Sangley

Sangley

Sanglay (Sanglaye, Sanglay Mestizo, Mestisong Sanglay, Mestizo de Sanglay or Chinese mestizo; plural: Sanglays or Sanglayes), is an archaic term used in the Philippines to describe and classify a person of pure Chinese ancestry, while mestizo de sanglay was used to refer to a person of mixed Chinese and indigenous ancestry (the latter were referred to as Indio during the Spanish Colonial Period). Sanglay mestizo was a term widely used in the 16th to 19th-century Spanish Philippines to differentiate ethnic Chinese from other types of island mestizos (such as those of mixed Indio and Spanish ancestry, who were much fewer in number.) The Chinese mestizos were granted the legal status of colonial subjects of Spain, with certain rights and privileges denied the pure-blooded Chinese immigrants (sanglays).

Today, Tsinito (from Spanish, Chinito, literally, "little Chinese man") is widely used to describe a Sanglay, but it is also commonly applied to Filipinos of other East Asian ancestries (Japanese, Korean, etc.) who possess similar physical features. Tsinoy or Chinese Filipino, on the other hand, is used to refer to Filipinos specifically of Chinese descent. However, among Chinese-Filipino mestizos, many use and prefer the generic term mestizo.