Spring Festival cheer roaring back in the Philippines

After nearly three years of subdued celebrations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese-Filipino community is looking forward to a more exuberant observance of this year's Spring Festival.

In Manila's Binondo district known as the city's Chinatown, the local community is busy decorating its streets with red lanterns, while stores are offering boxes of sweet niangao — known to most Filipinos as "tikoy", or sweet rice cake.

Wilson Lee Flores, honorary chairman of the Chinese-Filipino entrepreneur association Anvil Business Club, is expecting "more vibrant, more festive" Chinese New Year celebrations this year.

"The Philippines will join most of Asia in celebrating a more festive, joyous Chinese New Year. This is the happiest in three years," Flores said.

Such optimism also comes at a time when the Philippines and China have strengthened their bilateral ties, following the state visit of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to Beijing earlier this month.

Marcos, who was in Switzerland this week to attend the World Economic Forum, has sent a video message to a New Year event held by the Chinese embassy in the Philippines. After wishing health and prosperity "for ourselves and our communities", Marcos said the Chinese New Year celebration can serve as "an opportunity to look into our cultural and historical richness as a people and to strengthen the ties that bind us as a nation".

"May we all write a new vibrant chapter, especially with our Filipino Chinese communities, in securing good fortune, joy and harmony," he said.

Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte has likewise sent a video message, saying that she is looking forward to closer ties between the Philippines and China, which is "grounded not only in our long and colorful history, but also based on mutual trust and mutual respect".

During the Chinese embassy's New Year event, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian stressed the need to "gear up the important consensus" forged during Marcos' Beijing visit to new heights, with both sides further promoting cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

"Deepening friendly cooperation is what our people long for," Huang said.

The annual Chinese New Year celebrations in Manila reflect the centuries-long ties between China and the Philippines. As early as the 10th century, Chinese merchants sailed to the Philippines, bringing ceramics and silk in exchange for pearls and hemp fabric.

Chinese-Philippine trading did not stop even during the Spanish colonial era, with some of the merchants choosing to stay and marry Filipino women. In the 16th century, the Spaniards designated a settlement for Chinese immigrants now known as Binondo.

To this day, Binondo remains the center of Chinese-Filipino culture, home to restaurants that serve a fusion of Chinese and Filipino dishes, Chinese schools, the country's biggest Chinese-Filipino business association, and a museum on Chinese-Filipino heritage.

Lourdes Tanhueco Nepomuceno, director of the Confucius Institute at the University of the Philippines Diliman, pointed out that while Binondo remains the main venue for festivities, the Lunar New Year celebrations in the Philippines extend beyond the Chinese-Filipino community.

"The Chinese culture in the Philippines impacts the lives of the majority of Filipinos," Nepomuceno said. She said many Filipinos celebrate the Chinese New Year by dining at Chinese restaurants, consulting feng shui experts, reading Chinese zodiac horoscopes, and giving angpao, or red envelopes filled with cash, to family and friends.

Nepomuceno also expects an influx of Chinese tourists to the Philippines due to China's recent optimization of its COVID-19 response. China is one of the biggest markets for the Philippine travel and tourism industry.

Aaron Jed Rabena, research fellow at the Asia Pacific Pathways to Progress in Manila, welcomes the return of Chinese tourists, noting that this will boost people-to-people exchanges and diplomatic ties.

"Personal touch really matters in diplomacy," Rabena said.

Austin Ong, research coordinator at the think tank Integrated Development Studies Institute, said that by traveling to the Philippines, Chinese visitors can "feel and experience" what the Philippines has to offer, and strengthen people-to-people relationships.