BECAUSE of my Chinese surname (and nickname), some people tell me I do not belong here and have no business telling Philippine history, and to go back to China even if all my life the Philippines has been home.

I was born in Tarlac, Tarlac on Jan. 19, 1984, 39 years ago, to the couple Charles Derecho Chua and Vilma Briones Chua. My Chinese heritage is undeniable. Charles was the son of Quintin Chua (Chan Huan Tit), who was the son of Chan Bun Lin from Fujian, China, who married Francisca Gonzales of Paniqui, Tarlac. Recently, through Chinese Filipino genealogist Eduardo de la Cruz, who turned out to be a distant relative, we found out that our Chan clan’s home is Eni village in Fujian and that we were all descended from one of Confucius’ students, the philosopher Zeng Shen or Zeng Si (Master Zeng). The early death of my grandfather, at the young age of 42, deprived me of the opportunity of ever meeting him and finally detached me from the Chinese culture and language. But recently, our friends from Kaisa para sa Kaunlaran, its president Michael Guzman, historian and translator Go Bon Juan, and Anson Yu recently gave me a Chinese name based on my generational name, Chan Hua Xiao — The Chan who introduces culture. So apropos, I said.

Kaisa para sa Kaunlaran is an organization born from the gains of the EDSA People Power Revolution and in the midst of one of the bloodiest coups in Philippine history, Aug 28, 1987. There was much national soul-searching about the role of the Chinese in the Philippines. Before the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos allowed the ethnic Chinese to live here freely, Philippine citizenship was out of reach for the Chinese, even if they had been living here for a long time or may even have been born here. They were treated as aliens. But even with citizenship, there is still much misunderstanding about who they are and where their loyalties lie: the Philippines or China?

Growing up, I kept hearing the stereotypes and misconceptions against Chinese Filipinos — that we were a monolithic group and that all of us were rich. When I was in Grade 1, in 1991, there was this show on television every Sunday called “Pin-pin.” It was like my daily favorite show “Batibot,” but with Chinese-Filipino characters and they were also talking in Filipino. At a very young age, watching “Pin-pin” made me realize that we belonged. They also advertised there their fortnightly newspaper Tulay, which stuck in me that later when I became a teacher, I collected many of the paper’s issues for their brilliant feature-writing. A few years later, there would be the kidnappings of Chinese businessmen and in the national consciousness would emerge civic leader Teresita Ang See, whom we admired for her work in the Crusade Against Violence. I didn’t realize until very much later that these things were the handiwork of Kaisa and that Ma’am Tessie is actually a historian and cultural worker.

As a history student, I got to know about Kaisa through the Bahay Tsinoy: Museum of the Chinese in Philippine Life which was opened on Jan. 19, 1999 (my 15th birthday!) in Intramuros, Manila by no less than by then President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, and their publications. My early favorites were Lupang Tinubuan: Mga Kasabihan Tungkol sa Bayan which was a collection of quotes about love of country from Filipino, Chinese and other patriots; and Filipinos in China before 1500 by William Henry Scott. They reprinted classic works like The Chinese Mestizo in Philippine History by Edgar Wickberg. Go Bon Juan translated history books into Chinese such as Teodoro Agoncillo’s Philippine history textbook. A great service they have done was to search through the overlooked Chinese records to find the earliest documents about the Philippine Islands and early maps, and translated and brought them back for Filipino researchers which largely contributed to further understanding our roots and connections with our neighbors and illuminated our sophisticated civilization long before the Spaniards came in the 16th century. Tessie Ang See was tireless in her research that would culminate in the multi-volume The Chinese in the Philippines: Problems and Perspectives.

Having been recently invited on my birthday to be the official 24th anniversary speaker of the Bahay Tsinoy, I emphasized how the museum, now being directed by her daughter Meah Ang See, and its contents made me realize as a young man that we shared common trading with the Chinese as our frequent visitor (Sangley), and after that under colonialism, a common misery, which made us have a common goal, contributing in birthing the nation and defending our freedom from invaders. Kaisa invented a term to clearly show the identity of the Chinese in the Philippines as real Filipinos — Tsinoy, an identity as diverse as the Filipino nation.

Thank you, Bahay Tsinoy, for making us feel that we belong here. “Ako’y Tsinoy, Ako ay Pilipino.”