What is Filipino culture? Is it being lost? (Are there any Filipinos here?)

Great Debates
1

Sorry for this very long OP - I’m just really interested in this issue and I want to try to explain it well.

I recently had a very long talk with my girlfriend about an issue which she sees as very important, which is the concept of a Filipino identity and the lack of it among both native Filipinos and Filipino-Americans. I was basically just listening to her, because I didn’t have much to contribute to the discussion, but it was very interesting. She has a hell of a lot of thoughts on this, and it would be hard for me to write out a really detailed explanation of it that captured the essence of what she was trying to say, but I’ll try to sum up the points she made. These aren’t my views, they’re hers - but I thought I’d see what the people here have to say about them.

  1. Filipino culture is being lost. That is, the native Filipino culture. There is little or no effort to preserve traditional (I mean pre-Spanish) folk music, dances, art, or literature. The culture of the Philippines today is a hodgepodge of consumerist culture appropriated from America and Europe, colonialist influences from Spain, American customs brought over from military personnel, and some influences from Chinese immigrants. The original Malay culture the islands once had is nowhere to be found.

This passage from the Wikipedia entry for Filipino literature drove her insane:

"Modern literature (20th and 21st century)

The greatest portion of Spanish literature made by Philippine scholars was written during the American period."

  1. Filipino culture in the Philippines today is dominated by cheesy movies, stupid TV shows and game shows, bad pop music, and an overall pop culture which is tawdry, ugly, materialistic and uninteresting. (I said the same thing is true of America, basically.)

  2. It is especially hard to have a cultural identity of your own when you are a mix of Chinese, Filipino and Spanish (which she is.) Filipinos see you as Chinese. Chinese see you as Filipino. White people just see you as “Asian”, often just assuming that Asians are all the same. Some Filipinos especially in Hawaii have started identifying as sort of a pan-Pacific-Islander group, in solidarity with Samoans, Hawaiians and others. She thinks this is bullshit - that these groups have nothing in common with the native Filipinos, who are Malay.

A fascinating thread that I found, which is 50 pages long, seems to prove that this identity crisis is indeed a big problem. “IMSCF Syndrome” - “I’m Spanish, Chinese, Filipino” seems like a prevalent conundrum for a lot of people.

  1. A “rediscovery” of the Malay heritage of the Filipinos should take place, which will preserve the unique pre-colonial art, music, mythology, and heritage of the islands.

  2. The problem is that nobody in the Philippines themselves is interested in doing this, because they’re either too poor and too worried about their next meal to care, or they’re professionals and their kids for whom life is about being a doctor, nurse or engineer and making money, and uninterested in cultural things like art and music, beyond the pop culture presented by TV.

  3. Her fellow Philippine-Americans are by and large members of the doctor/lawyer/professional class, trained in a “hard” science or vocation-driven college field, and totally uninterested in the liberal arts. She feels no connection with them, interest wise, and does not believe there is a large enough group of people in America who have any interest in a “folk culture revival”, like the rediscovery of folk music in America which took place in the '60s and was fueled completely because there was a class of Americans interested in “dropping out.” Today’s Filipino-Americans are the exact opposite of the '60s types; they’re the children of doctors, who drive BMWs, play golf, and listen to rap, and want nothing more than to be a part of slick, American, upper-class society.

  4. She basically feels there is no hope of any large scale revival of the old Filipino culture, the Malay culture; she feels sort of a complex about her own identity (which is only compounded by the Chinese ancestry); furthermore, she thinks Filipino culture (as it is now) is something that is soulless and empty.

She said: Think of China - what comes to mind? (The Great Wall, emperors, fancy costumes, red and gold stuff, I said.). Japan - what comes to mind? (Samurais, ninjas, wood block prints, sushi, anime, Tokyo, I said). Think of the Philippines - what comes to mind? “You,” I said, though this really wasn’t the answer she was looking for.

I told her: you don’t need to identify as Filipino or Chinese or whatever - you’re just YOU! But this wasn’t the answer she was looking for.

What do you think? Are there any Filipinos here?

2

I’m not Filipino, but we have several friends that are. Also, there is a Filipino Cultural Center within a few miles of where we live, although as far as I know there are no more Filipinos than any other ethnic group around here.

