Pampanga State Agricultural University

PAC, Magalang, Pampanga

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
Bachelor of Elementary Education

Reaction Paper about

the Controversy of Jose Rizal
Disliking the Chinese

Submitted by:
Alcayde, Clarisse Jen T.
Aquino, Genelene Rose A.
Arceo, Sunshine C.
Garcia, John Carlo C.
Loyola, Mary Grace G.
Vinas, Danica
Bachelor of Elementary Education 1

Submitted to:
Mrs. Virma K. Pangilinan
Readings in Philippine History (GE-RPH)
 On present-day note, Philippines being inflicted with China in its economy obtain
sufficiently numbers of either aces or frauds. These include their mining corporations that
are obliterating our mountains, and contaminating our rivers and seas with their reckless
and negligent mining rituals; their big-time drug syndicates and drug manufacturers
abducted in our countries; their export of chemically-contaminated food products, lead-
mixed baby products, kids toys, makeups and other commodities in the marketplace; their
unlawful fishing and robbing of vanishing animals species in our territories; their
growing domination of retail and trading business, and discarding of cut-rate and low-
class Chinese products challenging our local producers; their escalating casinos and
gaming investments across our perimeter; and most especially, their big-headed and
impolite manners as tourists here in our country. These aforementioned points have
subsidized to the mounting anti-Chinese sensation in the country that where in fact that
even our proclaimed national hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal allegedly disliked Chinese in his
breathing times despite of his Chinese ancestry.

As we go further, this paper will enlighten you, our readers on the arguments and
claims that made the scheme of Jose Rizal disliking Chinese into open-ended conclusion.

Foremost, let us dig in to Rizal’s Chinese ancestry. Rizal’s family records display
that his paternal great-great-grandfather, Domingo Lameo, who eventually stayed in
Laguna, married the Chinese mestiza Ines de la Rosa, and changed his family name to
Mercado in 1731, which means ‘market’ to match his profession as a merchant. Decades
later, Lameo's great-grandson, Francisco Mercado, petitioned the courts to change their
family name to Rizal after then Governor-General Narciso Claveria ordered families to
use last names from an approved list provided by the colonial government. “Rizal” was
apparently chosen to suit Mercado's farming business as the name was derived from the
Spanish racial, meaning “green field” or “new pasture”.

Notwithstanding of his Chinese ancestry, Rizal didn’t show reluctance in showing

his frame of mind to Chinese nationals. One of the foundations of this claims are the
letters he sent to his mother, Teodora Alonzo and his Austrian companion, Dr, Ferdinand
Blumentritt that are preserved by National Historical Commission of the Philippines. In
his letter to his mother Dona Teodora dated October 22, 1895, Rizal wrote, “I vowed not
to buy anymore from them (Chinese), so that sometimes I find myself very hard up. Now
we have almost neither dishes nor tumblers.”

A year earlier, he had also wrote to his friend, Ferdinand Blumentritt, telling how
he structured a farmers’ cooperative while in exile in Dapitan to authorize local traders
against their Chinese counterparts: “Here I have become half physician, half
businessman. I have established a commercial company here. I have taught the poor
Mindanao folk to unite for trading so that they may become independent and free
themselves from the Chinese and thus be less exploited.”

Aside from these aforesaid letters, Rizal also showcases his aversion to Chinese to
his revolutionary novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo whereas both of his
novels are branded to condemn the incompetence and the fraudulent system of
governance of the Spanish colonizers back then. Though, aside from its vicious reproach
of Spanish rule, the novels had also amount of affronting references to the Chinese
people in the Philippines.

Particularly, he made mentioned the character of Quiroga in El Filibusterismo and

went on to identify the real inspiration behind it. Quiroga, the subject of Chapter 16 of the
El Filibusterismo, ‘The Tribulations of a Chinaman’ was none other than Carlos Palanca
(who was then the leader of the Chinese community). Fake in manner, insincere, sly, a
bootlicker of government officials, engaging in business conjectures, intent on nothing
but profit—such was Rizal's portrayal of Quiroga.

Rizal’s representation of Palanca, the gobernadorcillo of Binondo and head of the

Gremio de Mestizos (Mestizo Guild), was not deprived of basis. History clearly records
Palanca’s connection in notorious businesses like opium importation and the monopoly
on cockfighting arenas.
 According to Dr. Caroline Hau of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto
University that agrees with abovementioned argument in one of her interview she gave to
the Manila Bulletin last year, she explained how Rizal’s views of the Chinese were
shaped by his “background, his class, his education, and the mores and racial attitudes of
the time.” “Anti-Chinese sentiment, especially among mestizos and naturals, was a fact
of life in the late 19th century, and you can expect some of these sentiments to color
Rizal’s portrayals of the Chinese in his novels,” she said.

On the contrary, Teresita Ang-See, an expert on Philippine-Chinese studies and

issues, does not outlook it as anti-Chinese, but more of a general anti-foreign sentiment.
“Rizal’s spurning the Chinese should be seen in that context,” she added.

Although Ang-See admitted that the Chinese during the time of Rizal were
profiled as uneducated, barefoot sellers and workers who went around in torn and dirty
clothing, Ang-See saw it as something bigger than racism. “Rizal's ridicule of these
characters should be seen in the context of social class distinctions. Rather than anti-
Chinese racism, I see it more as an elitist anti-lower class attitude,” she said.

However, some scholars would debate Rizal’s repute for the Chinese, Austin
Coates' book Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr tellingly describe how Rizal even
protested a document he had to sign before his execution in 1896 wherein the reason for
his protest was a reference to him as a “Chinese mestizo” whilst in Leon Ma. Guerrero's
book entitled The First Filipino; Rizal was obstinate in claiming that he was a ‘pure
Filipino’ and not a ‘half-breed’.
REFERENCES:
https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2012/12/30/891433/jose-rizal-china-and-philippines
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-inbox/national-hero-not-fan-china-144644955
https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/75/1/190/128290?redirectedFrom=fulltext
https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/arsissay/first-filipino-by-leon-maria-guerrero