Chip Tsao calling Phillipines as nation of servant

Last March an article of a certain Chinese columnist in Hongkong named Chip Tsao was published that upon reading it, being a Filipino would most likely stir any Filipino's pride. Obviously, Filipinoes were deeply offended thus clamor of disgust has been heard and opinions had been raised. Below is the complete article of Chip Tsao.


Title: The War At Home
Dated: March 27th, 2009
Source: http://hk-magazine.com/feature/war-home

The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen on board. We can live with that—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That’s no big problem—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.

But hold on—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: there are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.

As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell every one of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China.

Grimly, I told her that if war breaks out between the Philippines and China, I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day. With that money, she would pay taxes to her government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings.

Oh yes. The government of the Philippines would certainly be wrong if they think we Chinese are prepared to swallow their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. They may have Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout “China, Madam/Sir” loudly whenever they hear the word “Spratly.” They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, “Long live Chairman Mao!” at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that’s going a bit too far, at least for the time being.


Though it's a little bit late for a comment as regards to Chip Tsao's article calling my country, Philippines, as a nation of servant, still I'd like to pursue my notion. I myself uphold that everyone is entitled for his own opinion, but giving an opinion in which sort of to belittle one's country as a nation is another story. We, part of the human race, regardless if your from south, north, east or west of this huge orb, are belong to one living nation, for even history proves we are interrelated and interacted with each other merely separated by culture. So, no one with a sound mind has an iota of right to look down on one's country. A group of country could be a first world, second or third in the category of economic affluence, but as a nation, as a country and as a people no country is superior or inferior than the other.

Come to think of it on a positive note, it appears to me whose Chip Tsao's article may serve as an awakening cue to each and every Filipino out there. We are a great nation. Our great men of antiquity fought of how great nation we are. Yet, as times passing by we tend to shrug it off, we aren't striving as a nation, as one citizen of our country. We lauded Manny Pacquiao, Charice Pempengco, and Arnel Pineda, as if we're contented for single person to carry the flag. There is also war at our own home and that war is making us apart, the sad truth is fellow Filipinoes fought for each other for no noble cause.

One more thing, from his article I'd like to quote his words "Philippines as a nation of servant." Being a servant as a job to a foreign land is a noble one which nothing to be ashamed of, because their family left behind is provided out of their sacrifices without stepping on to other people's right or dignity.