3

A nation’s “culture” does not mean “the culture that existed 300 years ago”. Cultures change. They evolve, modernize, and incorporate elements of other cultures. Modern Filipino culture can consist of bits and pieces of Malay, Spanish, Chinese and American traditions and at the same time be uniquely Filipino. All it requires is a conscious decision on behalf of the people of the Philippines to define themselves as they are rather than as they were.

4

Whose bright idea was it to spell Filipino and PHilippines like that?

5

Spot on. Very few cultures exist in a vacuum. I had a Pinay girlfriend some time back, and I didn’t find any of her friends or family to have any sort of identity crisis about it.
For instance, Filipino cuisine incorporates some Spanish and Chinese touches, but remains very distinctly Filipino and unique, not to mention delicious. Tagalog includes a smattering of Spanish words, but it’s still a Malay language. In fact, now that I think about it, here in Chicago most of the Filipino-Americans I know and interact with are more likely to be proud of and strongly identify with their heritage than other Asian-Americans that I know. That’s my personal experience though, and perhaps notably the Pinoys that I know aren’t part of the upwardly-mobile professional class.
It’s also worth noting that traditional Filipino martial arts have long been quite popular all around the world, largely due to the efforts of Dan Inosanto and his association with Bruce Lee.

6

Especially considering that native filipinos pronounce it Pilippines, or pilipino. Despite most being bi-lingual (Filipino* / English), the letter ‘f’ is a problem. Oh, and it was King Philip’s of Spain idea.

I am not a filipino, but my wife is, having been born and raised there. Culturally, when you marry a filipina, you marry her family, so I’ve been immersed in the Filipino-American culture for about the last 15 years (give or take), dealing with filipino immigrants, first generation filipino-americans (FilAms), and native filipinos on a daily basis.

Alessan said it best. There is no reason for Filipino culture of today to resemble pre-Spanish Filipino culture. The landscape has changed. That doesn’t mean that there is no need for someone to capture and preserve the knowledge and history of pre-colonial cultures. It won’t happen in the Philippines (at this time) because the country is very poor and unless private money steps forward to do so, no one else will.

To comment on the OP by number:

  1. It’s true in that no effort is being made to preserve it as an artifact of history. Not unique to the Philippines. Think of all the native american cultures and traditions that were forever lost over the past 500 years.

  2. I agree. They’ve taken the worst of Bollywood and expanded upon it. Part of it has to do with budget. I had the opportunity to talk to a FilAm film student at NYU who got a $1,000,000 grant for a filipino movie. For a filipino film, that is a James Cameron-like budget. Most filipinos I know point out every filipino actor in any american film, even if it is only a 30 second shot. They all get written up in the FilAm papers. (Don’t even get me started about Manny Pacquiao’s mother trying to play the ingenue in movies now!)

  3. Ask her - what is an American? Technically, this whole country is a land of immigrants (though some have been here 10s of thousands of years and others a few centuries or less).

  4. Someone has to fund it.

  5. Pretty much. Anyone who can wants to better their lot, especially when bombarded with images on the internet and TV of affluence.

  6. She says that like wanting to succeed is a bad thing. The culture does not really value ‘liberal arts’; it values professional skills and media personalities. Returning to the Malay roots won’t change it.

  7. Don’t forget the past, but don’t live in it either. Live in the present, live in the future, and try not to make the mistakes of the pasts while retaining the lessons learned.

The Philippine Islands never had the stability of a Japan or China to build that kind of history. Before the Spanish, it was ~4 distinct groups, with nearly as many sub-groups as there are islands**. It had nearly as many different cultures as they have islands. They were a maritime economy. They suffer from earthquakes, volcanoes, and nearly yearly flooding, the last making the building of monuments like the Great Wall or the Mayan pyramids nearly impossible. If anything, the entire region (southeast Asia) should be commended as their growth was not based on conquest and colonization. Unfortunately, not have strong militaries was a downfall when the Spanish, the Japanese, and the Americans came in exerting their wills.

*The Filipino language is mostly based on Tagalog, and the two are often used interchangeably, though Filipino is ‘officially’ a different language than tagalog.
**Hyperbole. There are 7100 islands. It wasn’t that fragmented.

