When I first heard about Chip Tsao and about how he called the Philippines “a nation of servants” my initial reaction was, “What the fuck?” and then after a few seconds became, “Oh well…” I heard the news a few days ago, Sunday I believe. After that I never paid that much attention about it, because it seems that it’s become rather a practice to diss Filipinos once in a while by other races. And the brouhaha is really getting tiring and old because we diss fellow Filipinos every day and patronize foreign cultures so I find the people going berserk about this issue really hypocritical. But that’s another story.
Yesterday morning in Unang Hirit and last night in Ten (a weird news show in TV 5), even the newscasters (Lyn Ching, Martin Andanar, and Cherry Mercado) were expressing themselves negatively about the issue. Martin Andanar whom I call the Evan Baxter of the Philippines (you should watch him, I’m not kidding) even jokingly threatened to go back to China and kick Chip Tsao’s big fat Chinese ass.
So I thought, wow even the station who swore to not be biased against anything (except other races insulting us apparently) blatantly showed their anger and disgust to this Chip Tsao dude. He must really be that badass. By then I haven’t read the article yet, so I only have a vague idea about the whole issue. The only thing I know he said were the phrases quoted in the news like “a nation of servants” and that other one saying that he’s sponsoring a member of the enemy by paying his maid to clean his windows, something like that.
This morning I finally had a chance to read the whole article, and after I finished reading it, I felt that kind of embarrassment which sometimes make you vomit, like you wish it weren’t true and there’s really more to it, but there isn’t. And you realize how big of a bomb the whole issue has already become and there’s no way to stop it.
I felt embarrassed because upon reading the article, I didn’t feel offended. I actually cringed for the Chinese because of some of Chip Tsao’s obviously sarcastic remarks about them. And I was entertained because it was a well-written satire that proved a point. Unfortunately, he overestimated some people’s ability to understand satire.
The uproar his article has produced suddenly became like a big joke to me. I read the article again, hoping to read something I missed the first time I read it. But generally, my interpretation of Chip Tsao’s article remains the same. That what he’s actually trying to “insult” in his article weren’t the Filipinos, but his fellow Chinese.
I can only imagine how those (government officials?) who brought this to our attention were reacting while reading the article…
Gov’t official (or whoever found the article): Hey what’s this article about? hmmmm “Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people.” Really they were? Hmmm “Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke”.. Hmmm true, true hehe those idiots.. Hmmm “a nation of servants” WHAT THE FUCK?! Hmmm.. “a patriotic Chinese man” FUCK YOU PATRIOTIC CHINESE MAN! Hmmm “China, Madam/Sir” NO!! PHILIPPINES! BULLSHIT! (and so on.. you get the point, don’t you?)
I’m not turning against my own country here, although it really seems like I am. But my only concern is that I don’t understand why it’s such a big deal when other races “openly insult” us or even make a satire about us, but we are some of the most discriminating people I know against. And against our own people. I see it every day. With friends, with officemates, with people I don’t know that much. We all discriminate. One way or another. I admit I am discriminating of other people. I see people I diss at work, or just when hanging out with friends. It’s normal to criticize other people. Most of the time it’s fun that it takes a lot of our time. But it’s nothing personal, and at the end of the day I can accept if other people say mean things about me because I do it too.
That’s why I don’t understand why they are so angered by the fact someone supposedly made fun of us as a race. So what? We make fun of ourselves. All the time. And those who are not putting other races such as Americans and Koreans on the pedestal are making fun of other races as well. What’s the difference if it’s other people who makes fun of us? Does the meaning change? Is it like a white dude calling a black dude “nigger”?
All I know is, I don’t think Chip Tsao’s purpose in writing that article was to insult us. If it was, I don’t think he underestimates us more than he underestimates his fellow Chinese. Clearly, he sensed that Filipinos would be smart enough to recognize a satire. But no. We had to go berserk about it all. It’s sad and embarrassing.
To sum it up, there’s actually one salawikain that’s perfect for all this drama.
Bago mo pansinin ang uling ng iba
Ang sariling uling ay pahirin muna.
Full text of Chip Tsao’s article HERE.
1 Comment
April 1, 2009 at 6:42 pm
So some stupid pinoys hammered their own heads again ha?
NAKAKAHIYA. Do they still know the meaning of the word?