I tried to put a somewhat provocative title on my talk.
It's about Spanish Manila, it's about a trans-pacific maritime enterprise,
and perhaps the least expected of all is about America's first Chinatown.
And it all happened in the Ming Dynasty and I'm talking about the 16th century.
Now hold your tongue if something I say really outrages you, just hold it because
you can charm me afterwards and I wanna hear, and I have heard plenty.
So people have told me they don't agree with me which is fine because I am
trying to be somewhat provocative. I'm working this all out myself.
I'm continuously revising my own thinking and adding to it because I hear from
people like all of you. Okay?
All right, so why am I studying this topic? No? The Chinese in
the global Spanish Empire, which took shape by the 16th, century was a notable
presence that has been largely overlooked in Latin America as well as
East Asian history. Are there any Latin Americaners
here today? Anybody teaching Latin America? Okay. Do you
teach about the Chinese in Manila?
>> [unintelligible]
>> That's great.
>> I don't teach but [unintelligible]
>> Well you know I'm just making this point okay.
But it's also missing in East Asian history. It's not actually missing, I don't know your syllabi,
I'm not making a charge against any one of you specifically but I'm just saying in general,
certainly in my own formation as a Latin Americanist I didn't even know
there were Asians in Latin America until I travel
to Brazil and Peru and Mexico and I see them with my own eyes.
And I say why are they missing from my textbooks?
Another reason. The Chinese in Spanish Manila formed the first large permanent Chinese community overseas
that is outside of China thus marking the beginning of the Chinese diaspora.
Now who makes the kind of assertion that the Chinese diaspora
began in Spanish Manila? That's what I'm asserting today.
And it began with Hokkien-speaking Chinese from Minnan which is southern Fujian,
sweeping across Southeast Asia, starting with Manila,
moving on to Batavia which is today's Jakarta in the Dutch Empire, Indonesia,
then on to the Straits colonies Singapore Malaya in the British Empire.
This fact has been largely glossed over in the history of the Chinese diaspora.
So you can get mad at me because I'm making this assertion that if we want to
study the Chinese diaspora, which is what I have been doing for 30 years,
begin with Spanish Manila. How about that? And the significance of the Chinese in Manila.
Manila was Spain's gateway to China which Spain was unable to
seriously penetrate in the Ming Dynasty. Chinese merchants and traders in Manila
were China's first large source of American silver which China desperately
needed to underwrite the transition of the Chinese monetary system from paper to silver.
The formation of the Parián, Parián is the name in Manila for what we
call the Chinatown, or a barrio Chino. When Legazpi, who we'll meet again soon,
built Manila as a colonial capital among
a settled population of largely Muslim Filipinos he immediately attracted the attention
of Hokkien junk traders, junk is a small ship, who began arriving in large numbers from a handful,
literally 5 or 6 in the beginning, to as many as 60 or more
during the spring-summer trading season, not system, I meant season.
That number ballooned quickly to as many as 20 to 30 thousand by the 1590s,
and I will come back to that. These Chinese in the Philippines
were called Sangley, and I'll explain that too, but the Sangley were restricted to a space
outside the Spanish city wall. You know typically in those days Spanish cities
were surrounded by a wall and the Spanish lived inside the wall, intramuros,
which is still used in the Philippines today, but they relegated
the Chinese to live extramuros, just outside the city wall, and it was called
Parián which we think is a word that comes from Tagalog. Not everybody agrees
of the origin of this word but sometimes, and this is interesting too because it
also links earlier to Spanish history, this so-called Chinatown which was
a commercial space was also called the alcayceria, which is as you can see
a good Arabic term for a big silk bazaar or silk market.
So one more reason, and this is my gesture to Asian American studies and an important one,
an estimated 40,000 to 100,000 Asians from Manila migrated to New Spain or Mexico
in the 16th to 18th century. Most of them were probably native Filipinos although
there were some Chinese and some Japanese. Many went as slaves
who were bought in Manila or Indian Ocean and then went
across the Pacific with their masters. Others went as free migrants to seek
their fortune, to ply their trade, many of them for example were barbers,
and who deserted the galleons after working as sailors and rowers.
Thus we have to revise the timeline for the history of Asian Americans
or Asians in America considering how Asians were travelling,
living, working, forming families and communities in America which we take,
I take many of us are beginning to take seriously America should be a
hemispheric America, no? Anyway my point is that the history of Asians in America
or Asian Americans needs to be peeled back far earlier than the 19th century
which is usually when we begin talking about Asian American history.
So here let me show you this map. This was the Spanish Empire by the end
of the sixteenth century. Truly the world's first global Empire.
Look from Spain they went across the Atlantic
and colonized what we call New Spain, which actually if you know your
history included half of the United States. Half of the United States
consists of land taken from New Spain and Mexico in the middle of the 19th century
so we're talking about California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and
even Utah. A very big Empire and of course all of South America.
So that's the transatlantic but later on we remember that we need to also talk about
the South Atlantic because of the Atlantic slave trade. Millions of people
uprooted from their homes in the South Atlantic in Africa that is they too crossed the Pacific.
But from New Spain or Mexico they soon found a way to
East Asia to Manila and then later on we will see that they would also go back
across the Pacific to return to Mexico. It went from Mexico and then returned to
Mexico and then from Mexico back to Europe. This is a global circuit that included
every inhabited part of the world except for Australia.
So how did it all begin?
Just very quickly, 1492 Columbus tried to reach what was then called in Europe
Las Indias, or the Indies, which is a generic term for Asia.
And course we know that he quote "discovered" America instead.
But in 1497 Vasco da Gama sailed from Portugal to India by going around
Africa into the Indian Ocean and then from there into the Pacific Southeast Asia
China. In 1519-22 Magellan and Elcano circumnavigated the globe.
