The Chinese Trade Diasporas in Spanish Manila

Summary

The Chinese has conducted trading activities with people who live in the Manila area before the Spanish arrived in 1571. However, the establishment of the Spanish Manila changed the regional networks and attracted much more Chinese merchants and immigrants. The Spanish colonists assigned them to live in a separated area called “Parián”, which became the oldest Chinatown in world history. In this paper, the author will use the concept of trade diaspora to examine the early history of Parián. The paper will discuss how Parián and the overseas Chinese in the Philippines has been discussed by different agents and how archaeological evidences can shed light on these discussions. The author argues that although Chinese trade diasporas in Southeast Asia are usually considered as the same category in relating discussions, it is necessary to contextualize each case study.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Guava Cat Archaeology: Papers in memory of Prof. Pochan Chen

Keywords

Spatial Coverage