An interesting read about finding the Asian-ness of Filipinos from BakitWhy dot com, a portal for everything on the Filipino-American lifestyle.
But - I'm Not Chinese (Are Pilipinos Really Asian?) in Bakit Why
In the broad scope of things, maybe it really isn’t such a big issue that needs heavy debating. It doesn’t make sense for us either way, for our culture has never been defined on such terms - we are a people of many colors and cultures (you can see it just by eating our food) with a long history of colonial oppression and international relations to draw from (from Spain, to Japan, to the United States). What makes us special is that amidst all the cultural amalgamation and mixing we’ve experienced as a people, we’ve still managed to come out of it holding a very clear sense of Pilipino-ness that no drop of mixed blood, mixed look, or miscategorization can take away. All I know is that at the end of the day, when I hear that accent and those F’s become P’s, when I smell that spam crackling with a good lump of white rice waiting on the side, and when I see that magic mic set and ready for an onslaught of spit and high C’s, I know that I am surely Pilipino. Bubble in all else that apply.