Magellan himself was actually killed on the island of Cebu which later
on will become part of the Philippines. Elcano made his way back to Spain and
in the circumnavigation they crossed all the great oceans of the world - Atlantic,
Pacific, and don't forget the Indian Ocean. Really important. So this is how
Vasco da Gama went from Portugal around Africa into the Indian Ocean
and then into China, Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, Formosa, Middle East,
what we call Central Asia, and of course the east coast of Africa as well.
And then just very quickly, circumnavigation, Magellan actually went around the tip of
South America which is very turbulent waters very difficult, but this is how
they went around, they hit Cebu in the Philippines and then they went home this way.
Circumnavigation, went around the world. From America to Asia 1564 after Colombus,
Spain colonized North America in 1521 and a few decades later from
New Spain which was Spain's colony, major colony, in America the Emperor sent
a longtime resident of Mexico, or New Spain, by the name of Miguel López de Legazpi
dispatched to go back to the Philippine Islands which Magellan
and Elcano had reported on. And Legazpi took with him an Augustinian monk
and a brilliant navigator by the name of Andrés de Urdaneta. They left from
Acapulco, Mexico on the Pacific side, Acapulco Mexico. And they arrived in Cebu,
the same island where Magellan was killed by the natives, and they quickly
named this whole archipelago, this huge chain of islands, after Felipe Segundo
the emperor, they named it Las Filipinas, always in the plural.
Look at this. This is Acapulco, crossing the Pacific to Las Filipinas,
and then returning. But here you can see the whole, much of the world you can see,
how huge the Atlantic was. The Atlantic is twice as big as - I mean
the Pacific, this is the Pacific is twice as big as the Atlantic. It was an incredible
feat of navigation to cross and then come back again, the circumnavigation.
Here's another close-up leaving Acapulco crossing over
to Manila and then on the return which was more arduous and longer they had to
follow the coastline of Japan crossing over and into what would become later on
called California and then going back to Acapulco.
Along the way you see these two islands Guam and Mariana. They were also colonized
by Spain as refueling stations and today of course Guam and Mariana, just like the
Philippines, at the end of the 19th beginning 20th century were taken over
by the United States and the US still holds on to Guam and Mariana.
Mariana also called Saipan.
Now I want to turn your attention very briefly to what China was doing.
You know why the Europeans were exploring? China was awesome.
Actively involved in trade and particularly the area of Zheng He. Zheng He was a eunuch,
he was a Muslim, he was born in Yunnan province, then he went to serve the Prince or the
Emperor of China. This is what's important. In the beginning of the 15th
century for 28 years 1405 to 1433 Zheng He made 7 expeditions.
Look at the territory he covered. Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean, Red Sea, east coast of Africa,
covering more than 30 countries and regions collecting what was then
called tributes from these states that all looked up to China. And these tributes
were in those days a form of trade because the Chinese emperor also gave
gifts to these countries so there was an exchange. But Zheng He, this is his
incredible treasure fleet of 300 ships and I just want to tell you about all
the different ports that Zheng He ahd his 7 voyages stopped at. You can see
today's Indonesia, you know China, the Indian Peninsula, Sri Lanka, also Hormuz
which is Iran, and Arabia up to Yemen, and of course the east coast of Africa.
This is the Indian Ocean world. So the Chinese were very knowledgeable
already about this part of the world when Europe was still struggling to get
their act together. So honestly China and Asia and the Indian Ocean world were far
more advanced. Here's another wonderful map. I'm not going to dwell on this too long
but I just wanna show you that this whole area then after Zheng He
the Fujian what we call junk traders the boat traders will continue to ply
these waters call at these ports in small numbers, 1 2 and 3 boats
for short periods of time trading with the local people. So they would bring
a lot of this knowledge and a lot of the merchandise from all of these ports in
this vast region to Manila when the Spaniards came.
So in 1565 Legazpi went back. They dispatch a ship to return to Acapulco
across the Pacific laden with Chinese goods and Indian Ocean goods and this is
then the circumnavigation. They came across on a galleon, they returned in 1655.
Now the cities in China that were involved with this trade in the
Indian Ocean and later on in Manila were from these cities Fujian, in southern Fujian
there's a city of Zhangzhou which if you read the Spanish documents they
called it Cincheo. There's Xiamen today which was called Amoy because in Hokkien
dialect Amoy is the way they pronounce Xiamen.
And then Quanzhou which Marco Polo in his memoirs called Zaitun.
This is a sketch of a Chinese junk or 船. This is a Spanish depiction of the
Chinese junk. Then they built, 1571 Legazpi built Manila on the big island
of Luzón to be the capital of Las Filipinas
and then relegated the Chinese to the Parián outside the city wall.
Now here I took three quotes because these are important.
"A Spanish Orient might be made an adjunct of Spanish America," Mexico.
"The Manila Galleon trade," which is this trade that will go from Acapulco to Mexico,
I mean to Manila, and that "was 'intercolonial.'" Why is that? Because Manila
and the Philippines was colonized as an extension of New Spain or Mexico in America.
An extension, not as a separate colony of Spain. That's important
to remember and here I found this wonderful map at the John Carter Brown library at Brown.
Well you can see its title "Description de Las Yndias Occidentale,"
the West Indies. And in their imagination in the 16th century
the West Indies covered the Philippines. So in their imagination in their world
this was all the West Indies, America.
Legazpi meet the Chinese. They immediately call the Chinese Sangley which is a term
they borrowed from the local Filipinos. The Filipinos call them Sangley.
Why Sangley? It comes from Hokkien's sionglay which means 常来 in Mandarin, come and
go frequently in Hokkien. The native Filipinos were called indios. What an irony.
When Columbus got lost and hit America but insisted he had reached Asia
or Las Yndias he called the native peoples in the Caribbean indios.
When they finally arrived in Asia in the Phillipines they drop
the same term indios which is a misnomer in the first place.
