I would like to greet all the Hokkien Chinese and mestizo Chinese Filipinos of Cebu (Cebuano Tsinoys, if I may call them that) the standard greeting to usher in the Lunar New Year, “Kung Hei Fat Choy!” May the Year of the Red Fire Monkey usher in prosperity and less traffic to Metro Cebu!
Let me also congratulate Tsinoy community led by Mr. Bob Gothong and my good friend Jimmy Sy on the successful launch of the restoration and eventual conversion of the Gotiaoco Building behind Cebu City Hall into the Cebu Chinese Heritage Museum.
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What do the names Ang, Cang, Chan, Chua, Chiong, Chong, Chiu, Cui, Diao, Du, Dy, Go, Jo, Lao, Liao, Lim, Ong, Po, Pua, Sia, Sin, Sio, So, Sy, Tan, Uy, and Yap share in common? The answer:
They are some of the many Chinese names listed in the records marked “Padron de Chinos” under the province of Cebu in the Philippine National Archives, records that date from the late 1860s to the late 1890s.
My esteemed friend Dr. Michael Cullinane, the indefatigable Cebu expert and historian based at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was here briefly last month, and among the “new” knowledge we exchanged, he gave me a long list of Chinese individuals registered in Cebu, including the ones above that have been preserved in the archives.
All told, Mike has provided me with some basic statistics about the Chinese in Cebu in the 1890s. Two names with the highest number of individuals are Yap and Tan, at 115 and 110 individuals respectively. They are closely followed by the family name Uy at 107, Sy at 92 and Lim at 85. Then, for some reason, the list suddenly goes to the low 20s per family name.
In 1886, the Spanish government listed 977 Chinese residents in Cebu province. Two years later, the number increased to 1,394 and then went down slightly to 1,357 by 1893. The following year, the number increased somewhat to 1,416 individuals. And in 1897, before the revolution against Spain finally erupted in Cebu, there were 1,077 individuals registered.
Understandably quite a number of them took on Spanish first names like Cang Quinco who appended Antonio to his name and became Antonio Cang Quinco or what appears to be his brother, Cang Suico, who also registered as Mariano Isabelo. Others took on new Spanish Christian surnames and first names altogether, like Diao Masuy who took on the name Alejandro Gandiongco which, despite its Spanish spelling of the surname, was strangely still Chinese. Then there were those who used both in combination like Julian Climaco Diao.
This amazing list will soon find its way in a coffee table book that another good friend in the media, Marlinda “Mayen” Angbetic-Tan, is now busy editing also for USC Press about the Chinese in Cebu and the Visayans and Mindanao, which was supposed to be launched last February 8, but the research still continues and a new date has been set for its final release.
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I also truly enjoyed attending with my sister and her family as well as my mother the Chinese New Year festivities at Marco Polo Hotel last February 8 in the morning. It started with the traditional eye-dotting ceremony, followed by fireworks, then the lion and dragon dances, and in between, the charming little Wu Shu performers. It was my third time to attend the event at Marco Polo, and
I must admit the management there never ceases to amaze me at the variety and new things they cook up every Chinese Lunar New Year.
And of course the breakfast at Café Marco was impeccable especially with a 15 percent discount because my sponsor, my sister, happened to use a Metrobank credit card, much to her surprise.
Hats off to Marco Polo Hotel and the staff at Café Marco!