How Does Western Culture Influence The

Philippines?

The culture of the Philippines is one of the most unique and diverse among the nations
in Southeast Asia. It is without doubt a Hispanic country, with a strong Spanish cultural
background blending in with the Native Malay culture and other ethnic cultures.

Customs and traditions of the Philippines are strongly influenced by those of Spain, and
by the Roman Catholic religion. Each year, Filipinos from around the country hold major
festivities known as Barrio Fiestas which commemorate the patron saints of the town,
villages and regional districts. The festival season is celebrated with church ceremonies,
street parades in honor of the patron saints, fireworks, beauty and dance contests for
generations old and new, and cockfighting tournaments.

The Black Nazareth processions in Quiapo and Manila, the Fiesta del Santo Niño de
Cebu (Festival of the Child Jèsus) in the Visayas and Mindanao regional area and the
Ati Atihan Carnivale are the major festivals of the country. They combine both Roman
Catholic and native religious influences, and are attended by hundreds of thousands of
Filipinos each year.
The world is a global village. Western culture influences the Philippines pretty much the
way other cultures are assimilated by the locals.

Kids here not only try to look like Western hiphop stars, they also, at turns, look like
Japanese brats. When it comes to design, locals are influenced not just by the west, but
also by our oriental neighbors. Thus, Balinese, Chinese, Asian, or eclectic designs
prevail in home decorations.

TV is filled by western shows, but Korean, Chinese, and Japanese programs have a fair
share of TV fare.
But Korean is the most popular.

Nintendo is not Western, videoke is very Asian (karaoke originated in the Philippines).

When it comes to clothing, there is a general preference for American or Europen

brands. Cars - - - European is considered luxury, but Japanese brands are more
dominant.

The images below shows the western influences to the Filipino culture.
 These influences are very visible in the life style of every Filipino. It cannot be
denied that we are living nowadays with these western influences. Everywhere, you can
see these especially in the youth. Our very own culture is slowly vanishing because of
these fast growing western influences.

WHO ARE THE FILIPINOS?

The culture of the Philippines is a combination of cultures of the East

and West.[1] Filipino identity was born at the same time as its creation, Mainly from its
pre-colonial cultures that merged with the influence of the colonizers and Chinese
traders that melted and evolved to its own unique classical Filipino identity. In the pre-
colonial times, it was a divided set of nations, islands and tribes being ruled by their own
specific social kings, chieftains, Lakans, Rajahs, Datus and Sultans. Every nation has
its own identity and some are even part of a larger empire outside of the modern day
map of what is now the Philippines, for example; Manilawas once part of the Bruneian
Empire. Another example is many parts of the modern day Mindanao is theorized to be
part of the Majapahit empire with its capital being located in East Java in the modern
day Indonesia. The advent of the colonial arrival to the islands started the modern day
Philippines. As it was during that time, that what is today a united islands now known as
the Philippines was created. The Chinese influenced has been felt
throughout Southeast Asia through trade, even before the colonization of the region
specifically Ming dynasty and other earlier dynasties as early as the 9th century. But it
was during the Spanish colonization that modern day Chinese Filipino signature-mark
on what is now the Philippines was developed. These cultures that melted from pre-
colonial internal culture and external influence is very evident in the pre-modern era arts
and tradition of the Philippines.

The Philippines was first settled by Negritos; today, although few in numbers,
they preserve a very traditional way of life and culture. After them,
the Austronesians arrived on the archipelago. Today, the Austronesian culture is
strongly evident in the ethnicities, languages, cuisine, music, dance and almost every
aspect of the culture. These Austronesians engaged in trading with other Austronesians,
particularly in the neighbouring nations of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. They also
traded with the mainland Southeast Asia, as well as Japan, China, the Indian
subcontinent and Arabia. As a result, some of these cultures marked their influences on
Philippine culture.[2][3]
The Spanish Empire then gradually colonized the islands between the 16th and
19th centuries (Batanes being one of the last places to be colonized in the mid-1800s),
after more than three centuries of colonization, Roman Catholicism spread throughout
the archipelago and influenced the religion of the native people. Then, after being
colonized by Spain, the Philippines became a U.S. territory for almost 50 years.
Influence from the United States is manifested in the wide use of the English language,
media and in the modern culture and clothing of present-day Philippines. [4]
 Filipinos are a very good mixture of all the colonizers of the Philippine
archipelago. That is why Filipinos are very talented and can adapt different kinds of
environment. We can easily mingle and adjust different people from different places
because of our blood mixture. Filipinos are a mixture of different breeds that resulted
into a super breed that can resist and endure all kinds of environment. In times of
problems, we don’t easily surrender instead we fight and exhaust all means. We,
Filipinos are positive minded.

Below are the images showing our very own culture.

As Filipinos, our responsibility is to preserve our own culture so that the next
generation will can still adapt and preserve it for the next generation to come. It cannot
be denied that the Filipino culture is highly endangered because of this highly
technological world where our youth is so expose to media. And we know that media is
so much influential.