Back to Asia and call the native peoples of the Philipines indios correctly this time, you might say.
Now the term came from Mexico. And the term chino was applied to
any and all Asians because when they wanted to refer
to Chinese from China they use the term Sangley.
So here is a wonderful sketch. This is the intramuros the city of Manila
surrounded by the wall and here is the Parián and the barrio Chino, the Chinatown
outside of the city wall but very close by.
Up the river up the Pasig River, here's the river these are the Chinese junks
coming up down the river and going into the Parián, the Chinese, the Chinatown.
This is the walled city where the Spaniards lived. Sometimes I use Spaniards Mexicans
interchangeably. Here on the other side in Acapulco, this is an early picture
of Acapulco, very early 1628. It's a swamp, it's mosquito, this horrible place is hot,
muggy, tropical place but when the galleon ship arrived you can see the
galleon is arriving, this is galleon, look up.
Everybody from Peru to all over Mexico would congregate in Acapulco to get the goods
from the galleon and distribute those goods all over not only New Spain or
Mexico but all the way down to Peru which was also prosperous place
because as we will see the silver that underwrote this trade was mainly produced actually in Peru.
And then of course transship across the Atlantic back to Sevilla, Spain
and from there all over Europe. This is a picture of a Spanish galleon.
Remember the Chinese junk, the small ship? The Spanish galleon, this is what
you know the movie "Pirates of the Carribean"? No seriously the "Pirates of the Carribbean"
pirate ship is modeled after a Spanish galleon. So when you see
that you all should be very familiar, says oh yeah I've seen those before,
yeah you've seen it 'cause you've been to the movies. Then in Mexico City the goods were
officially sent on the Camino de Chino, the China Road, from Acapulco
carried by burros and horses and carts all the way to Mexico City
and this is the Zócalo which you can still see in Mexico City today, the main square,
the cathedral here, you can still see the cathedral there, the government buildings,
and this huge Chinese market in selling all the goods from Manila.
And guess what? This market in the heart of Mexico City was also called Parián.
And if you travel to Mexico, like I was in Guadalajara, the market in Guadalajara
is also called a Parián. So the word Parián in a good part of Mexico has
come to mean a market of luxury goods. Today it just means a market.
So the Manila galleon trade, I already talked about that, linked the whole world
together except through trade and commerce and migration and mobility. I want to just
tell you that this part, this is what the Chinese, this is a Afro-Eurasian
trading network on the eve of Columbus and da Gama. That is why the Europeans
still figuring out how to get to Asia, the Asias were already well
connected and circulating among themselves and exchanging a lot of goods and trade.
It's another one of the Zheng He. I put this up, especially for those
of you who read Spanish, but even if you don't I've highlighted the places.
This is a book called Grandeza Mexicana.
It was a best-seller of its day. Look at the date 1604, very early.
This was the Greatness of Mexico, Grandeza Mexicana, and Balbuena, and look at this,
in 1604 Mexico City was already such a cosmopolitan place.
This author named all the places that Mexico was connected to. All these place names.
Filipinas, Macón was another name for Filipinas; Javas, Java; Sangley mentioned,
specifically the Sangley people; and then Malabar, these are the Spice Islands;
Persia; Etolia is an old name for Greece; and finally most of all la gran China,
the great China. Seda de colores, silk of all colors. piedra, precious stones.
And all these things. So already Mexico was in touch
with the entire world through the scope, the breadth of the Spanish Empire
and all the goods that were coming in to the Parián in Mexico City. I just love
to imagine what it was like in Mexico in 1604.
Look at this. This is a Jesuit, Father Colin, 1663.
I again I highlighted all the places. Now he's talking about Manila is the equal
of other emporium of our monarchy, for it is a center to which flow the riches
of the Orient and the Occident, the silver of Peru and New Spain; the pearls and
precious stones of India; the diamonds of Narsinga and Goa, also in the Indian Peninsula;
the rubies, sapphires, and topazes, cinnamon of Ceylon, spices,
the pepper of Sumatra; and from Great China, silks of all kinds,
raw, woven, different kinds, so many different kinds of silk
quality material. So many different kinds because China was already not only
manufacturing silk of all different kinds but had the capacity to manufacture in huge
quantities. China truly had the most advanced economy in the world.
Its manufacturing capacity was beyond anything the Europeans knew.
But besides that there were embroideries and porcelain and other riches
and curiosities of great value and esteem. They were just going gaga.
These Europeans and I can give you many many more of
these descriptions and you can just see it's like a kid in a toy store
looking at all these beautiful things. I don't want to [forward] but I want to
mention this guy Antonio de Morga. He was a judge of the High Court of
the Audiencia. He was in Manila very early and the most wonderful thing
about Spaniards, I have to say, they're really verbose people. And thank goodness, you know.
They love to write, right, and they wrote long lengthy detailed reports.
And they don't mask their feelings, they don't hide their sentiments as you will see.
So Morga, I allude to him quite a lot. But he was becoming such an expert on silk.
This incredible description of all the different kinds of silk. I'll give you
some examples soon. And he talked about something that the Europeans and
the Americans did not know one of which was ivory because there were no elephants in
America or in Europe. And they were just fascinated by ivory and ivory products.
So you can see so as we see pearls, rubies, sapphires, crystal
I mean it just went on and on in this report just long list of all the
incredible products that they [wove him]. But the Chinese were also taking notice.
Those of you who do Chinese history of this period you must be familiar with
this also important book, 1617, called 东西洋, no?
东洋西洋, The examination of the East and the West Seas.
So it's really the first commissioned you could say travel log or travel writing
where 张燮, Chronicles of the Countries of the East and West Oceans. He talked about
in his book quite a lot about these Chinese who went to Lusong. Lusong is a big island
on which Manila is located. He said the Chinese who went to Lusong,
吕宋 is the word Chinese use, are consequently many. Remember I told you how fast the numbers grew.
