Maila heruela

1. THE FILIPINO CHINESE WOMAN:
CREATION OF TRANSNATIONAL FEMINIST
COUNTERPUBLIC IN MODERN PHILIPPINE
CHINESE WOMEN'S SHORT FICTION
Presented by
Maila Heruela
University of Santo Tomas Graduate School
Manila, Philippines

2. Problem Rationale - Language
 From the Spanish Regime to the American Period, the academe
and critics preferred literary writings written in English or Spanish
instead of works written inTagalog or other local dialects.
 During the Japanese Period, the Japanese required that literary
works should be produced inTagalog and other dialects.After
war, many writers continued to write in these languages and only
gained more recognition after Martial law.
 Philippine Chinese literature was initially written in Hookien or
Mandarin.After the Martial law, their literary outputs were
extended to English, Filipino, and other dialects.

3. Problem Rationale - Gender
 Philippine Literature flourished during the American
Period. Both men and women were given to
opportunity to study in universities .This paved way
to Filipino women writers to be part of the literary
canon.
 Only a handful of women are noted authors in
Philippine literature such as Benitez Marquez, Paz
Latorena, and Loreto Paras Sulit.
 Most of these women authors are all writers in
English.

4. Problem Rationale - Gender
 Despite the efforts to promote minority literature during the Japanese
period and after martial. Only a few Filipino women writers inTagalog
who are known.
 During the 1980’s, Feminists such as Quindoza-Santiago, Camagay, and
Sobritchea fostered the progress of women’s literature in the
Philippines.They drew attention to Filipina writers and their works by
producing writings focused on analyzing the Filipina identity as a means
of examining their women subjects.
 As Philippine women’s literature continues to develop through the
works of postcolonial feminists, Filipino Chinese women as gender
subjects is at a standstill.

5. Objective
 Construct the Filipino Chinese woman’s
identity through short stories written by
Filipino Chinese women writers as a means
of integrating them to Philippine women’s
literature.
 Create a transnational feminist
counterpublic to devise a conceptual or
theoretical framework that will suit the
analysis and appreciation of Chinese Filipina
women’s fiction.

6. Objective
The framework should answer the following questions:
 How do Chinese Filipino women experience and
negotiate the transitions of gender norms between
mainstream and subcultural settings?
 What meaning or values do they assign to the
different forms of femininities that they encounter?
 Do Chinese Filipinas experience their production of
femininity as the source of conflict in their quest to
come into terms with their sense of self or identity?

7. Postcolonial Feminism vs. Transnational Feminism
 Postcolonial feminists draw a binary opposition between
the two groups.The woman of color is depicted as "sexually
constrained, ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound,
domestic, family-oriented, and victimized" (Mohanty, 1998,
p. 65) in contrast with the white middle class western
woman described as "liberated, educated, modern, and
having control of her own body".
 Postcolonial feminism has a tendency towards a view of
universal patriarchal oppression and it does not see through
race and social class.

8. Postcolonial Feminism vs. Transnational Feminism
 Postcolonial feminists draw a binary opposition between the two
groups.The woman of color is depicted as "sexually constrained,
ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, domestic, family-
oriented, and victimized" (Mohanty, 1998, p. 65) in contrast with the
white middle class western woman described as "liberated, educated,
modern, and having control of her own body".
 Postcolonial feminism has a tendency towards a view of universal
patriarchal oppression and it does not see through race and social
class.
 FilipinoChinese women are well-educated, entrepreneurial, and
mostly wealthy, which is the exact opposite of the values ascribed to
women of color

9. Postcolonial Feminism vs. Transnational Feminism
 Postcolonial feminists draw a binary opposition between the two
groups.The woman of color is depicted as "sexually constrained,
ignorant, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, domestic, family-
oriented, and victimized" (Mohanty, 1998, p. 65) in contrast with the
white middle class western woman described as "liberated, educated,
modern, and having control of her own body".
 Postcolonial feminism has a tendency towards a view of universal
patriarchal oppression and it does not see through race and social
class.
 FilipinoChinese women are well-educated, entrepreneurial, and
mostly wealthy, which is the exact opposite of the values ascribed to
women of color.

10. Postcolonial Feminism vs. Transnational Feminism
 Transnational feminism aims to create that hybrid space where the
FilipinoChinese can be brought to the foreground.This space is what
Thayer (2010) called transnational feminist counterpublic.
 Thayer (2010) described it as "...one where discourses and practices,
the cultural and the material intersect and clash with or accommodate
one another.“
 Transnational feminist counterpublic is a hotbed that fuels
resignification of meanings through constant renegotiation of values
while formulating collective identities. It could lead to
marginalization and devaluation of women, but placing them into
the counterpublic allows women to share their views and facilitate
the creation of their own female identities.

