Welcome to Streetprint Manila

About Streetprint Manila

Streetprint Manila is a research project that is part of a larger research endeavour called “Six Continents and Between”. Initiated by Prof. Gary Kelly of the University of Alberta, 6CAB seeks to investigate popular print culture across various geographical, sociocultural, and ethnolinguistic contexts. More specifically, it aims to look at reading patterns and preferences of the Filipino Everyman, or those whom we would largely consider members of the “masa” class.

The images and narratives presented in Streetprint Manila were gathered from June 2013 to June 2014 from various areas of the National Capital Region (Metro Manila), and represent but a snapshot of the thriving and dynamic reading culture in the Philippines. The artifacts gathered for this website demonstrate Filipino readership immersed in a wide variety of textual forms, from religious texts to graphic novels, children’s books to romance novels, ghost stories to award-winning books. Most of the artifacts are in English and Filipino, with a number in other native languages such as Cebuano, Ilokano, Hiligaynon, and Pangasinense.

The narrative section contains reflection pieces about the insights gained during the research experience, descriptions of the various aspects of data collection and the artifacts gathered, interviews with a number of reference persons, and general observations throughout the research process.

This website is an experiment in the use of the Open Source Streetprint platform, and is an attempt at the application of digital humanities in field research in comparative literature. Through this humble project, we hope to pave the way for more sustained research into the complex yet compelling areas of inquiry that are Philippine popular culture and readership.

Author/Administrator: Christian Ylagan, Western University

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Methodology

This project utilized mostly a research-reporting approach, which means that anecdotal evidence based on artifacts gathered and interviews conducted were the primary sources of data. Bestseller lists, information from readership surveys, publication information were gathered from publishers, some retail stores, and consumers of these popular texts. These pieces of information were collated, processed, and analyzed by the main researcher.

Aside from gathering artifacts, interviews were also held with a number of Filipino authors, publishers, academics, government employees, and consumers of popular texts, with the intention of viewing the situation from inter- and multidisciplinary perspectives, as well as gathering material from firsthand sources. Finally, students of the Ateneo de Manila High School, through the assistance of the faculty members of the English Subject Area, were enjoined to provide responses in a mini-readership survey about reading habits and preferences.

This research worked within the following parameters:

1. Streetprint Manila – Manila as a geographical parameter was used as a loose, umbrella term to cover various places in the National Capital Region, i.e., it does not solely refer to the City of Manila, but to Metro Manila. Due to the location of the main researcher and those who were interested to help, Streetprint Manila covered various areas in the NCR, most notably, Pasig City, Quezon City, Makati City, as well as various areas in Rizal such as Cainta and its contiguous municipalities.

2. Popular – texts that are economically-costed in price or value, and have high market distribution. These items are relatively cheaper because of content and the materials used in printing. These are also published frequently and circulated regularly. These texts may also be considered bestsellers based on their circulation numbers/statistics. Furthermore, these are highly accessible and points of acquisition are ubiquitous (e.g., in the streets, marketplaces, supermarkets, drugstores, through ambulant vendors, etc.). The texts themselves are expected to be mostly in Filipino as this is the widespread vernacular, though people may have regular reading access to some English texts as well.

3. Print – texts that are published and circulated in paper form, such as newspapers, novels, and comic books. Non-literary print texts were also included, such as religious documents (e.g., the Bible, prayer books, misalettes), pamphlets, and so on.

4. Temporal scope – this research focused on what was currently in demand, or what was in widespread circulation, from June 2013 - June 2014.

5. “Masses” – as a socioeconomic term, this is fairly broad and encompassing so whatever definition we give can only ever be used as a guide. The research looked at the reading patterns of those who fall mostly within Classes C, D, and E: people who mostly fall within the diglossic (English vs. Filipino) linguistic divide that is one of the characteristics of the social stratification in the Philippines. These are usually, but not exclusively, minimum wage or blue-collar workers. They would most likely not have access to the same socioeconomic and educational privileges of the middle and upper class, which would have affected their reading preferences and entertainment values.

While the middle or upper classes may have been institutionally socialized to read "high" literature (Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, Hemingway, Eliot, Joyce), "modern classics" (Murakami, Achebe, Martel, Coelho, Rowling), or even newer forms of texts such as graphic novels (Gaiman, Moore, Miller, Spiegelman), people from the lower classes turn their attention to (and to some extent, spend their hard-earned money on) lowbrow and down-market texts written in the vernacular such as romance novels, sensational tabloids, newspaper komiks, celebrity magazines, and prayer books.

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Value

There have been hitherto few studies on popular print culture in the Philippines; thus, the value of this research lies in the novelty of the subject. Among these, Dr. Soledad S. Reyes’ encompassing works on popular culture are probably one of the most authoritative. Dr. Patricia May Jurilla’s book, Tagalog Bestsellers of the Twentieth Century, is perhaps the most recent and authoritative study on the history of the book in the Philippines. Streetprint Manila tries to apply the framework and insights raised by Drs. Reyes and Jurilla as regards the contemporary reading culture and tradition in the country. Knowing current trends in popular readership will hopefully enable us to understand better such things as literacy and literary issues, contemporary social and political trends, and concepts of nation and national literature. If anything, it will allow us to focus on aspects of Philippine society that we would not normally think about or problematize.

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About Metro Manila

The Republic of the Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia with a rich and colourful history. Conquered and occupied by the Spaniards for 333 years, by the Americans for 48 years, and by the Japanese for 4 years, the Philippines is defined by centuries of colonial experience. Metropolitan Manila, officially known as the National Capital Region, is the metropolitan region and seat of government of the Philippines. It is composed of the capital city of Manila, as well as the neighbouring cities of Caloocan, Las Piñas, Makati, Malabon, Mandaluyong, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Navotas, Parañaque, Pasay, Pasig, Quezon City, San Juan, Taguig, Valenzuela, and the municipality of Pateros. It is a sprawling urban center of 246 sq. mi., which is home to almost twelve million people (2011). The city of Manila is the most densely populated city proper in the world.

The Philippines is officially bilingual, with its two official languages Filipino and English. It also has twelve official auxiliary languages. Majority of the population in Metro Manila speak Filipino (or Tagalog, the lingua franca on which it is based) and have at least functional literacy in English. However, depending on the system of classification, there could be anywhere from 120 to 175 languages spoken within the country’s 7,107 islands. Thirteen languages have at least one million speakers: Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilokano, Hiligaynon, Waray-Waray, Kapampangan, Bikol, Albay Bikon, Pangasinense, Maranao, Maguindanao, Kinaray-a, and Tausug.

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About the Author

Hi, my name is Christian Ylagan, the primary researcher for Streetprint Manila. I first learned about the Six Continents And Between Project while I was taking a Special Topics course on Proletarian Literature with Prof. Gary Kelly for my Master's degree in Comparative Literature at the University of Alberta. I was blessed with the opportunity to go back to the Philippines and see how the local pop culture scene is thriving all over Metro Manila, from where I returned with a renewed appreciation for an aspect of society and literary culture that is often overlooked and undervalued. Now that I am doing my PhD in Comparative Literature at Western University in London, Ontario, I take that knowledge of what I have seen and remain driven to know more about the burgeoning developments in popular culture, in the Philippines and beyond.

Feel free to contact me for any questions, or comments, or feedback. I look forward to hearing from everyone!