They often stayed on and did not return. Very interesting.
The Chinese were observing something.
These are not just the old junk traders who go and come back. Some of them didn'treturn.
They call this 压东 [yadong], pass the winter. They stayed together in the 江内 [jiannei],
kan-nei, which is up the river, meaning the Parián, to make their living
and the numbers gradually rose to several tens of thousands.
One hears, this is also important, that some cut their hair and produce sons and grandsons.
Cutting their hair was another way of saying they accepted Christianity. They converted.
And that's why they stayed. You know why?
'Cause the Chinese back in those days in the Ming dynasty wore their hair long
they would tie it in a knot. It's not the same as the Qing dynasty. They would wear it in a cube.
This is a different kind of hair. They wear it in a knot.
The missionaries force those Chinese who agree to convert to Christianity
to cut their hair so they look like Europeans.
[inaudible]
But if they cut their hair they can't go back to China.
Why? Because it was against the law in China to exchange your nationality,
to leave your own for good. You could go trade, you could even spend extended periods of time,
but you're not supposed to desert your home, your family, your lineage.
And cutting your hair from the Chinese point of view is a bad sign.
It means you're not coming home. You've given up.
And it was not only looked down upon but it was actually a criminal act.
And so what they meant was some of them converted and they had sons and grandsons.
What are we talking about anyway? So this is a copy of 东西洋考 [Dongxiyangkao].
There are many many editions. Brown happens to have a copy of
the first edition so when you come to visit me in Providence I will take you
to go see the real, the original. But here I want you to pay attention.
Look what's happening. This is from de Morga again. Remember he talked
a lot about all the silk, the rubies, all the precious stones, but he also said,
coming from China, metal basins, copper kettles, copper and cast iron pots,
nails, sheet-iron, tin, saltpeter, gunpowder. They supply the Spanish with wheat flour
or bread; preserves made of orange, peach, pear, nutmeg, and ginger, and other fruits of China;
salt pork, bacon, or pork belly as we all know right, and other salt meats;
live fowls, capons, ducks, chicken, of breed - capons;
quantities of fresh fruit; chestnuts, walnuts; fine threads of all kinds, needles;
beds, tables, chairs, and all kinds of furniture. And of course
they marveled at the caged bird some of which talk while others sing.
And this is de Morga who said so many things which if I prefer to list them all I would
never finish or have sufficient paper. What is he talking about here?
He's talking about everyday goods to sustain life for the Spanish all came from China.
So now we're beginning to see a fuller picture. It's not just good for the trade to Mexico and [Chinchero].
It's not just fine proudcts and luxury items and beautiful silk and porcelain, etc.
It's also everyday goods for everyday living. All that would come from China.
So you see that picture's changing already.
That these Chinese were not just coming to Manila with merchandise from China
to load onto the galleon ships but they were coming all year round with all of these
other things to sustain life and as we will see not just sustain life but to sustain life
pretty much in the Spanish way, in the way the Spaniards or Mexicans were accustomed to.
So Morga continues
"Without these Sangleys, the city would not be able to survive and sustain itself,
because they are the master of all crafts, hardworking people," and this I love,
we're gonna keep seeing this, "and charge reasonable prices."
They make that remark a lot. Not only do they bring a lot of things,
they make a lot of things of good quality, they don't charge very much. It's cheap.
This is another informant. The first bishop of Manila, Morga's contemporary,
Fray Domingo Salazar. He adds to what I just shared with you.
He says, "These articles," all those everyday consumer items,
"have already begun to be manufactured here, as quickly and with
better finish than in China . . . perfecting themselves in things which they are not
wont to produce in China," meaning these these artisans and craftsmen are coming
to Manila and make things for us according to our demands, our needs, our design, our desires.
There are not nicer that they make in China. They're coming to make things for us.
"In this Parián are to be found workmen of
all trades and handicrafts of a nation, and many of them in each occupation.
They make much prettier articles than are made in Spain," listen,
and sometimes so cheap that I am ashamed to mention it."
I want to tell you this because isn't that what we'll be saying about Chinese from then on until today?
That the Chinese make anything you want them to make and they make them cheap.
So we begin to see this. 1590 these characteristics, these observations
about the Chinese overseas or the Chinese diaspora. And the bishop noted,
"The handicrafts pursued by Spaniards have all dried out, because people buy
their clothes and shoes from the Sangleys, who are very good craftsmen in Spanish fashion,
and make everything," again, "at a low cost." So they are making clothes
suitable to our styles. They're not making us wear those funny Chinese clothes.
They make what we like to wear. "They are so skilled and clever that,
as soon as they see any object made by a Spanish workman, they reproduce it with exactness."
1590 they are already observing this. So what's new, huh?
Talk to your students about Asian Americans. Remember, they were observing the Chinese.
So what I'm really trying to say, what Morga and Salazar are telling us
is it's not just the traders and the merchants who came. Artisians and craftsmen came.
And they come they up shop. They set up shop, they set up their businesses. They are not just
bringing these things from China. They are making them here.
We're beginning to see why this community grew so big and so fast.
And of course, good quality and low price. I love it.
"The Parián of the Sangleys has so adorned the city [of Manila] that I do not hesitate
to affirm to your Majesty that no other known city in Spain possesses everything
as well worth seeing as this; for in it can be found the whole trade of China
with all kinds of good and curious things which come from that country."
So Salazar actually lived in Chinatown practically.
He was going there all the time and he made a really detailed list
of all the businesses that he found in the Parián. What did he find?
He found doctors and apothecaries. This is important because oftentimes
the Spaniards and other Europeans started going to Chinatown to the herbal doctors.
When we say doctors and apothecaries we're talking about Chinese medicine. Herbal doctors.
Probably things like acupuncture. Because they found it worthwhile,
or effective maybe, maybe cheaper, maybe they just [want doctors for that].