7

We’re going to have to agree to disagree about this. I’ve eaten in just about every Filipino restaurant in Brooklyn and Queens (unlike ‘Chinese’ cuisine, Filipino restuarants are authentic Filipino food), and have had innumerous Filipino home cooked meals. Of all the Asian cuisines, it is the one I’ve had the most experience with, and the one I like the least. That’s not to say there are no dishes I enjoy, just not many. One lament I heard someone making was that traditional Filipino cooking is being overtaken with French influences. I said to my wife, “Good!”. After being with me all this time (and I’m a fairly good amateur chef), she is coming to my way of thinking. In another 10 years, maybe I won’t be dragged to every Filipino restaurant grand opening.

8

Haha, fair enough. I’m no expert, my experience being limited to perhaps four or five home-cooked meals. Wouldn’t call them mind-blowing, but tasty enough. I like those fatty and sweet sausages they have though. Longaniza? Something like that. I was once told that Filipinos were largely responsible for keeping Spam on the market, and my Filipina ex did have a disturbing number of canned Hormel corned beef hash in her cupboard, so it’s arguable that Filipinos have . . . peculiar tastes when it comes to food.

9

Longanissa (longaniza in Spanish countries). Don’t know if it’s a Spanish word appropriated by the Filipino language or vice versa. Sounds Spanish in origin to me, but I’m not a language scholar.

My father-in-law loves the canned corned beef. Fortunately, we usually don’t have any Spam around.

My uneducated guess is that a lot of filipino cooking styles developed in a way that kills the bad stuff in food. Outside of cities, electricity can be hit or miss still so meats and fish that we wouldn’t consider eating because they haven’t been kept at a safe temperature they boil, fry, and/or overcook until everything about it is dead, dead, dead. They also use a lot of vinegar (usually plain white vinegar, sometimes rice vinegar) for the same reason. It’s the rare filipino I’ve met who likes hot, spicy foods, which is very different from most other regional cuisines. They do love garlic, so I can’t complain much about that.

10

I work with a half Filipino lady & I asked her what’s worth seeing over there. She said the beaches. I said I don’t care for beaches (I live 500 yards from the Pacific) and asked her what else there is to see there. Her mind drew a blank.

A Chinese lady who works with me was there on holiday last month in Manila. She said there’s nothing there worth seeeing there either apart from the beach. The only reason she went is cos she knows a stinking rich Chinese guy there and spent Xmas with his family.

I have a Japanese American friend who’s totally familiar with the culture - she speaks Tagalog and has dated Pinays in the past. She says that many Filipinos suffer from an inferiority complex and that many families tell their daughters to marry “up” by marrying white guys.

BTW Why haven’t they renamed the country? I doubt any other major Asian countries such as India, Korea, China or Japan would accept being named after a dead European.

Edit - why the hell do a lot of them call themselves Pacific Islanders? They are Asian!

11

A local station features, among its reports in English and Tagalog, a middle-aged Filipina giving cooking instructions for what I can only assume are Filipino delights. Um, as far as I can see the entire area around Manila is culturally lost, as far as its Malay cuisine is concerned. Unless Malay cuisine is pointedly taste- and textureless. My Welsh MIL (note that Britons and Spaniards share far too much of a common Celtic ancestry and cuisine) would be perfectly at home eating it. Cooking it, too, were she that good a cook.

12

I’ve had the same experience.

They are Asian, Pacific Islander, and Spanish.

13

I can actually contribute something to a discussion on the Dope. gasp

I’ve lived in the Philippines all my life. My passport says Filipino, but my parents are Chinese immigrants so I’m not exactly sure what to call myself either.

To answer to OP, I think the awfulness of Philippine popular culture is because the masa (the masses) are largely very poorly educated. The way to get a good education in the Philippines is to enrol in a private school, which is prohibitively expensive for the average lower-class family. Ordinary public school education is just awful. I tutor underprivileged kids every Saturday morning as part of my university’s public service program. I have fifth grade kids who cannot write an essay in English, who cannot tell nouns from verbs, and do not know the word ‘lack.’

