At San Fernando de la Union, I visited the "Ma-cho Temple" (Ma-cho = Mácó· 嬤祖), supposedly the largest "Taoist" temple in the country. I didn't hear anybody speaking Hoklo while I was at the temple. There was much evidence of ties to Taiwan, inc. a record of donations made in the aftermath of cyclone Morakot. Most interesting, on Luzon Mácó· is seen as being one and the same with the Virgin of Caysasay. I'll upload some info on this soon.
The La Union and Pangasinan area has probably had ties to Hokkiàn and Kúiⁿtang since time immemorial. The Hakka (?) pirate 林鳳 Lîm Hōng once made inroads in Lingayen. An animated movie about 林鳳 came out in the Phils a few yrs ago.
Back in Manila. Lots of Hoklo at the mall in Green Hills. No surprise, in a city where Hoklo make up a huge chunk of the upper middle class and the professions. I did hear one 40s-ish lady asking another something in Hoklo.
Binondo is ground zero for Hoklo speakers on Luzon. I decided not to re-visit Binondo b/c I had lots of errands to run elsewhere and other places to see. Not w/o regrets. The news is good coming out of Binondo. Property values continue to be very "strong" there. Revitalization of the district is already under way.
BTW I asked the lady from Lâm'oaⁿ from the pơcûn 飛船 if they spoke Hoklo when out and about in daily life. She said they did. I tried to ask her if her native Lâm'oaⁿ Hoklo was different from Binondo Hoklo, and if she had adjusted toward Binondo Hoklo since she started living there, but she didn't get my drift. I said that a lot of the things her son and her said pretty much resembled Luzon Hoklo as I knew it. She said, "Well, of course, my son grew up here, his Hokkien is far from perfect." But of course her son spoke brilliant Hokkien. Is there a "Luzon Hoklo" or "Binondo Hoklo" with a flavor of its own? I'm guessing there is. Maybe Siamiwako can comment on this if he comes by here by and by.
On the last day, on my way to the markets at Divisoria, I stumbled through a section of Tondo which is really an extension of Binondo. An intense Chinatown feel -- U know what I mean. The streets, the office buildings, the apartments, the shops. Probably 30% of the people in the streets were culturally Tsinoy, the rest were Chinese-Spanish-Pinoy mestizos, a.k.a. Pinoys.
With visibly less Chinese and European than, say, the folks shopping at Green Hills or Taguig City near Makati. The dominant language was by far Tagalog. (Caveat: I can't tell Tagalog apart from other Phils languages.) Nearby, in one of the markets at Divisoria -- where I bargained in one shop in Hoklo once a few yrs ago, come to think of it -- I heard one 40s-ish lady say something to another in Hoklo, something about 90 of something (or a price), and how someone wasn't coming anyway, so forget about it. "M̄ bián--lah," she said, but she said it like miang, with a high-level tone. My head spun around to see who was talking. She noticed me noticing her right away.
On the packed light rail, I was surprised to hear a mother-son duo -- teenage son, 40-ish mother -- talking in full Hoklo. They spoke kind of hush-hush, though, I couldn't understand hardly any of it. They were speaking pure Hoklo as far as I could tell -- no code-switching, no words from Tag or Eng as far as I could see. They got off at the stop on the edge of Binondo.
Conclusions and observations so far:
1) There are still people in the Phils who actively speak Hokkien, right down to the kids, poss. even to each other.
2) They pretty much all live in Binondo and the "Binondo spillover" zones. In the rest of Manila, Tsinoys middle-aged and over -- representing a disproportionate section of the business class -- may generally speak Hoklo and even read Chinese, but their kids probably don't, and they themselves probably use Tagalog and English a lot more in their daily lives. In the past, some of them may've also used Spanish and the Manila version of the Chabacano Spanish creole, both of which are dying out on Luzon.
3) Social circles may be pretty closed. The classic Chinatown worldview and mindset, with a Phils twist. The kids go to Chinese schools, where they're joined by lots of mestizo and pure Pinoy kids.
4) These Hokkien speakers are probably economically less well off than the suburban Tsinoys, who seem to identify with English over Tagalog and really don't speak Hokkien anymore. (Sound familiar?)
5) There is not the same "Let's All Speak Mandarin! Yay, Mandarin!" vibe that U get in SG, MY, and even post-Suharto ID, not to mention TW and most of China.
6) Even new businesses seem to choose their names (both Chinese and Anglo/Pinoy) based on Hokkien considerations. For example, a spa called Senses was called 仙詩三温䁔 in hanji.
In closing, the Luzon Hoklo, esp. Binondo Hoklo, give me this feeling of marching to an older beat than the PRC or even the ROC. A 反清復明, 鄭成功, 嬤祖-worshipping consciousness seems to pervade their Chineseness. Their media talks about "Taiwan" issues w/o taking on hysterical, nationalistic tones -- unlike MY/SG. The idea of maritime Hoklo power on "the islands" seems natural to them. When they go to China, they go to Coanciu and Amoy. To them, Coanciu and Amoy IS China.
All the rest will have to stay unsaid for now. I'll leave it to aPin to make his way to the islands and flesh out this field report some more.