So, and this is what I love, eating houses where Sangleys and Spaniards eat.
The ubiquitous Chinese restaurant. Happened there. They all love to go.
Haven't we all said that, let's go eat in Chinatown.
[unintelligible]
Cheap, good, lots of it, and everybody having a good time.
Clothes and shoes in Spanish fashion and low prices.
Silversmiths and painters who furnish the homes and churches
with religious images copied from Spaniards.
Remember the Chinese say, oh don't bother us with conversion. We're not interested.
You want us to make something though? Give us a sample we'll copy it.
I have some great images to show you. This is exactly what they did.
Bookbinders. You know how the Europeans bound the books in leather?
So Salazar tells a story about a bookbinder
who came from Mexico, set up shop and he hired a young Chinese man to be his assistant.
He said that after awhile he had learned from him the craft of binding books.
And he could do it better and cheaper. So I'm going back home
because I can't compete with him. He set up shop next to me
This is also important. Gardeners raising "good vegetables of the kind that grow in Spain and Mexico."
What are we talking about? We're talking about the sweet potato, the camote,
the chili, the maize, all kinds of crops that grow from Mexico, New Spain or the new world to Asia.
Can you think of China today, the Philippines today, without the camote or the sweet potato.
You can't. If anybody has been to Beijing, especially in the wintertime,
you want to warm your hands you want a quick good snack? Go buy a hot sweet potato
that they roast in the street. But the sweet potato, according to Chinese [unintelligible]
also save the Chinese from famine. And also contributed to the record rise of Chinese population.
So the sweet potato plays a very important role in China. Nutrition, demographics, behavior.
But that sweet potato came from Mexico.
And they were cultivating it very early. And then artisans who make chairs, bridles, and stirrups,
"in so good a quality and so cheaply," again, "that some merchants
wish to load a cargo of these articles for Mexico." They're not supposed to bring furniture
because they make those in New Spain but some of the merchants say.
Now here's another important thing I want you to know. The bakers. Remember I said earlier
that the colonial law says that Chinese could not live intramuros.
They're not supposed to live inside the city wall. They could come in during the day
but they have to go back out to the Parián outside the city wall. But guess what.
This is something wonderful about Spanish history. There are always exceptions to whatever law they have.
This is what I learn about studying Latin American history. And one of the exceptions is
well let's let the bakers live inside the city wall with their big ovens.
Why? Because the Spaniards want their bread hot and early.
So they said okay we'll make an exception. We'll allow the bakers.
But not only bakers who "make good bread and sell it at," guess what, "low prices" again
with wheat flour from China. Moreover, this is important, they would give bread
to poor soldiers on credit when they have no money. Without the Chinese
"the poor of this city for had they not found this refuge, they would suffer want."
Any of us who study the Chinese in the Caribbean, Professor, I don't know if you've found this,
I've found that the Chinese shopkeepers [unintelligible] to the local poor.
They run out of money before the end of the month, before the next paycheck.
And the Chinese would say, just take what you need. We need to feed you first.
I'll keep the check. I'll keep a prayer. They always say that.
But this practice of helping out the poor was also established very very early on.
Also making bread with flour given all of the Chinese didn't have ovens.
They learn all this very quickly. Stone masons who make "good bricks and roof tiles at low cost"
"build houses of hewn stone at low cost." Chinese artisans of all kinds
who learned to imitate Spanish arts and crafts.
And then they quickly learned also to repair and then build the galleon ships.
Very quickly the Chinese came and met every demand. They made things quickly and good quality, low prices
Who can compete with them, right, isn't that the problem?
So what happened? Nino de Tavora very early in 1628 he said
"there is no Spaniard, secular or religious, who obtains his food, clothing, or shoes,
except through [the Chinese]." This is an awkward translation because it's translated from
the Spanish. So here we have a picture of the Parián. This is a little bit late
but it still catches, you can see that besides the Chinese and all the different shops,
there's jewelry-making, shoe-making, hair-cutting, translation,
writing, printing; selling oil lamps, fruits, vegetables, even mosquito nets.
You see a lot of no Chinese in the Parián. So the Parián may be called Chinatown
but don't think that only Chinese or Sangleys were there.
Everybody came to the Chinatown, to the Parián to do business.
What kind of business? What kind of work were they looking for?
Well by the end of the 16th century I told you there were 30,000.
The Chinese in Manila have made the transition, in historian Wang Gungwu's words,
of "sojourners turned settlers." They might have come as sojourners, that is temporary, to trade.
To make a little bit of money, whatever, but they stayed. They settled.
They built shops, they formed families, etc. So this is really important.
This is why the Chinese community grew so fast and to such large numbers.
Because they stayed. Remember the 东西洋考, the Chinese account, says they cut their hair,
they stay, they have children.
Therefore I am asserting that when the sojourners turned settlers in Manila, they were the first of this
long historical phenomenon process called the Chinese diaspora. And in Manila there was
a large and diverse population of Chinese engaged in many occupations
serving not only the Chinese themselves but also the Spanish, Mexican, European, foreign population.
All told the non-Chinese is only about a thousand. Not very many.
So I wanna show you the 1689 census of non-Christian Chinese. So there were
the Christians but remember the numbers are very small. The vast majority were
non-Christian. Occupations in the Parián listed almost 60 different occupations
among artisans, manufacturers, service providers, vendors of all kinds.
Look at the census. I'm not gonna go through this.
There are 60 occupations listed here
which shows you this is a fairly comprehensive community.
Some of these, you see silk vendors, very important, silk vendors. Umbrella makers,
boatmen to Pampanga, Pampanga is other regions of Lusong, of the big island, they have the boatmen.
Tea dealers, winemakers, noodlemakers, you know what buyo is?
You know what buyo is.
>> Do I know? >> Yeah.
>> I don't know what it is. >> Do you know what betel nut is?