Private school education, is all English all the time except for a token three hours per week learning Filipino. We are actively discouraged from speaking in Filipino. Outside one large university for example, a sign proudly said ‘We are an English-speaking school.’ What Filipino we do speak is liberally sprinkled with English words since our Filipino vocabulary is limited. Since the educated are not fluent in their own language, their creative output is usually in English, which the majority of the masses can barely understand.

Good stuff by Filipinos is there, but is made by a very small subset of people and are almost impossible to find in mainstream stores. Filipino literature written in Filipino is, from my experience, is usually very good (most of my experience comes from selected readings for my Fil. Lit classes, however). Independent filmmakers and musicians also put out pretty decent stuff. They are not publicized partly because there is no money for advertising and partly because the masses, by far the largest demographic in he country, don’t want thought-provoking, original stuff. They’ve been exposed to crap popular culture all their lives with no opportunity to even sample some of the better stuff out there. So their tastes never grow and the people who struggle to put out quality work slowly languish in obscurity, their work largely ignored.

There are some attempts to preserve indigenous culture and there are people who care about it but we hardly know where to even begin. Our country is made up of a ridiculous number of subgroups, each with its own unique culture, as D Odds said. We never considered ourselves part of one country pre-Spain. Then we were a colony nearly constantly from Magellan to WWII. We’ve gotten used to other nations making decisions about who we were for us, now we are suddenly a nation governing itself. Any attempt to come up with an Filipino identity is going to be hotly contested by regions who feel they are not being adequately represented. Also, we don’t really fit in anywhere. We are technically Southeast Asian, but we were less influenced by our Asian neighbors and more by the West. So what are we, exactly? It’s not really surprising that the majority of our poeple have thrown up their hands about their sinking, identity-less nation and are fleeing the country to work abroad, depriving us of well-educated citizens.

14

…an obligatory link to “Bebot” by the Black Eyed Peas.

Bebot bebot. Bebot bebot. Bebot bebot… Filipino!

15

You may want to remind her that, in broad terms, the “pre-colonial” Filipinos* actually DO have a closer affinity to Polynesians and the like than they do to, say, Chinese. Namely, both Malay and Polynesian are part of the AUSTRONESIAN family of languages and cultures. They share linguistic, cultural (staple foods, etc.), and genetic ties.

*(many of whom, but not all, are/were Malay – what about pre-Malay Negritos, etc.? Again, the Phillippines, like most places, has ALWAYS been a hodgepodge, so to pick one strand out as the “pure” one is a bit arbitrary, as others have mentioned in this thread.)

16

HerbalTea, everything you said is basically a version of what my girlfriend said.

I think it is significant that the only actual Filipino to post in this thread has expressed some of the same views I put forward in my OP. Especially this:

The issue is further complicated by the Chinese immigrants there. According to her, if she were to go back home, she would be viewed as more Chinese than Filipino, since she is the granddaughter of Chinese immigrants. She says this would actually be a compliment to her, in a weird way, because a lot of Filipinos supposedly are ashamed of their native ancestry and place the Chinese and those with Chinese roots as socially superior to themselves.

From what I’ve read online, a lot of Filipinos with Chinese and/or Spanish blood seem to have this same problem about what to identify as.

17

I’ve worked with a lot of Filipinos over the years. And while these were generally from the more educated classes, it did seem very common to claim a “Spanish grandparent” as if that were some sign of distinction.

18

For those that don’t know, apl.de.ap is Fil-Am, born in the Philippines.

19

For me, the first thing that comes to mind is Corazon Aquino. Which isn’t such an awful thing. A fairly peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy; lots of countries would like to have done it as successfully as the Philippines did.

The second thing that comes to my mind is arnis.

20

One of my best friends in the world is Philipino.

HE has an anecdotal story about a grandfather being in the US, and dealing with INS. When the INS person asked him his nation of origin, he stood up out of his chair, slapped his chest and said loud and proud “I… Pilipino!”

There is a sense of national pride, I think, but in a fractured nation with a severe inferiority complex it’s hard to find it.

My friend’s dad says (with no malice) that his 3 children have all seemed to take a piece of the history of the Philipines and make it their own… one daughter is very Hispanic in how she dresses and acts, one is very much American, and his son (my friend) is very “asian” in how he deals with family, honor, tradition, etc.

Just a 3rd party perspective.