'Chinese culture', some things might begin popping up in your head. It could be the porcelain vases with flower designs, tea sets, big round red lamps, calligraphy brushes, or the long red silk dresses for women. Chinese civilization dated early back several centuries ago and perhaps that is the reason why the culture has become this well-known and influential.

The country of China is huge, as well as its population. Many Chinese people ventured out far beyond their borders and migrated to different countries, and established their own Chinatown on foreign soil.

I have Chinese ancestry, but I live in the Philippines. I was born here and raised here. But just like many of the Chinese families that were established here, our culture still remains relatively intact, making us very distinguishable from the locals. The Chinese language also remains with us, though not many of the younger generations can speak fluently anymore.

We get a little bit of influences from outside cultures as well. But the elderlies, particularly the very traditional ones, insist on preserving our culture and language. As many of us had witnessed, some Chinese who were married to locals lost the culture and language. That is part of the reason why the traditional Chinese families prefer to marry their children to fellow Chinese.

I am a third generation Chinese in the Philippines. That doesn't make me old enough to witness the gradual transformation of our culture here. Perhaps our culture here has already changed throughout these years that the Mainland Chinese may be shocked to find out about. No doubt, we might have already lost some parts of the culture already, in order to welcome the culture of the land we live in. I am very much interested to find out how the Chinese culture of other overseas Chinese from other countries (such as Malaysia, US, and Singapore) has developed as well.

What I can say is that the common ground of our culture across the globe, despite the assimilation of the foreign influences, are the language, the yearly celebrations and festivities, marriage practices and beliefs, and of course, our strong appetite for Chinese cuisine!