POST-COLONIALISM: New Yorker in Tondo by Marcelino Agana, Jr.

The Theory:

Post-colonialism (also Post-colonial theory, Post-colonial studies, and Postcolonialism) is an academic discipline that comprises methods of intellectual discourse that present analyses of, and responses to, the cultural legacies of colonialism and of imperialism (usually European and of the U.S.), which draw from different post-modern schools of thought, such as critical theory. Post-colonial Studies examines the relations of power under colonialism and neocolonialism through analyses of cultural representations. As history, post-colonialism is a form of contemporary history that questions and reinvents the cultural ways of viewing and of being viewed. In the field of anthropology, post-colonial studies record the human relations among the colonial nations and the peoples of the colonies they had ruled and exploited. To present the ideology and the praxis of (neo) colonialism, post-colonial critical theory draws from, illustrates, and explains with examples from the humanities — history, architecture, anthropology, the cinema, feminism, human geography, linguistics, Marxist theory, philosophy, political science, sociology, religion and theology, and post-colonial literature.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postcolonialism)


The Story:

courtesy of: http://www.philippinereporter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/new-yorker-in-tondo.jpg

New Yorker in Tondo is a classic satirical play in one-act, written by Marcelino Agana Jr. in 1958. First staged by the Far Eastern University (FEU) Drama Guild at the FEU, Manila. This is one of the more popular Filipino comedies that have been produced many times through the years.
This play in Tagalog is about Kikay who is a balikbayan or a newly arrived from New York. The girl acquires the style, manner, and culture of New York and thus forgets her roots and one true love in Tondo. It also tells how she gets back to being the Kikay of Tondo that her friends and love ones knew.

(courtesy of: http://en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=New_Yorker_in_Tondo)


The Criticism:

“New Yorker in Tondo” accurately depicts the average Filipino’s faux love for the country completely being lost when exposed to a foreign country’s cultural aesthetics. In this satire, Kikay easily throws away memories of when she was a young girl in exchange for her newfound love for New York, of which manners and culture she chose to adapt. The short play conveniently talks about the slowly-deteriorating quality of Filipino patriotism. It depicts a setting where the glitz and glam of a realized dream blinds the eyes of the common civilian, gladly exchanging his own culture for the foreigners’. This satirical play can be connected to times wherein Filipinos were under the rule of the Spanish colony. As a result of 333 years under their rule, we have unwillingly (arguably) adapted their culture into ours. This shows on the modern-day Filipino’s culture. Of course, the Spanish are not the only colonizers who have major contributions to our present society. The Americans, the Japanese, and the Chinese also had us inherit their rich cultures and meld them into our own.