>> Yes I do. >> It's the same thing.
>> Same thing.
>> So please tell everybody what is betel nut.
>> It's a kind of stimulant, a tobacco like substance you wrap in a leaf
and put some lime juice, it wakes you.
>> And then what happens to your teeth?
>> They turn red.
>> They turn red cause it's a dye too. >> And you spit red out.
>> Yeah. Kind of a nasty kind of thing. But women in particular chewed buyo.
And to this day. You know something about that? Have you tried it?
>> I haven't but I'm told that my grandmother would always but she had 10 kids.
>> Where are you from?
>> She's from, well she's first generation Chinese born in China.
>> From China? So she must be Qingzhou
>> Yes, my whole family is. Yeah. >> You just give me one little fact about it.
I'm not always right but I'm 80% right.
She used to chew betel nut right?
>> Yes. >> Or buyo.
Similar? >> Yeah.
>> Hey. I tried it. It's a lot of fun.
Try it. Try it. Try it, come on give it a try. When you go to Peru what do you have to do?
You have to drink some . . .
the tea, no? Anyway.
Unless you will kill me I try what's the local thing. Oh I can't tell you how many things -
what about that strange coffee that comes out from an animal?
[unintelligible]
I was in Indonesia once, there's a coffee? Remember that? What is it called?
It comes about - it's coffee, these animals eat the coffee and it comes out of the behind and then they roast it.
A cup of coffee. I forget what it's called.
So anyway you can see silversmith, fisherman, shoemaker, netmakers.
You can see ceramic dealers. All of these. Chicken dealers, rice dealers.
People selling all kinds of things, making all kinds of things.
So who was a Chinese. Now I'm wrapping up, okay, so give me a little more time.
So have you heard of the Boxer Codex? It's a wonderful thing. You just Google.
Charles Boxer is a great great historian of the Spanish and Portuguese empire.
He paid a lot of attention actually to Southeast Asia and to the Philippines.
And he discovered in some market, you know we should all be so lucky.
He found this manuscript. One of a kind. One of a kind. With 300 illustrations in color,
in perfect condition. Go and Google Boxer Codex University of Indiana Indianapolis. All digitized.
It's all digitized. If you wanna see something extraordinary.
There's a picture of a Chinese couple. In the Boxer Codex because we think the artist,
it's all anonymous, we don't know who wrote the text, who drew the paintings,
but we think it was a Chinese artist.
And this is a Chinese couple and up here, you can't see very clearly,
here's a Sangley and here are the two characters 常来. Sionglay.
And here's the image you saw in the poster for this lecture. Chinese hawkers, street hawkers.
You know we all know about hawker stands, if you've spent any time
in Singapore or Malaysia today everybody knows about the hawkers.
Hawker stand meaning food sellers. This is a wonderful early picture you can,
you know, noodles, whatever you want to eat. Street food vendors is what they are.
And here we have a Christian Chinese with his haircut wearing a Western hat
and Western clothing. And they were encouraged to marry local women, the indias,
and permitted to live outside the Parián, still outside the city wall
but in a separate quarter called the Binondo. Today if you go to Manila the Binondo
is the Chinatown. It's called Binondo. Numbering no more than 3 or 4 thousand,
that's maximum, they produce new generations of multiracial Filipinos
called, guess what, mestizo. Another term borrowed from New Spain. Race mixture
in the india. And Fray Domingo said "what arouses my wonder most is that when
I arrived here the Sangley hardly knew how to paint anything,
but now they have so perfected themselves in this art that they produce
marvelous work with both the brush and the chisel." You can see this painting in Manila today
in the church in Binondo. Nuestra Senora del Pronto Socorrow
in the Binondo Church and we think it was painted in about 1585.
Anonymous, oil, a metal sheet, gold and diamond appliques. This is clearly
a Western painting but is painted by a Chinese artist. But guess what you know the story
cannot go on without problems. So all was not well. By 1590, noting the
record rise of the Chinese population, we're talking about more Morga again,
he started turning sour on the Chinese. He started saying not so nice things about them.
He says "from this a lot of trouble arises
because with so many infidels," unconverted,
"there could be little security in the land; [for] they are bad and vicious people."
So he had a premonition of trouble to come. And this is what I love.
"Moreover, with so many of them being big eaters, we are short
of food because of what they consume."
Never mind it's the Chinese who bring the food, who grow the food, whatever.
They're eating too much.
But what he's doing is he's looking for fault. He's looking for reasons.
And here too talk about race. This is the ethnic studies
looking for racial or racialization. Because who do these Chinese white.
"They are white." I think he meant they are light complexion. "Tall with little facial hair,"
likely just struck him. "Strong, good workers, and skilled in arts and crafts."
But he hastened to add, so he said all these things, good workers, blah blah blah.
And then he says what, they're "phlegmatic," they are "people of low energy," they are
"traitorous and cruel . . . and very greedy." So ambivalence. Ambivalence, in the
same breath. He was speaking. What happened is that the Parián was
destroyed, the occupants, the Chinese, were massacred and expelled. Starting in huge massacre
and expulsion in 1603, another one 1639. Look at this. About every 30 years
there would be what one Spanish historians call, frankly, some form of ethnic cleansing.
Let's clean up Manila of all the Chinese. Burn the buildings because the buildings
were made of wood, very easy to burn. Kick them out of town, expel them.
Why was there - why? Here are some possible explanations.
First time 1603 the Dutch were forcing their way into Manila. The Portuguese
were also hanging around. The Chinese deeply resented heavy and arbitrary taxes
and fees imposed only on them. When the Chinese in Manila protested the Spanish
destroyed the Parián, massacred, according to the records, about 25,000
and deporting the rest. Now I don't think so many were killed. How did they dispose
of the bodies if they killed so many? I think a lot of these Chinese either fled back,
cause they do come from China, they also fled to the other islands, fled to other parts of Lusong.
