"[5] According to Go Bon Juan, the most commonly accepted version is usually that the term "sangley" comes from the Hokkien Chinese: 生理; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Seng-lí , IPA: /ɕiɪŋ³³ li⁵⁵⁴/; lit.

[7] According to Go Bon Juan, Hofileña had apparently based this on the pronunciation of the word "trader" in Chinese: 商旅; pinyin: shānglǚ; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: siang-lú / siang-lír / siang-lí; lit.

'frequently comes', which appeared beside "Sangley" labeled in the Boxer Codex (circa 1590s),[6] Dasmariñas record to the King of Spain, which also contains the probable earliest romanization of Japan as "Iapon."

Name that in ancient times was given in the Philippines to Chinese merchants, and that later became generic to those of this race residing in those islands.Spanish Governor-General Francisco de Sande also notes in his Relacion y Descripciones de las Islas Filipinas ("Relation and Description of the Filipinas Islands", 1576) as per Manuel (1948):[10] Throughout these islands they call the Chinese 'Sangleyes', meaning 'a people who come and go,' on account of their habit of coming annually to these islands to trade, or, as they say there, 'the regular port'.The majority of Chinese sojourners, traders, and settlers in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period came from southern Fujian and spoke Hokkien, leaving their mark on Filipino culture (especially the cuisine).

For example, Benito Legarda used this definition when talking to the United States Philippine Commission (1899–1900), citing Wenceslao Retana's Diccionario de filipinismos (1921).

Mestizo de sangley is a term that arose during Spanish colonization of the Philippines, where circumstances were different from colonial settlement of the Americas.

For decades most Spanish men made liaisons and intermarried with indigenous women; their children were considered mixed race and were called mestizo.

As an example, in the late 19th century, the author and activist José Rizal was classified as mestizo de sangley due to his partial Chinese ancestry.

[12] Spanish explorers and conquistadors landed in Las Islas de Filipinas, which they named in honor of Philip II of Spain.

They adopted names such as Jalandoni, Laurel, Lopez, Osmeña, Palanca, Paterno, Rizal, etc., or used transliteration and Spanish phonetic spelling to make them appear Hispanic by concatenation, for example: Asico, Biazon, Chanco, Cojuangco, Cuyangkeng, Goquilay, Lacson, Landicho, Laoinco, Locsin, Ongpin, Quebengco, Sylianco, Tanbengco, Tanchanco, Tanjuatco, Tetangco, Tiongson, Tuazon, Yaptinchay, Yuchenco, Yuchengco, Yupangco, etc.

Aside from shopkeeping, the sangleys earned their livelihood as carpenters, tailors, cobblers, locksmiths, masons, metalsmiths, weavers, bakers, carvers and other skilled craftsmen.

Acting as a transshipment port, Manila attracted Chinese traders from Xiamen (Amoy); they traveled in armed ships to trade with the Spanish.

The Spanish galleons also transported Filipino crew and militia men to the Americas, among which were many Sangleys; Some of them chose to settle in Mexico, Louisiana, and parts of present United States, specially California.

They appointed Governor-General Basco y Vargas, who was instrumental in establishing the tobacco monopoly in the Philippines, though with much help from other Spanish interests and reliance on Filipino local elites, called the principalía.

The mestizos de sangley shifted to the export crop economy by developing and enlarging plantations devoted to agricultural commodities.

By the 1870s, the economic dominance of the British and American merchants and their Chinese trading partners was said by some observers to turn the Philippines into an "Anglo-Chinese Colony under the Spanish Flag".

However, after the attacks of the Chinese pirate Limahong, the Spanish colonists viewed the sangleys differently, fearing them as enemy aliens who posed a security threat due to their number.

During the 17th century, the Spaniards carried out four great massacres and expulsions against the unconverted sangleys, usually generated from real or imagined fears of an imminent invasion from China.

After the violence and turmoil of the Spanish expulsion of Chinese-Filipino population for having sided with the British in their 1762 capture of Manila, mestizo economic power increased in conjunction with its social and political clout.

With no legal restrictions on their movement, mestizos de sangley migrated to other areas in the course of work and business, such as Tondo, Bulacan, Pampanga, Bataan, Cavite, Cebu, Iloilo, Samar, Capiz, etc.

From their concentration in Binondo, Manila, the mestizos de sangley migrated to Central Luzon, Cebu, Iloilo, Negros and Cavite to handle the domestic trade of the islands.

In the late 19th century, José Rizal, a fifth-generation mestizo de sangley, arose as an intellectual from the relatively wealthy, middle-class, Spanish-educated Filipinos known as Ilustrados.

With the help of the colonial government, religious orders built traditional stone-and-brick churches throughout the islands in the Spanish or Mexican Baroque style.

In the late 19th century, cosmopolitan mercantilism emerged in Binondo, at the same time that Western and overseas Chinese merchants entered the island's economy, which was being integrated into the global trading system.

Iloilo produced sinamay, a hand-woven cloth made from fine abaca threads, which was used for the casual camisa de chino; jusi (Chinese term for raw silk), a translucent fabric woven from silk yarn for the formal barong tagalog; and piña, a handwoven fabric made of pineapple fiber for heirloom garments.

In Vigan, Ilocos Sur, known as kasanglayan (meaning "where sangleys live"), prosperous Chinese-Filipino merchants built stone-and-wood houses (really brick and wood) called bahay na bato.

These followed some of the tradition of Malay village houses-on-stilts, called bahay kubo, but instead of using bamboo and thatch, they used molave-wood structural beams to frame the two-story house.

The steep roofs with overhanging eaves provided shelter against rain and storms, and added to the sense of openness and space connecting the interior and exterior.

During less severe rain and in the hot summers, the sliding windows could be opened to allow greater circulation of air and more light into the house.

The mestizos de sangley synthesized a hybrid culture incorporating Hispanic and European influences with both indigenous and Asian elements.