11. Sewell’s Duality of Structures
 Hybridity is the key aspect of the Filipino woman’s identity.
This is best explained through Sewell’s “Duality of
Structures” theory.
 In Duality of Structures, Sewell theorized the possibility of
two cultures existing in one individual. Culture is equivalent
to Sewell’s structure.
 A Filipino woman possesses two structures within her as a
result of colonization.These structures are American and
Spanish influences.

12. American and Spanish Archetypes
 Denise Cruz (2012) theorized that Filipina femininity is mainly comprised of two
archetypal figures: Maria Clara andTranspacific co-ed.
 Maria Clara is the embodiment of the Filipino woman ideal even her looks as a
Spanish mestiza which her fair skin that made her an extraordinarily beautiful
woman in the eyes of many people. Notwithstanding her virtues of naivety,
Catholic religiosity, and servility. Cruz (2012) further described Maria Clara as
"the epitome of a dying tradition, symbolic of the shackles of SpanishCatholic rule."
(Cruz, 2012, p. 69 )
 Transpacific coed is happy-go-lucky and active. She behaves like an American
teenager.The coed's influences are American goods, magazines, Hollywood
movies which inspires her desires andAmerican music that makes her dance.
Unlike Maria Clara, who is confined in the house only daring to go out when
accompanied by the help or a relative, the transpacific coed is free to roam in the
modern cityscapes as she maintains her social life.

13. American and Spanish Archetypes
 The Modern Filipina is a cross between these two archetypes as she
cited Guerrero Nakpil on the Modern Filipina identity.The Filipina is a
result of multiple colonizations which emphasized that hybridity is the
key aspect of her character.
 The Filipino Chinese woman does not fall in any of the stereotypes
which further explains the reason why the postcolonial feminist readings
of Philippine women’s literature rendered them invisible.
 There is a need to develop another archetype and this archetype is the
“Tsinay” (or Filipino Chinese woman in Filipino).The Tsinay is an oddity
because she is depicted as extremely intelligent, industrious, filial, and
practices a synchretic religion (Catholicism and Buddhism). Despite her
being fair skinned, her slit eyes (singkit) do nothing to contribute to her
beauty.

14. Xin-Mei’s “Singkit” (Slit-eyed)
Xin-Mei's (2006) "Singkit" draws a vivid
picture in this short story where the
protagonist's Di Ko (Father's 2nd sister) was
described as a beautiful woman were it not
for her slit eyes. It echoes the insecurity of
the Filipina Chinese woman because many
of them associate slit eyes as a form of
ugliness. Di Ko undergoes surgery to correct
her eyes. A-Ko (Eldest sister of her father)
cannot help but express her joy. "A- ya,
children do not know what they at this age.
We should teach them.We have to tell them
what is good for them. Look at Di-Ko; she
doesn't look Chinese anymore. Now, she can
get a good husband and have a big house
where she will bear many children." (Xin Mei,
2006, p. 46). It leads us here to conclude
thatTsinays are beyond the earlier Filipina
archetypes. By introducing this new
archetype, it is suffice to say that the
Filipino woman’s identity is diverse and it is
not only confined to Cruz's Spanish and
American archetypes.

15. Transnational feminist Counterpublic as
the third Space
 Using intracategorical approach, it is easy to identify the difference
outside identities and the spaces between identities by subjecting the
texts to multiple categories of race-ethnicity, class, religion, and gender.
We can locate the intersection of these categories to be able to grasp
the complexity of their identities.Therefore, the female protagonists
and their experiences as FilipinoChinese women can be subjected to
these numerous intersections.
 A woman's individuality is juxtaposed with multiple categories that are
operation and contributes to identity development.
 These underlying categories (race-ethnicity, class, religion, and gender)
exposes the points of intersection which serve as the transnational
feminist counterpublic or the third space.

16. Transnational feminist Counterpublic as
the third Space
 Zimmerman (2004) cites Homi Bhabba on the existence of a "third space
of enunciation" between two cultures, Bhabba noted that all cultural
encounters as translation.
 This third space provides a site where cultural translations takes place.
In this case, Filipino Chinese women undergo several complexities that is
unique to their upbringing.
 The Filipino Chinese woman, herself, is the third space. Her
interpretation of the meaning and symbols of culture as the third space,
"ensure that the cultural signs have no primordial unity and fixity.The
same signs can be appropriated, translated, rehistoricized, and read
anew." (Zimmerman 2004)
 As Bhabba (1990) stated during an interview, the third space show
affinities with subject-object relationship.The process of identification
occurs when the subject relates to an object of otherness.Through the
intervention of this object, the subject discovers her sense of self.

17. Conclusion
 The short stories of Filipino Chinese women have the
potential to reconfigure and re-imagine the existing
notion of the Filipino woman.
 Their narratives should be appreciated in the
transnational feminist lens that celebrates
differences and accommodate the experiences of
women that goes beyond the women of color vs.
middle class white women.These short stories are
but a snapshot Filipino Chinese women within the
crossroads of society.