They ran away. They did. But they also fought back. They also fought back.
They were not passive. They were not. They resisted.
So this is Manuel Ollé a Spanish historian who says says that "Manila would have been absolutely unviable
city without the presence of Chinese." We know that. "But at the same time
the Spanish hated the Chinese, feared them and denigrated them." So he's the first
one to say maybe. But I have another, I think I have another explanation
or additional explanation. The missionaries were continually frustrated in their inability
to convert significant numbers of Sangley in Manila.
The Chinese on the mainland also resisted to Christianity.
So they sent missionaries on the mainland, they look like those in Manila
they know that the families were connected because most of them have relationships
at home. So in the situation, this is where things fell apart.
In New Spain, in Peru they very quickly managed to convert the large population of indigenous people.
But in Manila they found themselves for the first time
in an uncomfortable and untellable situation of living among infidels.
In trying, in Manila they found themselves in this situation
where the Chinese population was growing very large and very fast
and most of them refused to become Catholic, refused to convert.
So what do they do? Remember they already have this experience in south of Spain.
They already tried convivencia with the Chinese hoping they would force them to convert
and so they could all live as Catholics and the Chinese refused.
So this is reminiscent in a way of what happened. However, the difference is that
in Spain they did not call the Jews and the Muslims back. But what did they do
in Manila. Remember 1000 of them at the most. Right after
each massacre each expulsion they said to the Chinese, they said please come back,
please come back. We need you. And the Chinese come back. But I have to tell you
it's not the same Chinese. It's not those who have been severely punished and severely abused.
Hey guess what, China's big you know.
Chinese from another part of Fujian province would come.
That's what we think. We search for to track down some primary sources to be able to -
But anyway, after the massacre they would tell them to come back
and then after 30 years there will be another violent
confrontation, what we call massacres meeting mass killings, and expulsions.
But it was also I think another way of looking at it is this close
and intimate daily interaction between Chinese and Spanish in every facet of
normal life that provoked intense Spanish feel of this high degree of
Chinese penetration into the lives and material interests. So the Spanish
response to their anxiety was to shut down the Parián.
The Parián was destroyed and built many many times over.
Now I mentioned this too because this kind of, well in Chinese we say 排华,
or anti-Chinese persecution [is a recurring theme in the Chinese history].
It would happen in [intelligible]. It would happen in Singapore.
It would happen all over the Caribbean. It happened in Jamaica. It happened in Trinidad
It happened in Mexico, Mexico in 1930s. All the Chinese are expelled.
So, again, we saw this theme very early on. The exact reasons
and relationship might be differently detailed. But this phenomenon,
this relationship of what we might call codependent, economically codependent,
because the Chinese [intelligible] better there. They wouldn't have come back to Manila
if they didn't get a lot of silver, they weren't making money,
if they weren't doing well in the family life. So they kept coming back.
Very quickly I want to tell you how much silver.
For 1597 estimated 12 million pesos or 307,000 kilograms
of silver flown to China. For 1600 the amount sent to China was estimated
6 million pesos. During the late Ming that is until
about 1640 an estimated annual average of 5 million pesos were smuggled out
of Mexico in trade with China in Manila. And we're only talking about what the
records tell us. There were a lot of smuggling going on and underreporting
going on both ways. So the legal trade combined with a contraband trade
is estimated to average 2 million pesos or 50 tons of pure silver
throughout the 17th century. That is to the end of the Ming and the beginning of the Qin dynasty.
Some economic historians now estimate that more than
half of all the silver produced in Spain - in America in Spanish America - ended up
in China. Not all through Manila because later on as we will see everybody who traded
with China needed to use Spanish American silver. Why? Because Spanish American silver
the way it went across the Pacific was not just in pure silver ingots.
It's always coin silver because Mexico had a huge mint.
So it's always silver dollars that went across. Silver dollars. In Chinese my mother would say
大银钱, big silver dollar. If you go to Amazon or these things
you can find these silver dollars for sale. You can buy one these days.
For not too much money. Why? Because so much,
so much was sent to China. They're readily available I was told.
So American silver became so important that the world economy
in China, in the world economy, that the Mexican peso, the Spanish another word is
a Spanish dog, became the world currency up through all the way into the 20th century.
It's the US dollar essentially. Anybody -
the New England traders, the British traders, the European traders - all of them.
I even found records in Singapore when I was there about contract signed in
Singapore in the 19th century. They stipulated payment in Spanish dollars.
So this is important. And here I show you a picture of Potosi,
the great silver mine of southern Peru today Bolivia. This is the single biggest
source of silver. And these are the silver we're talking about.
Now again I go back to the the pirate movies. How many of you have seen those pirate movies?
Do you ever hear them talk about pieces of eight? Pieces of eight. That's what it is.
They are ocho. Because these big silver dollars were always cut into 8 pieces
because each one is worth 8 regardless. And you can sometimes pay people
by cutting up a dollar and giving an eighth or two eighth.
So here's the pieces of eight.
Here's another one. You can see. So what am I talking about? Manila. Manila was a port
or entrepôt. Port between two places. But it was also a border.
It's also a contact and exchange zone. It's a contact zone. It's an exchange zone as well.
Trading and commerce took place but language and culture were exchanged.
Intellectual, there were lots of intellectual ideas. Material and visual
and others. So I'm gonna show you very quickly on our end.
First the Chinese brought the book publishing skills. We have Tomás Pinpin who's a Filipino Chinese
printer using Chinese woodblock technique and published books in Manila.
What kind of books? With the missionaries they publish dictionaries I'm gonna send
Andrea and if you're interested in you can find out either from [unintelligible] or contact me.
I have a Spanish Chinese issue 1607 [unintelligible]
Let me show you a couple of other books. We have this at the John Carter Brown Library
at Brown. Look at this. "Arte y Reglas de la Lengua Tagala."Do you know why
missionaries study so much? Cause they gotta preach. They are converting.
