6 - Seeking Salvation and a Chinese Nation

Summary

“Seeking Salvation and a Chinese Nation” follows similar themes as the previous chapter, tracing parallel efforts by Chinese in the Philippines to invest in and protect the Chinese nation. Shifting to equally prominent community leaders and China Banking Corporation founders Albino Z. Sycip and Guillermo Cu Unjieng, as well as another outside ally, Filipino politician Manuel L. Quezon, this chapter explores how these prominent individuals used their connections to influence Chinese politics and expand their business opportunities. Wealthy Chinese from the Philippines created and expanded fictive families, building a network of support that they could call on in times of need. Manuel Quezon, a leading Filipino politician, working with Chinese allies in the Philippines, met with the leading political figure in Republican China, Chiang Kai-shek, which lent him a type of legitimacy as a spokesperson for his still colonized country. This chapter concludes by examining how the national exigency of Japan’s invasion led the founders of the China Banking Corporation to place concomitant efforts to construct Hokkien nationalism on hold and work toward greater Chinese liberation.