Noy Tsinoy

Also spelled Chinoy, the word used by Pinoys to refer to one of their kind of Zhongguo ancestry. The historic ties between Fugian Province in the mid-eastern shores of China and the Philippines include Limahong of the jaded reputation as a notorious pirate in Hispanic history that unsettled Legaspi’s colonial occupation of Luzon, to the ancestry of national hero Jose P. Rizal, whose great-great grandfather Ke Yi hailed from Jinjiang.

The reason we alternate the geographical reference between Zhongguo, the middle realm, and China, the land of the Qin, is that the Chinese refer to themselves with the first, while the second was Persia’s designation, and later picked up by Marco Polo on his return to Europe from the “Far East”; in fact, Zhongguoren (Chinese) historically refer to themselves as the People of the Han rather than of the Qin, until its 55 ethnic minorities got incorporated fully into the body politic. “China” continues as the European and global designation! On the other hand, the tianji-the yin-yang, taken off popular usage after the 1949 drive against superstition-might be worth another look as it points to the paradox of holding two distinct forces in balance where the middle realm, the pivot point, is both the crossroad of tension and tranquility.

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III responded last week to a previous invitation from China’s President Hu Jin Tao for a state visit. Preceded by the Philippine Navy’s glowing acceptance of a U.S. warship donation to bolster its naval patrol off the waters of the Spratly, Noynoy (Pinoys love the informality of their reference to their leaders: Macoy for Marcos, Cory, Ninoy, and Noynoy-now, just Noy, for the Aquinos) received the fanfare and trappings of a sovereign visit with the not too subtle reminder that it is not China who is intruding into Philippine waters in the South China Sea, as it is the other way around.

No matter. The state visit by all accounts was beneficial all around including the 300-some folks who accompanied President Aquino’s entourage. A coup de grâce to the visit, but of deep significance to Pinoys, was Noynoy’s scheduled visit to the village of his fourth-generation ancestor Xy Yuhuan in the Hongjiang village of Fujian.

Twenty-three years before, in 1988, Noy’s mother Cory visited her ancestral village, lit incense at the ancestral clan’s sacred space, and planted an araucaria sapling that is now 10 meters high. In the characteristic Zhongguoren’s affinity to natural space and interpretations of changes thereof (feng shui), villagers noticed that Cory’s tree split into two and grew two branches, inviting the interpretation that the tree foreshadowed the ascendancy, like that of Cory, to one of her own to the Office of the President.

Micronesian-originating typhoon Nanmadol that ravaged the Philippines turned its fury toward Fujian and Shejiang, wreaking havoc with strong gales and uncharacteristic tall ocean waves on both provinces prior to Noy’s visit to his ancestral home. The inland flooding has resulted in various states of emergency.

An internal whirlwind and internal flooding is occurring in the Pinoy psyche after the Manila Bulletin pulled out James Soriano’s iThink OpEd on language and identity, turning viral in cyberspace terrain. Soriano expressed gratitude to his mom for teaching him more than just rudimentary familiarity with English. Stating the obvious, that Filipino is the language of the street but English is the language of the learned, Soriano’s opinion touched a nerve that subjected it to varied interpretations and awakened latent prejudices.

English and Pilipino (primarily based on Tagalog, the language around Metropolitan Manila, much as Mandarin, the language of Beijing, is the basis of the Putunghua) were designated as the languages of the Philippines by its Constitution. Born in Central Luzon of parents from Ilocandia, growing up in Northern Luzon, lived in the Visayas and worked in Mindanao including the Muslim territories, I learned Pilipino as an academic requirement but English is the national lingua franca in all respect-communications, commerce and governance. Pinoys in Hawaii have their state laws translated first in Ilocano before anything else Philippine.

Soriano’s opinion might very well be arrogant elitism and a statement of the linguistic schizophrenia abiding on the islands, yet we encourage ChEnglish (not unlike e.g., Singapore’s Singlish) in our Oral English classes in Dong Bei-to think Zhongguo using English expressions. With the world coming to China (World Bank president just visited China to encourage Asian investments in the West!) and Zhongguo going to the world (every other student seems to want to study abroad), there is nothing schizophrenic about utilizing two language expressions, even if it is in the same thought patterns, as we discovered of our self and our use of William and Kate’s language in our speaking, reading (sing-song, Rob Torres noted when we were with the NMICH), and writing.

World-wise street-smart Pinoys welcome Noynoy, the self-conscious Chinoy, as some of us, too, drank deeply in that lineage. It is well to reclaim that heritage. Might we suggest that the Marianas Kings, Cings, and the Hans, et al, do likewise?