Are Filipinos considered as Asians or Pacific Islanders?

Question

I constantly discuss this topic with my friends. Am I Asian or Pacific Islander? Filling out forms, i don't know which one to bubble in. There are a few Filipinos thinking they are Pacific Islanders and some like me, think i'm Asian. Which one are we really and why?

Answer 1

Both. But I personally bubble in Pacific Islander if both options are given.

The basic Filipino belongs to Malay stock and have brown skin color compared to typical yellow race Asian (Chinese, Japanese and Koreans). Malays were descended from peoples of SOUTH ASIA-Indian sub-continent, not South China. DNA studies showed that many of the inhabitants of the Philippines were related to Ethnic Malays. Filipino languages (Ilocano, Pampango, Tagalog, Cebuano, Bikol) are part of the Austronesian group, which originates in Asia. The Philippines was isolated from the rest of Asian culture because of more than 300 years of Spanish colonialism and about 50 years American imperialism. Our mixed heritage makes us unique among our Asian neighbors.

Asia is the biggest continent on this planet earth. It encompasses countries in the Middle East Korea peninsula, Borneo, Fiji Islands and some parts of the old Soviet Russian empire. The Philippine villages or barangays looks like the Indonesian countryside or any other place in Southeast Asia with it's rice fields, rice terraces, water buffaloes, fish ponds, native houses and native boats. The Filipinos basic diet like rice, fish and soup, is the common all over Southeast Asia. Filipinos not only look Malay, but the also have many cultural Malay traits.


On other hand, we are Pacific Islanders in the sense that some Filipino cultures are clos%r to Pacific Islanders than Asians, and at least one Pacific Island culture - the Chamorros. It seem
to have a recent Philippine origin. There is also one theory that many other Pacific Islander cultures may have originated, at least partly, from the Philippine archipelago.

Pacific islanders are divided into three groupings:

1.Malayo-Polynesians like Filipinos, Indonesian, Malays, Chamorros.
2. Polynesians
3. Micronesians

Filipinos can be both Asian and pacific islanders. It’s difficult to simplify different asian races, cultures and heritage. i’m sure we are all Homo sapiens or modern human beings. The United States of America the only super power nation on earth recognized as FILIPINOS, the native inhabitants of the Philippines.

For Reference Only

U.S. Census 2000 has different categories:

WHITE (Caucasians, Anglo-Saxon)
HISPANIC (Mexicans, Latin American, Spanish descent)
BLACK (African, Jamaican, Trinidadian, West Indian)
AMERICAN INDIAN OR ALASKAN NATIVE
ASIAN OR PACIFIC ISLANDERS
FILIPINO
OTHER
(Sikatuna - see source)

Answer 2

Pacific Islander Race

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
Are Filipinos considered as Asians or Pacific Islanders?
I constantly discuss this topic with my friends. Am I Asian or Pacific Islander? Filling out forms, i don't know which one to bubble in. There are a few Filipinos thinking they are Pacific Islanders and some like me, think i'm Asian. Which one are we really and why?

Answer 4

Filipino is a mix of Asian, Malay, Pacific Islander, and Caucasian race. By far unique as it is, Filipino is a race. Proof? Check your looks and language.

Answer 5

ACTUALLY, they`re Pacific Islanders. But, they are grouped with Asians on government forms and stuff. My bestfriend is Filipino and her family prefers being called Pacific Islander. And, all Asians don`t look the same. You can tell which country someone is from by the way their eyes and nose are shaped.

Answer 6

Is Filipino Considered Asian

Answer 7

First, my advice to you and other Filipinos is that if you have any questions about your culture, your first source of information should not be the internet, Yahoo Answers, or the library, you should talk your Lola and Lolo (grandma and grandpa) first and learn as much as you can from them while they're still here on Earth to teach you about your own Filipino culture.

My dear, it's simple. Your country is in Asia, Malays are the descendants of the people of Malaysia, Indonesia, Borneo, Thailand, and the Philippines, and all are considered Asian countries.

And if you want more solid proof of your "Asian-ness", a common cultural trait in Asia is the cultural value and concept of FACE, and not allowing someone else to lose face, and this applies to the cultures and peoples of Japan, China, Thailand, Malaysia, and you guessed it, the Philippines.

However, Filipinos are Asians with a Spanish-influenced culture and a national society built on Spanish cultural norms and beauty standards, not Pacific Islanders. And if you want proof of that as well, millions of Filipinos speak Spanish, including my family, as their first language. And even if the majority of Filipinos don't speak Spanish (2,900,000 Filipinos out of a population of about 80,000,000), the culture still lives in the society, in the way the society is structured, all the way down to the nuclear families and the criada/maid system, to a premium and status based on European descent, all living artifacts of why the Spanish culture is a part of the psyche and culture of the Filipinos TODAY in 2006

You are Asian my dear, but at the same time, do not allow yourself to be boxed into American racial terms, asian, white, hispanic, etc., because in reality, research more into that and you'll see that American race terms and cultural viewpoints have deep roots in RACISM.

What do you think you are? DEFINE FOR YOURSELF WHO YOU ARE, don't let the racist standards of America do it for you.

Also, read books, not just about the Philippines, but ABOUT LATIN AMERICA and RACE AND CLASS IN LATIN AMERICA AS WELL, because you'll learn more about your own Filipino culture by doing so, you may not know why now, but when you read books on the topic as I have, you will understand why it relates to being Filipino. God Bless

Answer 8

Asians of course. Check your culture, physical features etc. Original settlers in the Philippines were known as negritos (small negroes), then followed by Indonesian and Malaysian migrations. In fact, there is a striking similarity among Bahasa Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Singpura and Filipino (national language of the Philippines) languages.

You might want to read books on Asian History to further enlighten you.

Answer 9

Definitely Asian. See the following link by the Pacific Islanders Cultural Association's listing countries that come under the Pacific Island classification http://www.pica-org.org/Terms/terms.htm

Answer 10

if it's for scholarships you're better off saying you're Pacific Islander