Understanding China up close (Part 1)

There are rather simple elements contributing to my understanding of China and the Chinese. I say simple because these days, trying to understand China has become so muddled with convoluted and polluted misinformation and disinformation; understandably so when most of the first world really do not understand it nor want to. Yet, that dominates Western media. 

So, for tonight, I stick to the non-political, personal, and real way I got to know, understand, and appreciate China for what it has been, what it is now and what it could become. Then and now, I hope it will make a dent, no matter how small, on everyone’s knowledge and understanding of China. 

I was born into a Chinese-Filipino family. I said Chinese first because by blood, I am 75% Chinese from my 100% Chinese father, Emerson Coseteng, and my 50% Chinese mother, Alice Marquez Lim, from a 100% Chinese father, Jose Marquez Lim and a 100% Filipina mother, Judith Guanco.

I was also fortunate enough to have gotten to know my great grandmother on my father’s side, who we fondly called Ah Tay. She was Buddhist, lived spartanly in a temple on Narra Street in Binondo, had bound feet, was vegetarian, and was the epitome of a woman of composure and dignity.

Typically, as was the case in most Chinese families, we all lived together with my paternal grandparents, my parents, my only other sister then, Leah, and my father’s only brother Edison. 

At home, my father, grandparents, uncle and their friends mostly spoke to each other in English as well as our Chinese local dialect that we knew as Amoy, which was spoken in Quanzhou and Xiamen. We spoke to our parents in English and to our grandparents in Chinese. All throughout the years as we were growing up, we spoke to our siblings, cousins, uncles and aunts in English. And in Tagalog and Ilonggo to our household help. My mother spoke to her siblings, parents and relatives in Ilonggo which I picked up fluently. I also learned some Ilocano from my yaya, our cook, and laundry women. My maternal grandfather spoke fluent Chinese, Spanish, English, and Ilonggo, being from Iloilo. Juanita Marquez Lim Gokongwei was his half-sister. My maternal grandmother was fluent in Spanish, English and Ilonggo. My mother spoke fluent Spanish, English and Ilonggo and understood more than spoke some Amoy.  

We ate Chinese and Filipino food with a slight preference for Chinese food. I clearly recall how my grandmother cooked the best sharks fin and black chicken soup with abalone, mushrooms, and fragrant herbs. Sometimes, I would pretend to be “not feeling well” just so she would cook those for me. 

Today, I know, if I were to eat Chinese food every day for a year, I wouldn’t have to eat the same dish twice. That’s one hell of a wealthy cuisine! It was only a few decades ago when I became conscious about the killing of sharks that I had completely stopped ordering sharks’ fin soup. 

My grandfather, Angkong, Eduardo Co Seteng, co-founded Equitable Bank with Go Kim Pah, the father of George Go and Peter Go Pailian who became my sister’s ninong. Some of my own godparents were also Chinese including Louise Yu and Johny Cheng. 

I vividly recall spending many long hours weekly in the Equitable Bank building on Juan Luna playing with paper money of different colors. This was clearly Filipino Chinese territory and as the eldest grandchild, I “went to work” with my grandfather almost daily! I was exposed early to hard work and business conversations. None of our family members woke up earlier than 6am to start the day as the sun rose… except me! And there was always that air of respect whenever we addressed and responded to each other.

In our house on North Bay Blvd, Balut, Tondo, Manila where I grew up, we had a tennis court where my father and grandfather would play tennis with Filipino Chinese and Filipino friends. During parties held at home, they would come to swim and dance as we had a huge swimming pool and a dance hall. I still see photographs of my grandparents and their friends with Presidents Ramon Magsaysay, Carlos Garcia, and other government officials as evidence of their presence in our Balut residence during their term.

Our backyard in effect was the Manila Bay with a beautiful garden and a wide sea wall in between to keep the ocean away. Fishing boats, “basnigs” were a daily early morning sight and on good Fridays, we would watch flagellants jump off the bridge just across our backyard. 

The house still stands where it used to. We would perhaps still be living there if Smokey Mountain, as it is called today, was not established in the area where it is now found. Right behind our garden!

Our family doctor was Dr. Chuatoco who had a small hospital off the bridge leading to Plaza San Lorenzo Ruiz where, on the opposite side, the Binondo Church stands and Ongpin and Rosario Streets (now Quintin Paredes St.) intersect.

My favorite grocery store was at the corner of Dasmariñas St. where my grandfather would treat me to all kinds of imported candies! Horlicks, Fruitella, M&Ms Hersheys, Whitman’s Sampler, Black Magic, Milady Butterscotch etc. and of course all kinds of the best nuts and an unlimited selection of Champoy! Another favorite was Bee Tin on Ongpin that still stands today, and Times grocery in Quiapo owned by a lady we called Ah-Ko of the Lao-Co family, a cousin of my grandfather. She was a wonderful lady! Another source of candies and other goodies was another elderly lady we fondly called Ku Chay E.

