Session 7.3: Same same but different

Same Same But Different: Close cultural proximities of the Chinese in Malaysia and the Philippines 

Written by Low Jia Wei 

Photographs by Jonathan Lim, Sarah Chong and Melissa Chia

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      It never fails to amaze me how the Chinese diaspora in all parts of the world manage to maintain their unique cultural heritage amidst the assimilation and acculturation processes that usually consume minority cultures into mainstream ones. However, the Chinese culture proves to be a resilient one, bending and adopting other cultural practices into its fold, rather than breaking and becoming absorbed. Of course, I realize that China is a vast empire and as such its culture varies greatly from region to region, but for the purposes of this article, I refer to culture that originates from Fujian in China, a region from which the Chinese communities of Manila and my hometown, Penang, hail from.

A familiar sight

     Walking around Chinatown in Manila, a nagging feeling of déjà vu crept up on me. It was almost like I was back in Penang. The squashed roads that would only reasonably fit one vehicle were somehow two-way streets. The familiar cheap plastic red lanterns, no doubt manufactured in mass quantities in China, hung on every shop lot in the area; Chinese, Filipino or otherwise. Chinese calligraphy peppered the signs of store windows, indistinguishable to the uninitiated eye as to whether it was simplified Chinese or traditional. Our guide for the day, Ivan, led us along busy roads and past shops selling shoes, clothes, knick-knacks, food, fruits and other goods. He explained to us how the Chinese came to be in this part of the world, every so often naming names of people, places and foods in the distinctly familiar dialect of Hokkien. The words were so similar to the ones I knew that they were almost completely decipherable to me. But no doubt the pronunciations varied, in part thanks to the creolized form Penang’s Hokkien dialect has taken and the adoption of other Filipino tongues in Manila’s Hokkien. Still, the form remained largely the same. The glutinous rice and meat dumplings in Penang known as 'bakchang' is known to the locals as 'makchang'. The ever so popular phrase 'chiak phui' ('eat rice', or generally just ‘to eat’) is pronounced as a slightly varied 'chiak peng' .'Pohpiah', the Malaysian delicacy known to the rest of the world as spring rolls, is named 'lumpia'. Same same but different, right? 

     Food wise, there was definitely a noticeable common ancestry in the cuisine. Aside from the same foods with different names such as 'pohpiah'/'lumpia' and 'bakchang'/'makchang', there were other treats that looked like they had evolved differently from their Malaysian cousins. One of these was the 'thi kuey' from Malaysia, a sticky sweet pudding wrapped in banana leaves. In Manila, a similar version of the sweet called the 'tikoy', (flatter, better-packaged, and available in a variety of colours and flavours) could be seen hawked in front of every food store around Chinatown. A Chinese New Year delicacy, the 'thi kuey' was usually only made and sold around Chinese New Year, and as such one could surmise that the same was being done with the Tsinoy 'tikoy', given its pervasiveness in local shops. 

Chinese New Year is coming soon!

     It was a very surreal experience to walk around Manila’s Chinatown. Everything felt so similar, yet at the same time, so different. It was as if Manila and Penang were twins separated at birth and though nurtured differently, nature proved so strong that the two still developed to be almost identical. One could go on and on about the parallels between the two cities, but suffice to say, should I find myself in need of a home away from home, I’ll be scouting around for an apartment in Manila’s Chinatown.