philippine studies Ateneo de Manila University • Loyola Heights, Quezon City • 1108 Philippines Conditions of Visibility: Resignifying the “Chinese”/”Filipino” in Mano Po and Crying Ladies Caroline S. Hau Philippine Studies vol. 53, no. 4 (2005): 491–531 Copyright © Ateneo de Manila University Philippine Studies is published by the Ateneo de Manila University. Contents may not be copied or sent via email or other means to multiple sites and posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s written permission. Users may download and print articles for individual, noncom- mercial use only. However, unless prior permission has been obtained, you may not download an entire issue of a journal, or download multiple copies of articles. Please contact the publisher for any further use of this work at
[email protected]. http://www.philippinestudies.net Fri June 27 13:30:20 2008 Conditions of Visibility: Resignifying the "Chinese"/"Filipino" in Mano Po and Crying Ladies Caroline S. Hau Historically ident$ed with commerce, capital, and communism, and long defined by its problematic relationship with Philippine nationalism, "Chineseness" has been reconfigured over the last three decades in line with the geopolitical, demographic, economic, social, and cultural trans- formations of the Philippine nation-state and society. This article analyzes the potentials and limits of "Chineseness" in such films as Mano Po and Crying Ladies, which draw on the discourse of national integration to situate the "Chinese Filipino" within the territorial boundaries