Chinese Filipino: Encyclopedia II - Chinese Filipino - Chinese Mestizos

Chinese Filipino - Chinese Mestizos

See also: Mestizos in the Philippines.

Chinese mestizos are those in the Philippines of mixed Chinese and either Filipino or Spanish (or both) ancestry. They make up about another 20% of the country's total population (those who are pure Chinese make up 2% of the population). A number of Chinese mestizos have surnames that reflect their heritage, mostly two or three syllables that have Chinese roots (e.g., the full name of a Chinese ancestor) with a Spanish phonetic spelling. The Chinese mestizos may also be known as Chinoys or Chinitos, although these terms may also refer to the full-blooded Chinese Filipinos.

Starting from the Spanish period, the mestizos have been afforded several opportunities that the full-blooded Chinese or the native Filipinos do not have access to. Historically, the mestizos have been economically more successful than the local population. Even to this day, a large percentage of land or plantation owners in the Philippines are the Chinese mestizos. Due to their fairer complexion, which is a coveted attribute among Filipinos even to this day, a large number of people in the film industry are mestizos.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Chinese Mestizos", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki