The Manila Chinese Cemetery: A Repository of Tsinoy Culture and Identity

The funerary architecture of the vast 19th-century Chinese Cemetery in Manila differs markedly from other Chinese cemeteries in Southeast Asia.This paper describes the development of this architecture and its many styles rooted in Western and Chinese artistic tradition, their symbolic meanings and significance. It also illustrates how much the Chinese Cemetery today is a reflection of contemporary urban development of the metropolis surrounding it, presenting new challenges and opportunities, and how the cemetery has adapted to these developments. Sweeping social transformations in 19th-century Philippine society and economy, and the introduction of new modern funeral practices rooted in 19th-century Europe fostered the development of new forms of mourning and commemoration at the turn of the 20th century. This found expression in the gradual emergence of small and grand mausoleums for the new middle and upper class of Mestizo and Chinese businessmen and women, professionals, politicians, and ilustrados. This elaborate funerary architecture and its symbolic ornamentation and statuary turned the Manila Chinese Cemetery over the course of 130 years into a rich repository of the nation’s built heritage. Moreover, the parallel existence and gradual blending of Spanish-Catholic and Chinese Taoist and Buddhist religious and cultural influences sometimes led to surprising and creative artistic and architectural solutions which espouse the identity of the Tsinoy, the Filipino-Chinese community.L’architecture funéraire du vaste cimetière chinois de Manille du xixe s. se distingue sensiblement de celle des autres sites funéraires chinois d’Asie du Sud-Est. Cet article décrit le développement de cette architecture et ses nombreux styles enracinés dans la tradition artistique occidentale et chinoise, leur signification symbolique et leur portée. Il montre également combien ce cimetière d’aujourd’hui est le reflet du développement urbain contemporain de la métropole qui l’entoure, des nouveaux défis et opportunités qu’elle offre, et comment le cimetière s’est adapté à ces développements. Les considérables transformations sociales et économiques de la société philippine du xixe s., ainsi que l’introduction de nouvelles pratiques funéraires, tirant leur origine dans l’Europe de l’époque, ont favorisé, au tournant du xxe s., le développement de nouvelles formes de deuil et de commémoration. Celui-ci s’est manifesté par l’émergence progressive de petits et de grands mausolées pour la classe moyenne et supérieure des métisses et hommes d’affaires chinois et de leurs femmes, des membres de professions libérales, des politiciens et des ilustrados. Cette architecture funéraire complexe, son ornementation symbolique et sa statuaire ont, au cours des 130 dernières années, transformé le cimetière chinois en un riche réceptacle du patrimoine bâti de la nation. En outre, l’existence parallèle et le mélange progressif d’influences culturelles et religieuses hispano-catholiques sino-taoïstes et sino-bouddhistes ont parfois entraîné de surprenantes créations artistiques et architecturales qui marquent l’identité des Tsinoy ou encore de la communauté sino-philippine

L’Art Nouveau dans l’architecture philippine. L’Occident en Orient

L’avènement d’un style artistique peut être considéré, du point de vue sociologique et anthropologique, comme une réponse à différents stimuli sociaux (Inglis 2005; voir aussi Firth 1992). Des phénomènes européens des deux dernières décennies du xixe siècle (Fahr-Becker 2004 ; Lavallée 1996 ; Tschudi Madsen 1956; Pevsner 1959) sont à l’origine de l’Art nouveau. Il s’agit du rejet de l’historicisme architectural et de l’académisme en général associé à la quête d’un style plus contemporain avec la contribution de la technologie industrielle, de la recherche d’un mode d’expression plus spontané et personnel et de l’élargissement du vocabulaire de l’esthétique avec l’aide d’outils non occidentaux d’interprétation de la réalité. Cet article part du principe que le milieu philippin a inévitablement transformé quelques éléments de ce style et engendré une variante unique. Il a imposé en effet des contraintes sur le premier (l’usage des nouvelles technologies) tandis qu’il intensifiait le troisième (la tendance orientaliste). L’usage du béton armé par exemple était limité pendant les deux dernières décennies du régime espagnol (1880-1898) car il n’y avait pas de base industrielle pour le produire ni de système efficace d’importation. La situation a changé quand, sous le régime colonial américain (1898-1941, 1945-1946), les usines américaines ont exporté massivement leurs produits vers l’Orient. En même temps, la tendance orientaliste de l’Art nouveau s’est intensifiée en milieu philippin. L’influence du style traditionnel de construction en bois est restée forte tandis que l’art du Japon, si proche géographiquement et spirituellement, attire les milieux cultivés. De plus, la période 1880-1910 coïncide avec l’avènement du nationalisme philippin qui prône une guerre de libération contre l’Espagne (1896-1898) et contre les États-Unis (1899-1903). Les nationalistes philippins cherchent un style qui exprime leur vision. L’anti-académisme de l’Art nouveau leur offre ainsi de nouvelles formes en leur permettant de réaliser le deuxième phénomène – la possibilité de s’exprimer personnellement

Casa Boholana: Vintage Houses of Bohol

Presents another reason to visit the tourist crowd-drawer that is Bohol. The book features homes built in the indigenous tradition as well as those from the Spanish and American era in the province\u27s more than forty towns, and offers a sociological-architectural lens with which to enjoy them