We bought all sorts of bread, hopia, hwat ke, candied peanuts, tikoy and other snack food from Salazar Bakery, and meats, vegetables and fruits from Quinta and Arranque Markets. Shopping and entertainment were done along the Escolta. There was Chiok’s Perfumery, La Estrella del Norte, where I believe the famous jeweller Hans Brumann began his career in the Philippines. 

On weekends, we rode the Motorco double deck buses along the then Dewey Blvd and enjoyed swimming and picknicking in Jale Beach at the end of that Boulevard in Parañaque. 

Always, trips to Chinatown with my parents or grandparents, were an adventure. Family dinners were something to look forward to. It was a real treat to dine at Bayview Hotel, Shelbourne House, Singya Restaurant, and later, in the Chinese restaurant on the ground floor of the New Frontier Theater across the Araneta Coliseum that specialized in Szechuan cuisine. The name skips my mind for now.

So, my pre-grade school world revolved around Chinatown, downtown Manila, and pretty much the old city as we know it today.

I remember tagging along with my grandmothers and mother as they shopped in Aguinaldo’s, Oceanic, and Heacock stores in downtown Manila until these stores made a move to Cubao and Makati. 

In those days, we were visibly exposed to and inundated with ads of mostly goods from the USA. Our toys were from Fisher Price and Tonka and all our appliances were made in USA, dominated by Frigidaire, Motorola, Singer, General Electric, and Westinghouse. As a car afficionado, my father had in our garage a Cadillac Fleetwood limousine, Thunderbird, Pontiac Catalina, Galaxy 500, Fairlane 500, Jaguar, Toronado, Lancia Flaminia sports car, Mercedes Benz and others all from the USA and Europe until Toyota and Nissan took over the car market. Sony, Sharp, Toshiba, Akai, National, and Panasonic, eventually took up most of the appliances and electronics market.

China and Chinese made goods were nowhere in sight even up to the 90s, I believe. No one in their right minds would buy even a rice cooker made in China. No one ever imagined anything like Huawei or Midea or Xiaomi or BYD as leaders in technology, nor high speed trains running at 350 kmph and soon at 500 Kmph!

In my childhood till my 20's I could never think of a China Space Station as we have it today, far outshining "the West's" space station that did not even want China to be a part of it. Until recently, most people looked at Chinese goods sold at 168 and Lucky Chinatown as the standard and level of “made in China” goods. We appreciated them because they looked good, were readily available in quantity and were cheap. Until Tim Cook was asked on western TV if the reason he makes Apple in China is because labor is cheap there. He replied that in fact, he didn't know where he could find cheap labor in China! If he needed to find highly skilled and precision engineers in the USA, he could only have a room full of interviewees. In China, he could select from 2 football fields full of applicants.

Despite going to Filipino, British and American schools here, in the UK, and in the USA between 1957 to 1973 all throughout my childhood, adolescent and early adult years, I did not lose track of my Chinese roots. I simply became a very close observer of unfolding events at home and around the world all my life. 

I remember a story from my Coseteng grandfather. He died when I was only 10, but the few years I spent with him taught me lessons I will never forget. One of the most important ones he mentioned was when in those days, on a bridge in China, there was a big sign that read "Dogs and Chinese not allowed." Later on, as an adult during a visit to China, that line was repeated to me a few times. I was certain it was not made up as it had survived 6 decades from when I first heard it. And it came from people who didn't know each other, as well as some who did not even know me.

Without much elaboration each time, I concluded something must have been brewing and China had to address it for their own good.

My grandmother, Amah, Mary Tan was extremely literate and an excellent writer. So much so that many relatives and friends would ask her to read letters they would receive from their families in China and she would prepare responses for them. She gained their trust because none of the items contained in the letters were ever divulged. Obviously, she wasn't one to engage in gossip! I enjoyed the company of these ladies as I listened to their stories intently. It gave me a great opportunity to sharpen and practice speaking in Amoy and gave me ideas about real life in China from real life people, many of whom brought food and goodies whenever they came to visit. They referred to China as “Lan Tsu” (our house) and life as really tough.

My paternal grandmother was one of the biggest influences in my life (the other being my maternal grandmother and my parents). She had only 2 sets of single sized bed sheets, 2 pillowcases and one pillow in use. She had maybe 5 pairs of shoes and most of her handbags were of the 50's and 60's till she passed in the 80's. My aunt, Regina Sy, also of Chinese descent would be her source of new dresses from our family’s couturier R.T. Paras. She never went on shopping sprees except to buy fruits, food and my collection of 33 rpm records which we bought in Sta. Mesa Market. She used no cosmetics and cologne and most of the time washed her own clothes and cooked her own food. She was the best example to me of a true practitioner of the quote. “From each according to their ability and to each according to their needs!” Sadly, that part I did not inherit. Come to think of it, that is one of the biggest regrets of my life! The other one, being illiterate in Mandarin. Both unforgivable. 

I must admit that at some point, I wondered why many Filipinos opted to change their Chinese names to Filipino names, adapting their sponsors names upon attaining Filipino citizenship. I couldn’t get it.

We didn't. My father’s younger brother Edison maintained our surname Co Seteng for his family and our family carried Coseteng, one word, to this day.