A DIVIDED CHINESE COMMUNITY DURING THE SPANISH PERIOD: THE NEED OF A BRIDGING CHURCH

Historians say that there were enourmous challenges that the Chinese community experienced due to the desire of control. Who is in control of the economy or who should be in control of the existing communities? On the one hand, there exists the economies that the each group had to sustain namely: the Spaniards, the Filipinos, and the Chinese and there also exists the evangelization movement of the Church on the other. Thus, the work of mission of the local church to evangelize and the mission of the Spanish government to control the economy were two different worlds that the Chinese had to struggle in a daily basis. There were reasons why the Chinese community was divided and Bridging these two worlds was a difficult task to create and fulfill. 

1) Cultural Pluralism- A mixture of Spanish, Filipinos, and Chinese cultures would be a challenge to the Spanish government in the Philippines.  Alfonso Felix Jr. said "This plurality in economic life was paralleled by cultural pluralism. In areas penetrated by the Spanish there quickly came to be cultural communities of Spanish, Indios, and Chinese. Formal social distinctions between and among these cultural groups were built into administrative structure by the Spaniards. "Spaniard," "indio," and "Chinese" became terms of legal status. And when in the eigthteenth century a sizable number of Chinese-indio half castes, or mestizos appeared, a legal classification was created for them too."

2) Conversion to Christianity- The phenomenon of conversion to Christianity was another issue of division among the Chinese community. Non-baptized Chinese were living outside the Intramuros area while those who embraced the Catholic faith had access to the walled city. Felix Jr. continues to say: "balanced against economic interest was the mandate to Catholicize and hispanize the Philippines and all its inhabitants. It appeared to the Spaniards that the Chinese could not easily be converted or hispanized. Moreover, intimate contact between unconverted Chinese and barely-converted indios stood as a possible threat to the lasting conversion of the latter, which was, after all, the major Spanich concern."

3) Segregation due to Difficult Assimilation- The Spanish experience of the with peoples and cultures difficult to assimilate became a prelude for segregating the Chinese whom they consider who do not assimilate. Felix Jr. affirms saying: "another factor conditioning Spanish attitudes and policy toward the Chinese was the Iberian experience with the Moors and Jews, groups that were both economically necessary and culturally difficult to assimilate. There the Spanish had tried segregation, hispanization, and expulsion. Bringing this experience with them to the Philippines, the Spanish used some of the methods in dealing with the Chinese."

4) Stereotyping- The road towards assimilation was difficult to the Spaniards in dealing with the Chinese although they may be homogenous when it comes to trade. One of the evidences of stereotyping was labeling the Chinese as "sangley." Because of the lack of assimilation. Alfonso Felix Jr. comments that "not surprisingly, within a few years after the Spanish conquest, the relations between the Chinese and the Spaniards fell into a pattern of distrust and latent hostility... Within this context, the term "sangley" the Spanish name for the Chinese immigrants, quickly came to apply to an invidious cultural stereotype, and the Chinese became not simply one of two ethnic groups of equal status under the Spanish, but a despised cultural minority."

5) Population- The Chinese in the Philippines were already having trade wave after wave before the Spaniards came. There were Chinese who resided in the Philippines while there were thousands who frequent themselves by way of sampans to have trade with local Filipinos before the Spaniards came. Alfonso Felix Jr. describes saying: "by 1603, barely thirty-two years after the founding of Manila as a Spanish settlement, the Chinese population there was estimated at 20,000 in contrast to perhaps 1,000 Spaniards. As the number of Chinese grew, there was a growing anti-Chinese sentiment.

6) Taxation-  Control was an important intention of the Spaniards and taxation was imposed upon them. Felix says: "while considered a cultural minority in the Spanish plan, the Chinese were still, compared with the Spaniards, a numerical majority and hence potentially dangerous. Thus, if the indios seemed to need protection from the Chinese for religious-cultural reasons, no less did the Manila Spaniards need it for security reasons... Spain's Chinese policy took form there were three major elements: taxation, control, and conversion." Felix further explains that the taxation policy of the Spaniards before the 19th century was based on those most able to pay. "The Chinese were assumed to have greater earning potential than the indios and so were taxed more heavily."

SIGNS TOWARD A "BRIDGING DIALOGUE"