| Summary/Abstract |
In April 1957, Chinese educators from across the Philippines gathered in Manila for the First Convention of Chinese Schools in the country. This article comprises a translation of and commentary on the declaration that was published to commemorate the occasion. I use it to illustrate the little-known extent to which elite-authored Chinese identity in the Philippines was deeply infused with a particular strain of Cold War ideology that emphasized unyielding support for the Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan and Sinocentrism. Texts such as these call attention to the Philippines as a largely neglected site for historicizing and differentiating among Southeast Asia’s Chinese communities after 1945. Read carefully and contextually, they offer a very different perspective on identity formation within these societies from that found in mainstream, typically Malaya-focused narratives of cultural hybridization, localization, and depoliticization.
|