Session 7.1: Good Morning Manila

Written by Helen Sneha
Pictures by Jonathan Lim, Sarah Chong and Melissa Chia

2. The Big Binondo Food Wok >>

The architecture of the church is gorgeous

     We headed out into Manila on our first day feeling fresh and upbeat after a short, comfortable flight, a breakfast at Jollibee's, and a few hours of shut-eye. As we took a drive around the city, it gave us great pleasure to point out and compare jeepneys, various words, and buildings with the ones we had grown familiar with in Iloilo. We stopped by The Church of the Black Nazarene in Quiapo, and spent some time inside marveling at the architecture and the grandeur. I, for one, had not been aware of what the Black Nazarene was, and learned about it for the first time in the church on that day. It is a statue of Jesus Christ that had apparently turned dark when it survived a fire on its way to the Philippines, and is believed by many to be miraculous. We also spent some time looking upward at the panels on the ceiling depicting the birth of Christ on one hand and his crucifixion on the other.

Session 7.2: The Big Binondo Food Wok

Written by Gwyneth Liew

Pictures by Sarah Chong, Gwyneth Liew and vivafilipans.tumblr.com

<< 1. First Morning in Manila                                    3. Same same but different >>

      The Big Binondo Food Wok is one of many tours offered by the Old Manila Walks tour company that provides tourists with an experience of the rich histories of Manila which include areas like Intramuros, Binondo, San Miguel, Quiapo, the Chinese Cemetery and more. Although our pathfinder, Dr. Yeoh Seng Guan had originally planned for us to go on a different tour; it was switched to the Binondo Food Wok by popular vote when the original tour became unavailable. Our tour guide for the day was Mr. Ivan, a local who is of Chinese and Filipino descent. He is also a friend of Mr. Eugene Jamerlan, our previous tour guide who brought us to the magnificent and historic mansions in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.

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

<<  2. The Big Binondo Food Wok                             1. First Morning in Manila >>

      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