TRADE: THE PATH TOWARDS FORMATION OF A "BRIDGE"

The Chinese exchanged their silks, porcelain, colored glass, beads and iron ware with the hemp cloth, tortoise shells, pearls and yellow wax of the early Filipinos.’ Although the Chinese lost a large part of the Philippine trade during the middle of the 14th century, at the time when the Javanese and Madjapahit empires were most powerful, they nevertheless regained the trade during the reign of the Ming Emperor Yung Lo (1402-1424)."

Trade became the initial bridge between the two cultures. Peaceful relations were very important for both Filipinos and Chinese in order for trade to be free and prosperous. The bridging between the Chinese and the Filipinos took different sentiments, sentiments and directions. Aside from trade, the Chinese had other motivations that resulted to further thoughts and events. Historical books relate the following information where our idea of "bridge" between the two cultures may be asserted but they was both pleasant and unpleasant.

1. Subjugation- Part of the plan of having trade with the local people of the Philippines was serfdom and servitude. Milagros C. Guerrero continued to say that: "The Ming annals mention that in the second year of his reign, the Emperor sent an Admiral Cheng Ho to Luzon to establish Chinese suzerainty over the island. Cheng Ho’s fleet of 60 vessels thrice attempted to reduce Luzon and the neighboring islands to vassalage." Subjugation would not be a favorable way of "bridging" because it would also reduce the Filipino culture and the Chinese traders as mere objects of manipulation rather than peoples equals. The act of trading implied that each part needed each other toward prosperity. A bridge suggests complementarity in order for each other to survive and be connected.

2. Perseverance- In spite of the plans of Emperor Yung Lo and Admiral Cheng Ho to subjugate the Filipinos under the dominion of the Chinese, the Chinese traders continued to migrate to the Philippines and pursue their trading enterprises. This indicated that trading was far more important that any political structure and venturing. In other words, this commercial bridging prevailed in spite of any form of political and emperial demands. Guerrero continued to say that the desire to subjugate the Philippine islands to the governance of Emperor Yung Lo was discontinued following his death and the admiral Cheng Ho. "The death of Yung Lo put an end to this dream but it did not stop the Chinese from migrating to the Philippines and other parts of the Indies. Continuous immigration continued even as the Chinese government emigration."

3. Progress- Continuous relationship between the Chinese and the Filipinos through trade was the locus of intensified cultural relationship. Not only that the Chinese were migrants to the Philippines but they became integrated into the fabric of Philippine way of life. Trade became a constant activity that sustained and deepened Filipino-Chinese relations. The experience of trade as a form of "bridging" entails progress because the Chinese still pursued it despite the discouragement from the Chinese government. A bridge is a meaningful concept that would describe Philippine-Chinese relations before the Spanish occupation in the Philippines. Guerrero continues to say: "The chronicle of the Loaysa expedition mentions two Chinese junks coming 'each year for the purpose of trade.'" The chronicles of the subsequent expeditions also contain many references to Chi- nese trade and items of trade.’ It was, however, only when the Spaniards had become established in Manila that the Chinese trade in the Philippines began to increase steadily,’ not only in the city but throughout the country."

4. Resistance- Chinese traders who frequent themselves in coming to the Philippines as well as those who made their residence in the Philippines were criticized and discouraged. The Chinese traders were labeled as "unfilial" to their country of origin once they migrated to the Philippines. Despite the discouragement, the Chinese were not impeded by the edicts issued by the government. The Chinese continued to migrate and continued to pursue trade. Guerrero said that: "The Chinese literati, moreover, considered leaving one’s own country as degrading and regarded the emigrants as unfilial and undesirable. Of course, it was not so much the desire for residence in an alien country which caused the Chinese to leave the empire as much as the desire to trade."

SIGNS TOWARDS A "BRIDGING DIALOGUE"