Southeast Asia: Table of Contents
Organizer: Patricio N. Abinales, Ohio University
Chair: Vincent Boudreau, City College of New York
Discussant: John Pemberton, Columbia University
Carol Sy Hau, Cornell University
This paper attempts a genealogy of the "spectral" import and presuppositions of institutional and discursive treatments of the Chinese in the Philippines after World War II. It maintains that these discourses form indispensable relays in the institutional articulation of nationalism with racism. Anti-Chinese images provide a crucial condensation of economic and psychological explanations concerning the "reality" of Philippine neocolonialism and found their most eloquent and sustained expression in literary and historiographic production during continued American interference in the Philippines. In effect, neo-colonialism must be seen as a constitutive component of official nationalism and its deliberations and policies regarding the "Chinese question" (illegal immigration and citizenship, cultural assimilation, economic participation and political loyalties). As "material men" whose virtual nationality remains politically charged and contested, the Chinese form an integral part of the neocolonial order. They also cast a critical light on the assumptions, ambiguities, and effects of contemporary Filipino nationalism. Chinese effort to generate definitions of identity and community out of the tension between the universalist strains of nationalist brotherhood and solidarity and the particularistic strains of nationalist exclusion and differentiation enter into complex interaction with the state, the non-Chinese elite and changing accounts of Filipino "nation-ness" and "nationhood."
Benito M. Vergara, Jr., Cornell University
This paper explores the relationship between the media and conceptions of national and class belonging among the Filipino middle class through the prism of the Philippine News, one of the oldest and most prominent newspapers in the United States. It concentrates on the newspaper’s role in urging readers toward "political empowerment" and promoting conceptions of being a Filipino in America. Migrants have created social spaces that bridge cultural, political and geographic borders, and forged loyalties that spanned national and familial boundaries. My paper investigates the emotional components overlooked in the study of transnationalism—like nationalism and homesickness—and how these are articulated in social practices that reinforce or subvert national and transnational conceptions and processes. If national identity is reproduced and reinforced by being embedded in daily, unremembered routines, how then does the Filipino nation reproduce itself in daily life—in memory, in emotions—away from the "homeland"? I argue that transnationalism can be productively examined in this manner, and within the pages of the Philippine News, especially because of the affective components that come into play.
Vincent Boudreau, City College of New York
From almost the beginning of the American colonial relationship with the Philippines, dissidents in the U.S. have opposed American policies in that country. Over the decades, however, some portion of this dissent has acquired a decidedly unconventional tone, particularly where it has most closely interacted with nationalist Philippine movements. As Americans have engaged the nationalist discourse, they have often developed what one might refer to as a benefactive nationalism, constructed and deployed by Americans in the name of Philippine interests and on behalf of Filipino citizens. While the stated objects of the nationalist claims most frequently center around public policy demands, the modes of framing them have often appropriated Filipino cultural and social expressions. To speak on behalf of Filipinos, many authors seemed to feel it necessary to speak as a Filipino. This paper investigates the interaction between American solidarity movements and Philippine nationalism over the last seven decades; to accomplish the investigation, the author examines both the activities of those participating in solidarity movements, and the memoirs and polemical material written by these participants to explain or advance that activity.
Patricio N. Abinales, Ohio University
In 1992, the Philippine Senate voted not to extend the military bases agreement between the United States and the Philippines thereby terminating one of the last vestiges of colonial relations between the two countries. In this unprecedented show of "nationalist unity," one organization which regarded nationalism as one of its crucial components and had largely determined the conduct of the "anti-imperialist struggles" during the Marcos period, played a peculiarly minor role: the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). At first glance, this was not unusual. Despite the growing splits within it, the party leadership remained dogmatic in its assessment and expected that the agreement would be renewed. It therefore was caught off-balance when the outcome proved otherwise. This paper suggests, however, that there were far more profound reasons behind this elision. I will argue that despite its fervent anti-imperialism and the marked American presence in Philippine society, the CPP found itself constrained by two contradictions. On the one hand there was nationalism’s political vacuity and the fact that the CPP could not claim sole proprietary rights to an issue that was easily appropriatable by other class and political forces, including the very state the party sought to overthrow. On the other hand, there was the so-called "immediate demands of the struggle" itself. Polarized politics under martial law and the pervasive practice of state violence over society simplified political choices (Marcos vs. revolution). It also rendered more nuanced analysis and action less important, particularly with regards to issues that had less direct impact on the lives of Filipinos when set alongside problems like "militarization." The "national question" and U.S. imperialism was one. The CPP failed to cope with these contradictions and they inevitably took their toll on its ability as a major player in post-Marcos politics. Its minor presence in the U.S. bases debates would merely dramatize its declining capacities.