Last Thursday night, June 12, 2025, I attended the opening of the Chinese Film Festival in Cebu at the Ayala Central Bloc Cinemas in IT Park, Lahug.
I’d like to thank the Chinese Consulate General in Cebu for the invitation and for another opportunity to observe, up close, what Uncle Sam often views as a competitor and a top threat. You know how it is here in the archipelago: whenever Uncle Sam catches a cold, America’s little brown brother ends up in a sneezing fit.
The event didn’t start as scheduled — the invite said 6 p.m. — which surprised me because I never thought our northern neighbors suffered from “Filipino time.” Then, after what seemed like an eternity, the emcee announced the arrival of three Cebu City officials. Mystery solved.
Consul General Zhang Zhen delivered a heartwarming speech, with a gentle reminder to the local audience that the two countries never had a history of enmity. She instead focused on what the Chinese and Filipinos share. Perhaps it’s only apt that she would point that out in Cebu City, the only major urban center in Southeast Asia that doesn’t have its own Chinatown because, as they say, Cebu is one big Chinatown.
Actually, I’m just repeating what others have been saying. I don’t know if that’s a fact. But hey, Davao City has Uyanguren.
At any rate, the consul general thought that a film festival showcasing various movies in different genres from China would offer Cebuanos a glimpse into modern Chinese culture and society. After all, film is a universal language. These films will show us that they, the Chinese, are people too. They laugh, they cry, they suffer, they triumph. Just like us.
We can learn so much from them: like how they’ve lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty in a couple of decades; or how they deal with corrupt public officials by meting penalties that can range from fines to the death penalty; or how they’ve built an infrastructure that can rival that of the West.
Of course, it doesn’t help that Philippine media often adopts Uncle Sam’s view hook, line, and sinker, even though it’s so easy to fact-check the rhetoric that Uncle Sam has been spewing against China.
But let’s not ignore the elephant in the room. The issue involving the West Philippine Sea does put a damper on Sino-Philippine relations. I’m sure Chinese officials can justify to the world water-cannoning Philippine vessels, but it doesn’t improve China’s image to the majority of Filipinos. Still, the problem is a complex one.
Obviously, I don’t have the answer, but Malacañang and Beijing can always sit down at the table to try and come up with a win-win solution.
No doubt the Philippines is in no position to retaliate against China militarily. But I think that’s a worst-case scenario nobody in the region wants — not even Malacañang. Let’s face it, do you really think Uncle Sam would risk its men and women if it comes to a military conflict? MacArthur only returned in World War 2 because of his ego, since he couldn’t defend the islands from the Japanese in 1941.
But I digress.
What the consul general said about China and the Philippines not having a history of enmity is true. There is no record of China invading the archipelago. Uncle Sam, on the other hand, killed hundreds of thousands of Filipinos after the United States bought the islands from Spain for a paltry sum of US$20 million in 1898, or roughly over half a billion in today’s money. Some, including Filipinos, have tried to justify Washington’s actions, but it doesn’t change the fact that money did change hands and the Philippines ended up under US rule for almost half a century.
Does that make me anti-American and pro-China? Of course not. I’m neither. I’m a film enthusiast who happens to be a history buff. And I am genuinely interested in how China and its society have evolved after the Cultural Revolution. We all should be. That way, we are better equipped at understanding them and their actions. Hopefully, they too would do the same.
We are neighbors, after all.