Fil-Chi community unveils biggest friendship mural in Baguio

BAGUIO CITY – The Filipino-Chinese community here unveiled on Wednesday the biggest mural in the city, measuring 200 feet by 14 feet, produced in collaboration with local visual artists. 

The mural was made in 11 months and can be found on a wall along the road that connects the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center rotunda to Burnham Park, near the children’s playground.

“Ang intention nito is (This is intended) to promote better understanding between the Filipino and the Chinese community,” Peter Ng, president of the Filipino-Chinese community executive committee here, said in an interview on the sidelines of the launch.

Ng, a hotelier and an active community worker, said locals and Chinese have co-existed here since the early 1900s when Kennon Road was still under construction.

Supporting arts and crafts

He said the mural project is part of the tie-up with the city government that began in June 2023, during the Filipino-Chinese Day celebration here, and is in line with the celebration for the city’s declaration as a creative city for crafts and folk arts, which it got from UNESCO on Oct. 31, 2017, the first in the country.

Councilor Leandro Yangot, a visual artist who opened the idea of the tie-up with the Fil-Chinese community, said their support came in two forms – the sponsorship for the arts and painting classes of interested communities or villages who want to learn how to paint or have a working knowledge of painting, and the mural project.

He said eight individuals regularly worked on the mural but 12 apprentice painters from art classes also joined the project.

The mural shows cultural representations of the Cordillera people and the Chinese, and was conceptualized by a group led by Filipino-Chinese visual artist Chino Chow.

Chow said that while they did the mural, people inclined to the arts offered to contribute a little time and do some painting.

“There were some tourists and locals who happened to pass by and saw us doing the work and decided to join. This is a collaboration of many talents and efforts of different people from different backgrounds but are supportive of the arts,” he said.

“This mural is a combination of the Cordillera culture and the Chinese ancestry, which is a celebration of shared history. Thank you for helping us paint the story.”

Venus Tan, a retired government executive who was among the minds behind UNESCO’s recognition of the city for its arts and crafts said, “This is a work that we are proud of as it shows the creativity of many people in the city.”

She said she hopes to see more murals on other public walls here that would show the artistry of the people in the city. (PNA)