Through the years, the UST Scarlet Central has aspired to express and honor the spirit of Filipino-Chinese Thomasians, who rarely get to showcase their heritage and ancestral roots in a supposed melting pot of diversity.

This year, Scarlet staged “The Quest for the Spirit of the Fire Horse: Born of Fire, Bound by Spirit,” on Monday, Feb. 16, to bring the lunar spirit to the tiger’s lair, opening the door for the Year of the Fire Horse to gallop into Thomasians’ lives.

“For us, it is a way we share our culture with everyone, because people tend to think that ‘Chinese organization kayo, kaya only Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year,’” UST Scarlet Central President Jamae Tan told TomasinoWeb, and reflected on the event that painted the campus red.

Organized in collaboration with the Office of Student Affairs, the program featured games like Chinese Zodiac charades, raffles with Chinese treats like tikoy as prizes, and a performance by the martial arts club Jin Nan Wushu Team, where they exhibited their Dao (Chinese broadsword), Gun (staff), and Taolu (choreographed routine) skills.

Venturing to new

The event is open not only to Thomasians with Chinese roots but also to students curious about Chinoy lifestyle. Painting student Kayleigh Batayola, representing the UST Red Cross Youth Council, was one of the students who found themselves setting foot in the den.

Batayola, who does not celebrate the Lunar New Year, said witnessing such cultural exhibitions can inspire her art pieces.

“Maganda nga ma-experience yung mga historical, cultural differences and yung political inspiration sa field ko,” they said.

Returning to memories

For Batayola and some representatives of other organizations, this event may be a new sight to behold. Yet for Lex Sytat, a professional development apprentice at UST Scarlet Central, it was a familiar scene that brought back memories of his youth. Growing up in a Chinoy Family, Lunar New Years were not just filled with lanterns and ampaos — they were a fusion of Filipino and Chinese traditions that they practiced as a family.

Imagine: famous Jackie Chan movies playing in the background, a banquet laden with plates of crispy shanghai rolls, a bilao of pancit manifesting long life for those who devour it, and a pile of lechon meat completing the table for one to feast, as the clock strikes midnight and fireworks illuminate the night sky.

This is what Sytat’s New Years looked like, and a memory that he wants to relive and share during the Scarlet’s celebration with his fellow chinitos and chinitas.

“We get to show our traditions to people on how the Chinese culture is very nice and unique,” Sytat said.

Reigniting the heritage

UST Scarlet’s Lunar New Year celebrations come amid the ongoing and heated dispute between China and the Philippines on multiple fronts.

From the West Philippine Sea Fiasco to the POGO Operations that created boiling waters for the Filipinos, the prejudice among the Filipino-Chinese minority has been a reality for a while — furthering the gap for both communities to find a common ground.

However, a study by University of the Philippines-Diliman anthropology professor Chester Cabalza found that Chinese culture is viewed positively by many Filipinos and has been tied to their culture, woven by history — as seen in what they practice, eat, and believe in contemporary times.

Tan hopes Scarlet’s celebration of the Lunar New Year can cultivate the connections between Filipinos, Filipinos with Chinese heritage, and the Chinese.

“We want to share this culture with Filipinos, not only Filipinos, but also to other people from different backgrounds, cultures, or ethnicities who are welcome to celebrate the Lunar New Year,” Tan said.