INTRODUCTION

 

My stats above are pretty simple. However, my life is somewhat complicated.... I guess everybody's life is. Below is a rather lengthy introduction. If you don't want very long intros, just click this link to go back.

 

 

Chinese Name

The Chinese characters found above (you can see them with a Chinese viewer) can be pronounced in two ways. The Hokkien pronunciation of my name is Yap Tian-chi. BTW, Yap is my surname and Hokkien is a dialect spoken in southern Fujian province of China. The Chinese always place their family name first. In Mandarin or Putonghua, the national language of China, it is pronounced as Ye Tianzi. Below is the meaning of my name.

Yap/ Ye	a leaf
Tian-chi/ Tianzi	natural talent

So I guess that would make me a leaf of natural talent! Pretty weird, isn't it? BTW, it was my late maternal grandfather who gave me my Chinese name.

 

Western Name

My parents gave me my Western/Filipino/Christian/legal name. I guess you can tell that they are more westernized than their parents.

Name	Origin	Meaning
Douglas	Scottish Gaelic	from the dark stream
Anthony	Latin	of inestimable worth

BTW, it's a custom here in the Philippines to name your child with a western-sounding name. American or Spanish names are preferable here. I think I got the best of both! Nah. I don't think so. Douglas, which was given to me by my father was a nuisance. This is so since the natives here do not pronounce it well (no offense). The pronunciation "dugles" becomes "dog-lass" or "doog-lass" thereby making my name sound like that of a canine creep!!! Some of them also spell it this way: Doughlas. I wonder what the "h" is for? I'm definitely not a franchise owner of Dunkin' Doughnut!!! Anthony was given to me by my mom. St. Anthony, she claimes, is one of her favorite Catholic saints, though I am less likely to believe in that since she loves all saints! I never got accustomed to my second name. I never respond when called "Anthony" or "Tony" or "Antonio."

 

Ethnicity

I am a Philippine-born Chinese. No, I'm not really a pure Chinese - at least not technically speaking. I'm 7/8 Chinese and 1/8 non-Chinese.

It's a bit of an irony that being born in the Philippines has made me very un-Chinese. I don't speak Chinese fluently and although I know a bit about my ancestral culture, I find it very hard to apply here. Other people see me as very "westernized," whatever that may be. They reasoned out that I'm too frank and straight to the point (Chinese are very indirect), that I don't have much of a peer group (Filipinos love their peer group more than they love their parents!), speak more English than Chinese or Filipino. I also retort that I have very close ties with my parents (a Chinese trait), was a very good student in math and the sciences (another Chinese trait), and acknowledges the need to preserve a five-thousand-year-old identity.

 

Work Ethic

The typical work ethic that my family and I embrace are definitely those of the Confucians and the Protestants. We do all of lot of manual labor like cleaning our own rooms, washing the car, and shopping for groceries despite the fact that culture here in the Philippines prohibits the middle class from doing manual labor. I know of some people here who let their household help do everything - including the shopping! This culture was probably derived from the Spanish aristocracy of the Philippines who showed their "superiority" above the native indios by inhibiting themselves from these "degrading" tasks. However, due to our Chinese roots and due to the American influence from education and media, our parents have constantly pushed us to realize that work can be gratifying and glorious. Thus, I conclude that the culture pervading in my family is a harmonious blend of the Confucian and Protestant work ethics.

 

 

Religion

In case your wondering, I was baptized as a Catholic. I still attend Catholic masses though, but I think I'm really losing my trust in this religion or any religion for that matter. What I said was trust but not faith. I still believe in a personal God or Supreme Being. What I don't find comfortable are religions.

Why then am I not comfortable in any religion? This is because all religion claims to be the true religion. Catholics claim that the Roman church was the true church established by Christ due to its apostolic origins. Protestants claim to be having the true faith because their found faults in the medieval Roman church and have sought to correct it by establishing their own sects and by following strictly to the words of the Bible. Muslims claims that "There is no other God but Allah and Mohammed is His Prophet." They also claim that Jesus was not God in the flesh but just a minor prophet. They claim authenticity in this religious truth through Mohammed's vision of the Angel Gabriel.

Why all these conflicts of religious truths? I do not claim that these religions are wrong only that I find these conflicts very strange. Is God responsible for these conflicts or are they just the products of man's prejudices against each other?

Language

In case your wondering, I placed these languages according to fluency.

Yes, English is on top. Why? Ask my mom. She basically spoon-fed my brain with English words with those educational tapes/records of hers when I was 3 years old. The more I became fluent in English with my Jesuit education!

Cebuano, is a close second. I speak Cebuano with my father and the household help. However, I always experience a lot of difficulty using this language when it comes to abstract and technical ideas. I simply haven't learned how to express these concepts in Cebuano. But what I like about this language is that it doesn't have any grammar rule of any sort. I can basically distort my Cebuano without suffering the consequences. Often I crack a lot of jokes (mostly puns) with this language due to its flexibility.

Tagalog (or what the nationalists call "Filipino") is a distant third. I learned this when I was already 8 years old. I usually associate fear and hate with this language since I had a series of bad experiences with this language during my schooling years. My Filipino teachers in grade school were usually xenophobic, ultra-nationalistic, anti-Chinese, anti-Western, anti-anything-not-Tagalog people. Also, the closeness of Tagalog with Cebuano didn't help me at all. It made me even more confused. Refer the table below for the explanation.

Friction #1. Which Meaning of the Word?

Word	Cebuano	Tagalog
gubat	war	forest
ilog	to contest the possession of something	river
bukid	mountain	farmland
libang	to defecate	recreation
libog	to get confused	to become sexually aroused

You see how confusing it is? Makalibog (Cebuano) giyud ka-ayo, no?

 

Friction #2. Which pronunciation?

Word	Cebuano/English	Tagalog
noon	noon	no-on
Butuan	boot-wan	boot-too-an
bicycle	bai-si-kl	bai-si-kel
uncle	ung-kl	ang-kel

 

Friction#3. Tagalog words are lengthy.

English	Cebuano	Tagalog
government	gobyerno	pamahalaan
province	probinsya	lalawigan
trustworthy	matu-uhan	mapagkakatiwalaan
(can be) understood	masabtan	maintindihan
girlfriend/boyfriend	uyab	kasintahan
noon	udto	tanghali
(to) socialize	*	makikipagkapwa-tao

* Lack of formal Cebuano schooling is the culprit.

So why are the Chinese languages the last on the list? It's primarily because I never was very exposed to Chinese movies, songs, and books when I was a child. Also, the Chinese comprises only 5% of the Philippine population. However, I learned Hokkien words when I was a child and I was introduced to Mandarin when I was 4. Since I was introduced to these languages that early in life means that I don't have much of the negative feelings I have for these as compared to Tagalog. Lastly, I was pretty fluent in Hokkien when I was 7-10 years old. However, ever since I transfered to another school, my fluency simply got corrupted.

 

Music

What exactly does "alternative" mean? It simply means it's a kind of music that still cannot be classified. For me, it includes alternative rock, alternative folk songs, and alternative instrumentals. Alternative artists that I like includes the Gin Blossoms, Green Day, Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, Collective Soul, Better Than Ezra, Oasis, Arkarna, The Refreshments, Semisonic, Enya, and any kind of artists that sounds like these. Links to these artists are found here.

As for pop, I like it because its (duhhh...) popular! I can't escape these music since everyone around me seems to like it too! I am also beginning to appreciate Chinese pop songs that are sung by artists from Taiwan.

As for classical, I generally like any kind of artist. I usually listen to these when I used to study or when I just like to loosen up.

 

JAN 1999

reasons