My perception of China had always been a dichotomy, good and bad, through all the years, because that's how it started.
When I was in elementary school in Macabebe, Pampanga, Papa used to take me to the city to see an EENT specialist, a Chinese doctor in Divisoria, Manila, who was the only physician who cured me from an ear infection called otitis media after years of suffering, which got me into thinking that the best doctors in the world were Chinese.
Then, he hailed a taxi that took us to his Chinese furniture finishing suppliers who gave him credit for his orders, and would count each item individually to make sure that he was getting the right total for each number of items before they wrapped and had them delivered in Sta. Cruz, Zambales, were my Dad's furniture business was.
I thought that was very cool for them to trust my Dad by giving him credit; but why did he have to count each and every item on the invoice? My Dad said that you couldn't really trust the Chinese because they're dishonest, when it came to business, especially if you're not looking. And according to him, if he didn't check the order one by one, then something would be missing after getting them later.
Afterwards, we walked a few blocks and ate lunch in a Chinese restaurant, which I thought had the best food in the world. He told me to watch out and eat only in clean and reputable Chinese restaurants because some of them use rat and cat meat in their cooking to make more money, instead of chicken and pork that you ordered.
A review of Philippine history didn't help either because even when we credit the Chinese for their advanced civilization in ancient times by inventing gun powder, printing, compass, and paper, and who spoke highly of Filipino natives for being honest in trading or bartering during Pre-colonial ages, the Chinese merchants were excellent in numbers, had patience, and took advantage of them.
I had no proofs if any of these were true, but took them as gospel truths because my Dad and teacher said so. And when Mama asked her friend and neighbor to buy us a transistor radio in Manila from the money she saved, my Mom reminded her to check the label that it was Made in USA, and not from China that was flooding the market, which were cheap, but crappy.
But, my ambivalence with the Chinese people became sympathetic when we moved to Sta. Cruz, after learning from our hardworking Chinese neighbor and fellow store owner, who had a wholesale grocery business and used an abacus adroitly for computing, was a great cook, and lent money to Papa and Mama when they had huge furniture deliveries (and vice-versa when he needed cash,) about their plight and suffering, while leaving some family members in mainland China in order to cross South China Sea, and came to Sta. Cruz, Zambales, Philippines, after their country was taken over by communists.
Later in college, I began to detest communism, and the Chinese Communist Party, but not its people, particularly during the Communists' Cultural Revolution, but was shocked when the United States established diplomatic relations with Red China, while maintaining relations with non-communist Taiwan, (their renegade province according to Chinese communists.)
Soon, my window to Communist China became blurred when the Philippines followed the US initiative during the Marcos regime by sending Imelda Marcos, and started courting China by establishing cultural and trade relations with them also because of its enormous population and market potential, which can no longer be ignored according to American officials.
I learned how to watch and enjoy Chinese movies with English subtitles, not only from Hong Kong and Taiwan, but from mainland China as well, despite of its censorship.
And when the opportunity to quadruple my salary as a full-time Instructor II in the Catholic University of Santo Tomas, a few years after getting all my Master's credits both in Philosophy & Developmental Education, I grabbed it by taking an administrative position in a private Chinese Catholic Parochial School in Metro Manila as Assistant Director to the parish priest, in-charge of running the school, together with the High School & Elementary School Principals, Preschool & Chinese Language Head Teachers, who all reported to me.
Everything went smoothly, while I conducted regular In-Service Training Seminars with the teachers on the Catholic Philosophy of Education, and participated in School and Parish activities, such as, in celebrating Chinese New Year and Foundation Day.
The only question that came up between me and the person who hired me, or I was answerable to (my boss/parish priest/school director) didn't emerge, until prior to the DEC's (Department of Education & Culture) school inspection, because my boss didn't see eye-to-eye with the lady elementary school principal. I was put in a dilemma: to lie and submit an alternative false curriculum to DEC to please my boss, or forward the actual curriculum being followed showing more hours spent in learning the Chinese language that was submitted to me by the principals & head teachers, which were detrimental to the school's rating because it was contradictory to the school guidelines.
