Celebrating National Women’s Month

Roles have evolved and the definition of being a woman and what she can do is beyond one can imagine. As we welcome the month of March, we’re marking the 8th day to collectively advocate for a diverse, unprejudiced, and inclusive society. 

To live in an era where a woman’s creation and her ability to craft means being able to build safer spaces and reclaim creative and progressive communities collectively. It is an honor to freely paint the town purple, as we fight for justice, and the auspicious lucky red, and applaud these 6 notable Chinese-Filipino women flourishing in their fields.

Charmaine Skye Chua 

Skye, a professional figure skater and a member of the Philippine National Figure Skating team, fell in love with skating when she was 5 and never looked back since. Her parents could not possibly say no to a kid who knows what she wants, laying a strong sense of self-efficacy early on. At the age of 10, she joined her first competition and has been bringing pride to the country competing locally and internationally. 

Photo courtesy of GMA Entertainment

For a young woman like Skye navigating her early 20s, it’s no surprise that her plate is full of promising opportunities. Aside from being an athlete, Skye also entered show business as one of GMA Sparkle artists and is currently on a series called “Heart on Ice” where she plays a character named Sonja. 

Despite already making a name for herself engraved on the rink, she is also studying Sports Science at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She warmed up her spot for being the first UP student to represent the school in the 2025 FISU Winter World University Games in Italy. Skye Chua says she has no regrets about pursuing skating because it is a huge part of who she is. 

Rebecca Chuaunsu 

Rebecca Chuaunsu is a Chinese – Filipino actress who played the lead character of Jewel, a woman with dementia,  in the melodrama film, Her Locket (2023), which she also produced. She won the Best Actress award for the role at the 2024 Wu Wei Taipei International Film Festival in Taipei and the Festival International du Film Transsaharien de Zagora in Morocco, and was recently given the 4th Primetime Media Choice Award. The film has also been a part of the 22nd Dhaka International Film Festival (2024), Marche Du Film – Festival De Cannes (2023) and the London East Asia International Film Festival (2023).

Photo courtesy of IMDb

In an interview, she said that the story was inspired by true events. Rebecca recounted going through the diaries of her parents during the pandemic and got inspired by the ups and downs they have been through as a Chinoy family. 

She also starred in the films Sitsit (2020) and Wagas (2013), Mano po 7: Chinoy, Mano po III: My Love (2004), Taklub (2015), Recipe for Love (2018), and Hinabing Pakpak ng Ating mga Anak (2016). 

Amanda Cua

Amanda founded Backscoop, a fun, quick, and free newsletter that will keep you up-to-date on the top stories on tech and business in Southeast Asia, at age 19 and has been flourishing in the field with thousands of subscribers. In 2024, this young Chinese-Filipino entrepreneur was featured in the Forbes List Asia of 30 under 30 in the Media, Marketing & Advertising category. 

Photo courtesy of Amanda Cua

During the pandemic,  Amanda is one of the students who took a gap year instead of continuing university online. She opted to apply to a startup where her roles include marketing and growth, customer success and admissions, and B2B sales. In an interview, she recalled having to dress up older and more mature to reach an image of an experienced businesswoman as she battles with imposter syndrome in her professional career.  From learning to hire and manage the right people, to reflecting on her growth simultaneously with her company’s mission and vision, Amanda attests that success has no prescription.   

Gabriela Lee

Gabriela Lee is a fictionist and an Assistant Professor at the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UP Diliman, where she also earned her BA in English Studies, majoring in Creative Writing. Her first book, Instructions on How to Disappear is a collection of speculative short stories, where fantasy and sci-fi-driven Manila is filled with paranoia and obscure realities yet to be found. 

Lee is also a highly acclaimed children’s book author and won the PBBY-Salanga Prize in 2019 for her story “A Delicate Strength,” published as Cely’s Crocodile: The Art and Story of Araceli Limcaco Dans by Tahanan Books. She gained her MA in Literary Studies from the National University of Singapore and is currently completing her Ph.D. in English, focusing on Children’s Literature and Childhood Studies, at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, USA. 

Photo courtesy of Gabriela Lee, photo by Sandra Dans

She is one of the contributors to Lauriat: A Filipino-Chinese Speculative Fiction Anthology edited by Charles Tan. An anthology that features the rich and diverse Chinoy heritage, stories of home and away from home that bring a new spice to the Southeast Asian voices.

Add her stories to your TBR list and read her other works at sundialgirl.com.

Caroline Hau

Dr. Caroline Hau grew up in the Chinatown area in Manila. Having both Chinoy parents as artists, she did not find it hard to choose to major in English at UP Diliman but still felt the pressure brought by steering away from the expected path of business and commerce. Her mother being a voracious reader made her flip through pages on shelves at home, developing an extensive palate that later made her a critical reader, and a writer who attempted to unfold a rich childhood. 

Photo courtesy of Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University

Dr. Hau’s exceptional contribution to Chinese – Filipino studies in the Philippines and the diaspora goes beyond language and identity. For one, her book The Chinese Question: Ethnicity, Nation, and Region in and Beyond the Philippines explores the lived experiences of Chinese-Filipino narratives and the question of contradicting sense of belongingness, stereotypes, and conforming in a community. 

