Manila Chinese Cemetery
Definition
The Manila Chinese Cemetery is the oldest Chinese cemetery in the Philippines, located in Santa Cruz, Manila. Established in the 1870s for the burial of Chinese residents, it became famous for lavish mausoleums—complete with air-conditioning, chandeliers, and running water—earning the description “city of the dead” for its mansion-like tombs along its avenues.
Identities
| Source | Identifier |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manila_Chinese_Cemetery |
| Wikidata | Q6749679 |
| DBpedia | http://dbpedia.org/resource/Manila_Chinese_Cemetery |
Also Known As
The cemetery is popularly called a “city of the dead” or “Beverly Hills of the dead” for its mausoleum streets. Within its grounds stand the Chong Hock Temple and the San Lorenzo Ruiz chapel honoring the Filipino-Chinese martyr.
Examples and Analogies
Where a typical cemetery holds graves, the Manila Chinese Cemetery holds houses for the dead—family mausoleums furnished like ancestral homes, analogous to the tomb-house compounds of Chinese burial traditions adapted to Philippine catholicized Chinese-Filipino families. It parallels in funerary architecture what Manila’s elite mansions represented in residential architecture of the early twentieth century.
Usage Scenarios
Families of the Chinese-Filipino community use the cemetery for ancestral burials and Qingming observances; tourists and heritage walkers visit its heritage tombs and martyrs’ monuments; historians use its mausoleum inscriptions as a record of Tsinoy merchant families and associations (hui guan) of the Spanish and American eras.
Strategies
Conservation practice emphasizes protecting historically significant mausoleums amid urban pressure, documenting associational tombs, and framing the cemetery within Binondo–Santa Cruz heritage corridors for cultural tourism rather than development.
Security and Safety Measures
The cemetery is gated and patrolled, with visitation rules enforced by its administration; heritage visitors are advised on respectful conduct. As with all old Manila burial grounds, structural safety of century-old tombs and storm drainage are maintenance concerns.
Historical Context
Spanish colonial authorities segregated Chinese burials in the 1870s, leading the Chinese community to establish this cemetery south of La Loma. During the Japanese occupation (1941–1945), it was the site of executions of Chinese-Filipino guerrillas and civilians honored today by martyrs’ monuments, and its association tombs record the growth of Manila’s Chinese merchant class from the Spanish era onward.
Challenges and Controversies
The cemetery is criticized as a symbol of inequality—opulent mausoleums in a city of dense informal settlements—while conservationists worry about neglect and the sale or demolition of heritage tombs. Balancing private family rights over tombs with heritage protection remains unresolved.
Related Topic
Binondo is the adjacent historic Chinatown district whose community the cemetery has served since the Spanish era.