A Bond Across Time and Space: The Evolution and Reshaping of the "Homeland" Concept among Filipino Chinese from 1945 to 2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63313/SSH.9046Keywords:
Filipino Chinese, policy adjustment, economic integration, cultural symbiosisAbstract
This paper focuses on the evolution of the "homeland" concept among Filipino Chinese from 1945 to 2025, exploring its transformation from a one-way identification with their ancestral homeland in the early post-war period ("returning to one's roots") to a fusion of "dual homeland and dual nation" identity after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Philippines. The study finds that this transformation went through three stages: arduous survival, initial integration, and full integration, gradually achieved through deep economic cultivation, political participation, and cultural inheritance and integration. This transformation was driven by multiple factors, including adjustments in Philippine policy, changes in Sino-Philippine relations, the binding of economic interests, and socio-cultural integration. It reflects both the adherence to Chinese cultural genes and the adaptation to the host country. The reshaping of the "homeland" concept among Filipino Chinese not only constructed a dual identity but also became an important bond for people-to-people exchanges between China and the Philippines, providing a typical case and theoretical reference for overseas Chinese studies and cross-cultural communication.
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