By interrogating the politics of the national position of Chinese – Filipinos through generations, and dissecting Filipino box office featuring Chinoy stories, Dr. Hau raises discourses on how race, class, and ideology tightly intertwine with nationality, territory, sovereignty, and cultural identity.

Dr. Hau’s works are a fundamental reading in history, literature, and criticism. Her body of works and other publications can be found at ikangablog.wordpress.com.

Aze Ong

Aze Ong weaves culture and commentary through larger-than-life fiber crochet installation. She dances through the movements of the knots and loops, often to the beat of a percussion instrument. As a Chinese – Filipino contemporary visual artist and performer, her work speaks and signifies a virtuoso’s attempt to retrace a sense of self in a transcultural, and what seemed to be a liminal encounter. 

Photo courtesy of Aze Ong

Aze grew up exposed to her family’s textile business. This allowed her to be involved in indigenous communities and became a volunteer teacher to the Talaandig tribe.  The distinct circular patterns in her pieces trace their origin, the fibers of yarns, to nature. 

Her installations seem to create their ecology where crocheted fiber breathes and lives harmoniously in the quiet and the chaos of a shared and borrowed space. The stillness of found objects and clothing she has been creating evokes a simultaneous strangeness and familiarity. 

Aze Ong’s art invites an energy that seeks to be known,  pushing textile to its limit, and transforming the creator and spectator at once. 

Ayka Go

Ayka Go is a Chinese – Filipino visual artist who uses paper as her medium, manifesting dexterity in collaging and folding thin sheets to reflect on the profoundness of womanhood. Her past works depict a moving recollection of childhood where tenderness meets treachery of nostalgia. In her latest exhibit,” tending the garden,” held in Australia, Ayka explores the female genitalia with extreme vulnerability, as she shares her journey of being post-menopausal at the age of 31. 

Photo courtesy of Lifestyle Inquirer, Photos by JT Fernandez

She outlined her pain through large-scale painting as she processed grief and newfound resilience with a few women who have approached her and been touched by her works. In the Philippines, reproductive health remains a sensitive topic as lawmakers and conservative sectors still treat sex education as tainting the youth’s mind rather than an opportunity to be knowledgeable about one’s body and its rights.  

In one of her paintings, the vulvas stitched together symbolize a sisterhood that counters society’s expectations, especially of aging women. Ayka Go continues to prove that visual art brings the urgency and clarity that come from succumbing to the inevitable change that comes with being a woman in a patriarchal society. 

It’s A Woman’s World And We Are All Seated For It.

Narratives of women transcending from industry to industry encapsulate the hopes and promises that both dig into something personal and unearth a collective sense of marching forward. It is necessary to be surrounded by radical girlypop energy that allows free-flowing creativity, fearless self-expression, bravery despite uncertainty, and the desire to transform and be transformed.

Women artists have a way of showing a world reimagined without undermining what femininity truly means. And the feeling of seeing these ideas live on in others’ work is incomparable. Besides, it would not be surprising to find out how effortlessly women’s lives are almost always interwoven in solidarity.

References

Amanda Cua. (n.d.). Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/profile/amanda-cua/

Bohol, G. (2025, January 17). 5 things to know about rising star Skye Chua in the field of figure skating. Tatler Asia. https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/sports/who-is-charmaine-skye-chua

Brainard, C. M. (n.d.). How I became a writer – Caroline S. Hau – Filipino FILAM Series #3.https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2024/12/how-i-became-writer-caroline-s-hau.html

Hau, C. (n.d.). ikangablog. Ikangablog. https://ikangablog.wordpress.com/

Lee. G. (2023, August 26). Sometimes Sunlight. https://sundialgirl.com/about/

Mercado, J. (2025, January 10). Producer Rebecca Chuaunsu puts spotlight on Filipino-Chinese women | ABS-CBN Entertainment. ABS-CBN. https://www.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/showbiz/movies-series/2025/1/10/producer-rebecca-chuaunsu-puts-spotlight-on-filipino-chinese-women-1145

Ong, A. (n.d).https://www.azeong.com/

Sarenas, M. (2022, December 26). Ayka Go on her Medium of Choice — Paper. https://purveyr.com/2022/12/06/ayka-go-on-her-medium-of-choice-paper/

Singian, L. (2024, November 20). Filipina artist Ayka Go bravely explores nuances of the sex in her Sydney exhibit. Lifestyle.INQ. https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/522843/ayka-go/

—. (2025, January 29). 18 Chinese-Filipino artists are shaping contemporary art this Year of the Snake. Lifestyle.INQ. https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/530451/chinese-filipino-artists-2025/

Villanueva, A. (2024, September 13). Rebecca Chuaunsu aims to raise dementia awareness with ‘Her Locket.’ Manila Standard. https://manilastandard.net/showbitz/314496887/rebecca-chuaunsu-aims-to-raise-dementia-awareness-with-her-locket.html

Carballo, S.  (2024, February 1). Cartellino. https://cartellino.com/features/2024/02/01/Added-to-Cart-Ayka-Gos-Play-House-Offers-a-Place-to-Daydream

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