RATIONALE

The Philippines’ entanglement with Hispanic and Hispanicized cultures from the sixteenth century facilitated the flow and exhange of goods and ideas to and from Asia, on the one hand and the Americas and Europe, on the other. The Philippines, Manila in particular, played a crucial role not only as an important trans-shipment point for American silver, Chinese porcelain, textiles, and other products, but also as a melting pot of cultures. The 500th anniversary of the Philippine-Spanish encounter provides an opportune moment to analyze and reflect on the vaunted yet largely understudied intercultural encounters between Europe and Asia.