Sunday, May 19, 2024

Is identity one weakness of the Filipino character that you think you possess? Why do you say so?

The question is a bit confusing. I'm going to assume the asker meant "lack of identity", which some people here on Quora also tend to assume is our weakness, because of our Spanish and American influences. But we're a lot like our neighbors that way, with their own Chinese, Indian and Arabic influences. Ours just happen to come from a bit farther away.

I'd like to address this issue as well, but first, to answer the question, I don't think I personally lack an identity. I know exactly who I am and where I'm from. I'm Filipino. I'm brown. I look Asian, have a Spanish name (not my username 😛), and speak Tagalog and English.

Most Filipinos are like me in that respect. Some also speak a second or even third native language (we have a lot of words that are similar in Malay and Indonesian, plus a lot of Spanish and English loan words too). Some Filipinos also have Chinese names and heritage. Some of us are Muslim. We have Asian dishes like pancit, lumpiang Shanghai and sinigang, but we also have Spanish dishes like lechon. We have festivals like the Ati-atihan in Aklan, Sinulog in Cebu, and Dinagyang in Iloilo that simultaneously celebrate native tribal culture and the baby Jesus.

I was raised Catholic and even though I haven't practiced any religion in years, I still get nostalgic when I hear Filipino Christmas songs, including English ones sung by a Chinese-Filipino.

Singer/composer Jose Mari Chan. This man is a national treasure.

I don't dream of having lighter skin, although a lot of Asians use whitening creams, not just some Filipinos. I'm not interested in the US and I don't want to live there, but some Filipinos do (and a lot of people from other countries as well). I don't think foreign is automatically better, but some things are better than local. I love many Hollywood movies and shows, but I also think many of them are trash. I'm not a fan of K-pop or Korean dramas, but some Filipinos are. None of these make us any more Filipino or any less Filipino, or confused about our identity. (Do K-pop fans in other countries get confused about their own identity? Why should Filipinos be any different?)

Philippine culture is a little bit of this, a little bit of that. That's just who we are and I think it's what makes us unique in our own way. I don't think the Filipino character lacks identity at all. The Filipino identity is the sum of all these parts.

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