Manila Culture

Filipino culture is a genuine synthesis rather than a layering, and Manila is where it is densest.

Catholic spectacle

Religious observance here is physical and public: processions, penitential rites in Holy Week, and the Black Nazarene, a dark wooden statue of Christ carried through Quiapo each January by a crowd of millions who believe touching it heals. It is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world and nothing like a tourist event.

Jeepneys

Built originally from surplus American military jeeps after 1945, stretched, roofed and decorated with chrome, painted panels, saints’ names and slogans, they are folk art that carries passengers. A modernisation programme is replacing them, which is contested.

Painting

Juan Luna’s Spoliarium, which won a gold medal in Madrid in 1884 and became a nationalist symbol, hangs in the National Museum and is worth the visit alone.

Music and karaoke

Filipino musicians work across Asia, and karaoke is genuinely universal here.

Food

Filipino cooking is sour and salty where its neighbours are sweet and hot: adobo, meat braised in vinegar, soy and garlic; sinigang, a sour tamarind broth; lechon, whole roast pig; and halo-halo, shaved ice with a dozen sweet things in it. Binondo is the best place in the city to eat, and the Spanish and Mexican inheritance is visible on every menu.

Language

Filipino, based on Tagalog, and English are both official, and educated Manila speech mixes them constantly into what is called Taglish — switching mid-sentence in a way that is entirely unremarkable here. English is the language of law, business and much of higher education, which is why the Philippines supplies so much of the world’s call-centre and maritime labour.