Comments on: Filipinos: Asians or Pacific Islanders?

By: Cgarlie

Cgarlie — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:53:13 +0000

I’m 100 percent filipino and i say we are not asians

By: mat

mat — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:06:14 +0000

Asians are yelllow filopinos are black, I don’t wana be asian don’t look shouldn’t have to say im asian because that’s sad, im a australian filipino

By: andrew

andrew — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:22:27 +0000

@jessie

Jessie, there are other languages out there in the Philippines other than Tagalog. how can you base part of your argument that we shouldnt consider ourselves asian because other asians dont consider us asian? you must have been talking to alot of close minded asians. Geographically, the Japanese, Chinese, Koreans consider themselves East Asian. We are South East Asian without a doubt. I lived in both the Philippines and in America, and I can tell you with 1st hand experience, that the reason other asians dont consider us asians here in the US is because there is a racial undertone to it. They dont want to be associated with people with darker skin. However, if you look back at the history you will see that we were once VERY closely tied with other asian nations and our old writing system (refer to the laguna copperplate) was somewhat similar to Indian and Thai to an extent. Yes we do share Austronesian features with the Pacific islanders, but with centuries of trade and migration with Malays,Chinese, Japanese, and Western nations, we can no longer identify with them. We are part of ASEAN now. A filipino has more in common with a Cambodian or Thai than with someone from Tonga.

By: franz

franz — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:44:06 +0000

Asian is a census designated term that applies to anyone who comes from the greater East(China, Japan, Koreas) and Southeast Asian(Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) region of the continent of Asia. Pacific Islander is also the same, simply a Census designated term, but it is restricted to anyone who comes from greater Oceania not including Australia.

Under this strict definition, Filipinos are Asians.

There are two justifications for saying otherwise. Linguistically, culturally and genetically, most Filipinos(and Indonesians and Malaysian malays) are more closely related to the Oceanic Pacific Islanders.

It is believed by contemporary anthropologists that Austronesian speakers from Taiwan came to the Philippines and spread to greater archepleagic Southeast Asia to the west and to many of the Pacific islands to the east.

The other justification is simple geography: The Philippines is a group of island just on the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Either case is wrong, however, if you go by the official US Census designation of these population groups.

I’m not gonna comment on why some Filipinos want to claim otherwise…

By: Wilhelmina

Wilhelmina — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:26:56 +0000

@Jessie

I agree with you, reviewing your comments, I do realize that you have very good points there, mix history with some in depth research and also some very good common sense and one can come up with some good enough logical explanation. I agree with you about the dialect being Austronesian as well and it is definitely true that the Filipino language does not even sound anything Oriental.

If the people of the past have made a mistake about the world being flat, there’s also a big chance that even the modern people, like you said have made a mistake in defining the continent boundaries. Therefore Filipinos were deemed as Asians because of the continent boundaries and not because of the heritage itself.

But I don’t think the Tagalog dialect is the basis in this argument. I don’t remember what the original Filipino ancestors’ dialect is, but it definitely was not Tagalog.

I wish I weren’t lazy enough to do more research

By: Jessie

Jessie — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:41:58 +0000

I need to make a correction to my comment above. Instead of aetas, I meant to say Austronesian. The filipinos, indonesian, hawaiians, & other paicific islander nations are descendants of the Austronesian. I agree with a previous reviewer above that our ancestors are the austronesians, same as the polynesian. Do a research on austronesians and compare thetagalog language with other pacific islander nations….the number 5 & 8 is the same in tagalog & hawaiian which is “lima & walu”. It was the earlier explorers who made a mistake because they did not know then the austornesian. the phillippines has so many indigenous people in the islands. We are descendants of them. Its just that we also got a lot of immigrants from China & Spain which lightened SOME of our skin color.s But we are islanders. Although we may have borrowed words in our language, our tagalog language is the key in defining who we really are. The explorers or geographers out there made a mistake in defining the correct boundaries of their continents. There really should be an austronesian area. A lot of people used to think the world was flat until they were proven wrong. People who deny their islander tribal history just want to insists that they are chinese. They prefer that they be typecasted as being lighter skin rather than appreciating their darker brown skin. Yes we got a lot of immigrants from other asian nations but it doesn’t mean we are orientals folks. Our tagalog language has no similarity with them. We speak an Austornesian dialect.

By: Jessie

Jessie — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 04:33:39 +0000

I am a filipino and I also consider myself pacific islander. For the obvious reason, the Philippines consists of 7000 islands. We are not part of mainland China folks and our tagalog language has no similairty to the oriental languages. Also, after doing extensive research online, I found out that our ancestors, the AETAS are the same ancestors as the hawaiians. If you examine the hawaiian language and tagalog language carefully, you will see a repetition or emphasis on their word/usage. We have similar ancestors/descendants. The other oriental nations don’t even consider filipinos as being asians folks. Check out the asian american magazines ou there. They would include chinese/japanese/koreans. Filipinos are not included in there at all. If the filipinos from the philippines consider themselves as asians, its understandable why. Its because they don’t know who they really are. However, since the term “pacific islander” came to existence here in the states, many of us reexamined ourselves and concluded that we are more islanders rather than oriental. I am filipino. I am from an nation that consists of 7000 islands. I consider myself islander. When I speak tagalog, I do not hear an oriental language. All this stuff about geography is bogus. People need to examine their native language and our native language is closer to the hawaiians. We are NOT oriental people.

By: Eduardo Abuyig

Eduardo Abuyig — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 06:33:59 +0000

I don’t believe that being Asian means that we are not Pacific Islanders. We are all austronesian. Our languages are more similar to the Pacific Islanders. Mata in tonga means eye as does ours as Lima means five. I do think the western definitions of us in geography does a diservice to our diversity. We have bloodlines that are Micronesian and ancestors who were also have cultural ties to India. I say to the Pinoy who says he’s Asian, I agree. I also say to the Pinoy who identifies as Pacific Islander, I too agree. Personally I believe that we can be both. I do believe that we are both. The colonial mentality still seems to impact our spirits as a diverse but still pinoy people. Let’s embrace our folk traditions and lore, cut from the same fabric of our other brother islanders, and the reverence and honor of asia. As a mixed malay people we have a great deal to be proud of. Personally I check all that apply if filipino is not specified.

By: Wilhelmina

Wilhelmina — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:39:17 +0000

@Brian

I guess in other parts of the world, a lot of Asian people will feel bad being called Asian, but nonetheless, being Asian does not mean you’re below those who were born with Caucasian ancestry.

In the past, those with Caucasian ancestry may have been deemed as superior among those who had Asian/African or any other race, but that was just physically. If people would read up on recent studies pertaining to the intelligence of those in the Americas and in Asia, majority of the Asian people studied have been discovered as being more intelligent than the others.

By: brian

brian — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 04:59:39 +0000

everyone is makin a good point, myself i see the phillipines being a island in the pacific, people can say filipinos are asian but it is clearly a island on a map, it may not be a part of the main group of islands but it still a island, so to me i would say im a filipino(pacific) islander, nothin against asians but i cant stand being called asian it feels degrading!