Melting Pot

                                                                   MELTING POT                                                       

                                                         By Bony A. Bengwayan Jr.

     All roads lead to assimilation for the tightly-knit Chinese community into the mainstream of Philippine society.

     I know, being of Chinese blood line. My forebears are Kwantungs.

      Kwantungs or Cantonese comprise majority of permanent Chinese residents in the Philippines. Historical accounts revealed their ocean-going junks were trading with the country long before the Spaniards came.

     Assimilation takes time but can be accelerated through updating or revision of government policies relating to the Chinese community.

     For starters, schools attended by Chinese youth inculcate more of the Filipino culture in the subjects they are made to study to hasten their Filipinization since many of them opt for citizenship in the land of their birth.

     Also, translation of Filipino history, legends and folklore into the Chinese language will be most helpful in the case of adult Chinese who cannot speak Pilipino or the Tagalong language.

     Assimilation should take into account the Chinese ethnographic background, child-rearing practices and formal education of the children.

    Cantonese families are   predominantly patrilineal, patrilocal, patriarchal and of the extended type, with the father’s side of relations as the “inner kin” and that of the mother the “outer.”