So, that was the reason behind the new position my boss created, and hired me for a lot of money-- total obedience or absolute loyalty. I decided not to lie and keep my boss happy, by adding additional hours for learning the Chinese language (which was paramount to the Chinese-Filipino parents in sending their children to our Academy,) after school hours and on weekends, while submitting the curriculum that was in compliance with DEC's guidelines.
I never heard from my boss again until after I saw him the following day. Why? Because after school hours on the day before that, I went to the birthday party of one of our prominent Chinese-Filipino parents in the school, with one of the male teachers.
Sure enough, we were served the best Chinese buffet lauriat I had ever tasted in my life, that the Chinese were known for; and our gracious host even volunteered to drop me off in nearby Ermita to pick up public transportation or jeepneys, instead of driving me all the way to my boarding house because of the heavy traffic caused by the slight rain..
He probably thought that I was drunk, because I drank a lot of beer during the party. A little tipsy, yes; but definitely not drunk, because I was twenty-five years old and used to drinking plenty of beer in college, when he tried to sell me for sexual favors to a rich Chinese in the red light district of Manila. I ran away as fast as I could, took whatever available taxi I could get, and resigned from my job as Assistant Director the following day.
I decided to come to America and finish my MA thesis after that, applied and was given a Visiting Scholarship and audited classes at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, and never told anyone what happened that night, until after I married my wife Gie 39 years ago. And although we are avid cruisers, have visited 69 countries, would love to see the Great Wall of China, and yet have never set foot in the Forbidden City (although our daughter was amazed after visiting Beijing and Shanghai,) not even in Hong Kong or Macau.
And then came the coronavirus pandemic that started in Wuhan, China. It is now present in 7 continents, has infected almost 3 million people worldwide, and killed more than 203,000 humans in our planet.
What hapened?
When I was in elementary school in Macabebe, Pampanga, Papa used to take me to the city to see an EENT specialist, a Chinese doctor in Divisoria, Manila, who was the only physician who cured me from an ear infection called otitis media after years of suffering, which got me into thinking that the best doctors in the world were Chinese.
Then, he hailed a taxi that took us to his Chinese furniture finishing suppliers who gave him credit for his orders, and would count each item individually to make sure that he was getting the right total for each number of items before they wrapped and had them delivered in Sta. Cruz, Zambales, were my Dad's furniture business was.
I thought that was very cool for them to trust my Dad by giving him credit; but why did he have to count each and every item on the invoice? My Dad said that you couldn't really trust the Chinese because they're dishonest, when it came to business, especially if you're not looking. And according to him, if he didn't check the order one by one, then something would be missing after getting them later.
Afterwards, we walked a few blocks and ate lunch in a Chinese restaurant, which I thought had the best food in the world. He told me to watch out and eat only in clean and reputable Chinese restaurants because some of them use rat and cat meat in their cooking to make more money, instead of chicken and pork that you ordered.
A review of Philippine history didn't help either because even when we credit the Chinese for their advanced civilization in ancient times by inventing gun powder, printing, compass, and paper, and who spoke highly of Filipino natives for being honest in trading or bartering during Pre-colonial ages, the Chinese merchants were excellent in numbers, had patience, and took advantage of them.
I had no proofs if any of these were true, but took them as gospel truths because my Dad and teacher said so. And when Mama asked her friend and neighbor to buy us a transistor radio in Manila from the money she saved, my Mom reminded her to check the label that it was Made in USA, and not from China that was flooding the market, which were cheap, but crappy.