They are the first linguist and they were highly educated.
They were the best educated peoples of their times. They're great linguists.
So this is a Tagalog dictionary and these are all different kinds of religious texts
that the missionaries who are the first to learn Chinese first to do translation,
see it's a different text, some in Spanish some in Chinese. You see this one.
It's entirely in Chinese. I wanna show you very quickly. I just don't have time
to go over this this. 明心寶鑑. These are the books that they wrote.
Juan Cobo was one of their earliest Dominican missionaries.
He started translating and writing books and he translated this book by 范立本
first written in 1393 and it's called the 明心寶鑑,
The Precious Mirror of the Clear Heart. And guess what. He produced,
Pinpin helped him produce a bilingual edition in Manila. Spanish, Spanish and Chinese.
It's got the original Chinese and then he produce the Spanish. Isn't that cool? Bilingual book.
And then these other books. And here is this book and this is very interesting because the missionaries
which wanna convince the Chinese. It is in Portuguese I mean in Filipino.
They would say [Spanish] the educated, the gentry. Try to convince them first to convert.
And they know if they convert them first the others will also. Same technique
they used in New Spain. Let's convert their [Spanish] first, their local leaders first,
and then the people will follow. So to do that he had to write
these intellectual texts to try to persuade the Chinese that Western doctrinal texts
are perfectly compatible with Chinese philosophy. So these books are still available. You can get
present modern copies of this. But look at these. These are the kind of
titles of these books. These are biology, talk about vegetables, animals, what they
should drink, a little bit of botany, a little bit of zoology, a little bit of religion, a little bit of philosophy.
And very importantly included some science in that because in this book he wanted
to prove to the Chinese something the Chinese were not talking about that
the Earth was not flat. So this is a little bit of math. This idea of science, of Western science,
he also introduced that. A little geometry.
And finally I wanna close with this because I want you to know that [intelligible].
I want you to know all the good stuff that came across the Pacific.
[intelligible]
'Cause Chinese goods are why there's such huge volumes of 250 years
of this trans-Pacific trade in the huge galleon ships. Just imagine how much stuff
came across the Pacific over these 250 years.
And this is where the material culture has come from. And many of these things,
these are things we found today. We don't know how much this was.
How much was on the way. These are things that you find today in museums, in churches,
and in private collections all over Latin America. Okay so here we have a lacquer tray.
Look at this.
This is in New York City in the Hispanic Society. What is it? It's a resting writing desk
but with Chinese motifs. This is the desk lacquered made by a Chinese craftsman
for the export market. Isn't that beautiful.
These are private oratories. This is I found in Brazil. Another religious painting.
These Chinese were not religious. Remember they didn't convert. But they have no problem
copying religious paintings. I love this. This you can find in the Franz Meyer museum.
Mexico City has this great private art museum called Franz Meyer.
F-R-A-N-Z. Meyer M-E-Y-E-R. He was a collector. All his artwork is in
this great private museum. And you can find this washbasin.
Because in those days they didn't have a bathroom. In the middle class have a big washbasin
you put water you wash the face in the morning. So we this washbasin
you say okay so what's so special.
This is the white and blue, which is very typical, and then you see oh yeah Chinese,
a little pavilion over a river, very Chinese. But look what he put in the back. What's that?
It's a Catholic church. It's a cathedral. So we think that this actually
was made by probably a Mexican artisan who was taught how to make this porcelain
by a Chinese master artisan because we know, remember the 40,000 100,000 people came over.
Among them were master artisans who came and taught local artisans how
how to make a lot of things. So here is a Catholic church.
So the local artisan wanted to put his own personal touch. These are other kinds
of porcelain. Look at this. This is the tiles and of course these are European figures
but here we have a Japanese figure. These are Europeans to illustrate but they're
also just beautiful examples of fine pottery. These are all found
in private homes. Then what did they do with the broken dishes? You know
in a ship in those days you've got to worry about the weight. So the weight at the bottom of the ship
was made up of cheap plates. Why cheap plates? Because the slaves have to use cheap plates.
But what happened when you break a cheap plate? You don't just throw away
you use it to decorate the steeple. This is found in Brazil.
A bunch of cheap broken shards. Okay the silk.
Wow okay I'm almost done. The silk. This is an example of Chinese silk made
into a Western dress. And you can find these pigments in every art museum
if you know where to look. Bedspread. The clothing paintings. These are all
Chinese material. Men, women - this is in the Denver Art Museum.
Men, women. Okay. Tapestry. Finally a collection of ivory
religious figures. I guarantee you in every major Church in Mexico and Latin America
you're gonna find ivory religious figures that came over the galleon.
This is found I think there's one at Harvard I was told. I haven't seen the one but hundreds
if not thousands of these Christ on the cross were made. The archbishop.
This is an anatomically correct baby Jesus. Very popular. And Santa Rosa de Lima
who's very popular. We think thousands of these were made. But look at the beautiful fine craftsmanship.
Ivory. Remember ivory. Other things.
So we also find shards to prove that these goods went all there.
This is found in New Mexico. Went with the colonial officials all the way up to the frontier
of New Spain. And then paintings. Finally guess what. We have something called syncretism.
When cultures meet they produce something new.
Here is Guanyin and the Madonna. What did the Chinese do. They say oh Madonna that's like
our Guanyin but wait a minute the Madonna always carries the baby Jesus so we'll put
a baby Jesus in the hands of Guanyin. So this is Guanyin.
Okay this is very old in Taiwan. And the last one I promise. A contract.
Look at the date. 1634 signed in Guadalajara
between a Japanese called Luis de Encio in hiragana and kanji and this
is a contract with his Mexican partner to make what. What do you make in Guadalajara?
>> Tequila. >> Tequila.
This is to make tequila.
Okay thank you very much.