Eating in vertical neighborhoods

Condominiums have become a visible marker of a changing urban landscape and contemporary culture in Metro Manila, a mega city of about 11.7 million people and the capital region of the Philippines. A condominium is typically a high-or medium-rise building consisting of several floors and residential units in different configurations of studio and one-, two-or three-bedroom ensembles. In Metro Manila, these vertical neighborhoods are distinct in at least two ways. First, condominiums are usually built for the middle and upper classes: according to World Bank (2013) estimates, the demand for condominium units comes from socio-economic groups which have disposable monthly incomes of at least PhP 30,000 (USD 652) and which comprise about 20 per cent of households in Metro Manila. Other costs which restrict condominium living to these classes are the high cost of the parking lot rental or purchase, and the monthly association dues for building management and maintenance which, depending on the types of amenities and the overall state of the property, can amount to a significant financial burden (Ang 2009). Second, the condominium makes it possible for many people to live closer to the workplace and to leisure places. The attractiveness of condominiums, especially those with shopping malls at their podiums, is not least connected to the rise of the malls and the chronic traffic problem in the mega city. Ever since Crystal Arcade, the first mall in Metro Manila, opened in Binondo in 1932, and especially after World War II, Metro Manilans have enthusiastically taken to the malls. Being fully air-conditioned, malls offer a cool, clean, exciting and novel retail and entertainment environment, while the surrounding public parks, sidewalks, playgrounds and open spaces gradually fell victim to commercial development, infrastructure projects, neglect and squatters. With no viable alternatives left to go to, quite apart from being increasingly hemmed in by ever-worsening gridlocked traffic, building offices, malls and condominiums in unison provided an obvious and convenient solution for both problems

Parks, Plans, and Human Needs: Metro Manila’s Unrealised Urban Plans and Accidental Public Green Spaces

Planned after the City Beautiful Movement and Garden City Movement, Manila City and Quezon City, now among Metro Manila’s 16 cities, did not result in the desired outcomes of their planners. The history of unfulfilled visions that began with Burnham’s 1905 Plan for Manila repeated in similar fashion in Quezon City in its 1949 Frost-Arellano Plan. How do Metro Manila’s public green spaces, as remnants of these plans, sustained specific visions for meeting human needs? To find answers, we focused on Rizal Park and the University of the Philippines (UP) Academic Oval – two public green spaces that remained from the Burnham and Frost-Arellano plans. Contemporary uses of these spaces suggest that the intermingling of the upper and lower classes as envisioned in these plans is limited; nonetheless, they represent endeavours by fairly diverse groups to actively satisfy human needs within and beyond how these spaces were initially designed

Bridging Manila\u27s Chinatown and Intramuros: The Belt and Road Initiative and Its Consequences for Historic Districts

The notion of cultural heritage as both medium and outcome of sustainable development draws attention to how issues of heritage preservation and those of infrastructure and economic development are entwined. In this paper, we will analyze the challenges and opportunities that a proposed bridge project under China\u27s Belt and Road Initiative is presenting to the historic districts of Binondo, the Philippines\u27 main Chinatown, and Intramuros, the heart of the country\u27s Spanish colonial heritage. In this analysis of the nexus of cultural heritage and physical infrastructure, we will focus on the interplay among the material dimension, social competences, and institutions that frame cultural heritage preservation and promotion practices in these two districts. This emphasis will highlight the role of the Philippine state-- which, at varying times and circumstances and as a central actor, can be distant, weak, strong, cunning, or inconsistent. Invariably, the revitalization of historic districts requires actors to socially navigate through diverse constellations of interest and to bring together the modalities of heritage preservation, and infrastructure and economic development as being two sides that support one another

Bridging Manila’s Chinatown and Intramuros: The Belt and Road Initiative and Its Consequences for Historic Districts

The notion of cultural heritage as both medium and outcome of sustainable development draws attention to how issues of heritage preservation and those of infrastructure and economic development are entwined. In this paper, we will analyze the challenges and opportunities that a proposed bridge project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative is presenting to the historic districts of Binondo, the Philippines’ main Chinatown, and Intramuros, the heart of the country’s Spanish colonial heritage. In this analysis of the nexus of cultural heritage and physical infrastructure, we will focus on the interplay among the material dimension, social competences, and institutions that frame cultural heritage preservation and promotion practices in these two districts. This emphasis will highlight the role of the Philippine state— which, at varying times and circumstances and as a central actor, can be distant, weak, strong, cunning, or inconsistent. Invariably, the revitalization of historic districts requires actors to socially navigate through diverse constellations of interest and to bring together the modalities of heritage preservation, and infrastructure and economic development as being two sides that support one another

Manila’s “Chinatown” Globalization and Built Heritage

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Locating Leisure and Belonging in Metro Manila: From Hyper-conditioned Environments to Public Green Spaces

Leisure practices have implications for belonging. In Metro Manila, a rapidly urbanizing metropolis, leisure is becoming increasingly associated with the most ubiquitous hyper-conditioned environments: privately owned shopping malls. By decontextualizing the built environment from its natural and cultural settings, these malls present a challenge to establishing a sense of belonging within a metropolis. Yet, despite its ubiquity, the mall has not fully displaced outdoor spaces, especially public green spaces, as sites of leisure. What do leisure practices in these two seemingly contrasting environments reveal about belonging in a metropolis? Some answers to these questions are to be found in a socio-material reading of leisure spaces, which reveal how belonging is not only created by actors and social institutions but also by spaces, objects, technologies, infrastructure and the microclimate. On the basis of a qualitative study, our findings demonstrate why public green spaces are more conducive than hyper-conditioned environments for fostering a sense of belonging together and to the metropolis