But, my ambivalence with the Chinese people became sympathetic when we moved to Sta. Cruz, after learning from our hardworking Chinese neighbor and fellow store owner, who had a wholesale grocery business and used an abacus adroitly for computing, was a great cook, and lent money to Papa and Mama when they had huge furniture deliveries (and vice-versa when he needed cash,) about their plight and suffering, while leaving some family members in mainland China in order to cross South China Sea, and came to Sta. Cruz, Zambales, Philippines, after their country was taken over by communists.
Later in college, I began to detest communism, and the Chinese Communist Party, but not its people, particularly during the Communists' Cultural Revolution, but was shocked when the United States established diplomatic relations with Red China, while maintaining relations with non-communist Taiwan, (their renegade province according to Chinese communists.)
Soon, my window to Communist China became blurred when the Philippines followed the US initiative during the Marcos regime by sending Imelda Marcos, and started courting China by establishing cultural and trade relations with them also because of its enormous population and market potential, which can no longer be ignored according to American officials.
I learned how to watch and enjoy Chinese movies with English subtitles, not only from Hong Kong and Taiwan, but from mainland China as well, despite of its censorship.
And when the opportunity to quadruple my salary as a full-time Instructor II in the Catholic University of Santo Tomas, a few years after getting all my Master's credits both in Philosophy & Developmental Education, I grabbed it by taking an administrative position in a private Chinese Catholic Parochial School in Metro Manila as Assistant Director to the parish priest, in-charge of running the school, together with the High School & Elementary School Principals, Preschool & Chinese Language Head Teachers, who all reported to me.
Everything went smoothly, while I conducted regular In-Service Training Seminars with the teachers on the Catholic Philosophy of Education, and participated in School and Parish activities, such as, in celebrating Chinese New Year and Foundation Day.
The only question that came up between me and the person who hired me, or I was answerable to (my boss/parish priest/school director) didn't emerge, until prior to the DEC's (Department of Education & Culture) school inspection, because my boss didn't see eye-to-eye with the lady elementary school principal. I was put in a dilemma: to lie and submit an alternative false curriculum to DEC to please my boss, or forward the actual curriculum being followed showing more hours spent in learning the Chinese language that was submitted to me by the principals & head teachers, which were detrimental to the school's rating because it was contradictory to the school guidelines.
So, that was the reason behind the new position my boss created, and hired me for a lot of money-- total obedience or absolute loyalty. I decided not to lie and keep my boss happy, by adding additional hours for learning the Chinese language (which was paramount to the Chinese-Filipino parents in sending their children to our Academy,) after school hours and on weekends, while submitting the curriculum that was in compliance with DEC's guidelines.
I never heard from my boss again until after I saw him the following day. Why? Because after school hours on the day before that, I went to the birthday party of one of our prominent Chinese-Filipino parents in the school, with one of the male teachers.
Sure enough, we were served the best Chinese buffet lauriat I had ever tasted in my life, that the Chinese were known for; and our gracious host even volunteered to drop me off in nearby Ermita to pick up public transportation or jeepneys, instead of driving me all the way to my boarding house because of the heavy traffic caused by the slight rain..
He probably thought that I was drunk, because I drank a lot of beer during the party. A little tipsy, yes; but definitely not drunk, because I was twenty-five years old and used to drinking plenty of beer in college, when he tried to sell me for sexual favors to a rich Chinese in the red light district of Manila. I ran away as fast as I could, took whatever available taxi I could get, and resigned from my job as Assistant Director the following day.
I decided to come to America and finish my MA thesis after that, applied and was given a Visiting Scholarship and audited classes at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, and never told anyone what happened that night, until after I married my wife Gie 39 years ago. And although we are avid cruisers, have visited 69 countries, would love to see the Great Wall of China, and yet have never set foot in the Forbidden City (although our daughter was amazed after visiting Beijing and Shanghai,) not even in Hong Kong or Macau.
And then came the coronavirus pandemic that started in Wuhan, China. It is now present in 7 continents, has infected almost 3 million people worldwide, and killed more than 203,000 humans in our planet.
What hapened?
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