G.A. Viray
The new Chinatown Friendship Arch funded by Guanzho City, China in Binondo, Manila was unveiled last June 23, 2015. It is the biggest and the most expensive arch of its kind in the world which measures 74 feet in width and 63.8 feet in height, and costs US $ 650,000 or about P 28 M pesos. However, local Chinese communities are unhappy with the world’s largest Chinatown arch.
According to Coconuts Manila, the Chinese characters on the arch literally mean “China Town,” which marks Binondo, Manila as a part of China, which shouldn’t be.
The founder of the Fil-Chinese civic community Kaisa Foundation, Tessie Ang-See, said, “Chong Guo Zheng” does not represent the local Chinese community entirely, something which Ivan Man Dy of Old Manila Walks agrees with.
Ang-See said, “Overseas Chinese communities would’ve preferred the term ‘Hua Ren Qu’ or ‘Chinese people district’ to describe themselves — like Vancouver’s Chinatown. They say the experiences of each overseas Chinese Community are different and unique.”
“We want Binondo to be recognized for its ethnicity as opposed to being a mainland Chinese outpost. That is because Binondo was born out of 400 years of interaction between Chinese, Filipino, Spanish and other culture that have touch our shores in the last 400 years”, Man Dy said.
On a final note, both Ang-See and Man Dy say the previous friendship arches built in the ’70s were more representative of the local community in Binondo than the new one. Those arches, which were funded by the local Chinese community, celebrated the Fil-Chinese relationship, while the new one which was funded by Guanzho City does not.
Featured Image Photo Credit: Coconuts Manila/ Anson Yu
