- Documentation of data from tombstones in Chinese cemeteries all over the country (computer database program). Tombstones from 20 Chinese cemeteries scattered all over the Philippines were photographed. It took half a year to photograph 33,372 tombs from the northernmost part to the southernmost part of the Philippines. Data from the tombstones were entered into a systematized computer database program. Results of the data showed for instance that Chen (or Tan in Hokkien) is the most prevalent surname (9.85 percent), followed by Tsai (or Chua, 8.85 percent), Shih (or Sy/See, 7.85 percent), Wu (or Go, 6.21 percent), Huang (or Uy, 6.02 percent), Lin (or Lim, 5.94 percent), and so on. As to the origins of the Fujian immigrants, 68.67 percent came from Jinjiang, 14.85 percent from Nan-an, 3.13 percent from Hui-an, and 1.95 percent from Xiamen, and so on. Likewise, the data showed that for the Cantonese immigrants, 15 percent came from Toishan, 4 percent from Kaiping, 2 percent from Chongshan, and 1 percent from Shantou. Other important data include the more prevalent surnames in key cities in the Philippines, i.e. Go's are prevalent in Cebu, Ang and Te are prevalent in Davao.
- Microfilming of Spanish archive materials pertaining to the Chinese in the Philippines in the National Archives of the Philippines. A total of 720 reels of microfilms or a total shoot (exposure) of 1.4 million documents in Spanish were completed in the project. Most of the archive documents were already fragile with age (dating from 1522 to 1899). The original copy of the microfilms was given to the Institute of Modern History in Taiwan but a duplicate copy was provided to the Philippine National Archives. Henceforth, these materials will now be readily accessible to researchers. Should the Kaisa Heritage Center have funds, a copy of the microfilms will be requested for our own safekeeping. Other archival materials retrieved and utilized were the Philippine Revolutionary Records from 1898 to 1902. Data from these sources were gathered and published into a monograph, The Ethnic Chinese in the Philippine Revolution, jointly authored by Go Bon Juan and Teresita Ang See.
- Gathering of sources from decisions of the Department of Justice and the Supreme Court pertaining to the Chinese in the Philippines. The opinions of the Secretary of Justice and Supreme Court are precedent setting and have great impact on policies on the Chinese in the Philippines.
- Documentation and photographing of data from Chinese clan and ancestral halls in the country. This provides data on the establishment of the clan or ancestral halls — the ancestor of origin in China, how the group was formed, who were the founding members, and other pertinent information.
- Publication of Zhou Nanjing´s research, The Philippines and the Ethnic Chinese (in Chinese, 1993), Huang Zhi-seng's Essays on Philippine-Chinese Problems (in Chinese, 1998), and English translation of Liang Shang-Wan's Wha Chi Memoirs (1998).
- Assistance to Dr. Bernard Kwok Chu Wong (Australia), Yung Li Yuk-wai (University of Hong Kong), and others on their research (e.g. Ph.D. dissertations) on the Chinese in the Philippines. Dr. Wong's dissertation, The Chinese in the Philippine Economy, 1898-1941, was published in 1999 by the Ateneo de Manila University Press. That of Yung's was published in 1995 by the Hong Kong University and was reprinted by the Ateneo in 1996.
- Adviser to several China exchange scholars with Ateneo de Manila University on their research on the Chinese in the Philippines. This includes Dr. Zeng Shaocong (Xiamen University), Song Ping, Chen Yande, Jiang Xiting. o Joint survey with Chinese University of Hong Kong on new Chinese immigrants to the Philippines. This project is ongoing with Dr. Maria Siumi Tam of the Anthropology Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the authors.
- Research inputs on materials on the Chinese in the Philippines for other foreign scholars like Lynn Pan when she was preparing the single-volume Encyclopedia of Chinese Overseas published in Singapore in 1998. Kaisa provided a number of photographs and other research materials on the Philippine-Chinese for the encyclopedia. The authors also helped Pan on her chapter on the Philippine-Chinese in her book Sons of the Yellow Emperor (1990).
Kaisa hosted two international conferences on ethnic Chinese in Manila:- Conference on "Changing Identities and Relations in Southeast Asia" sponsored jointly with the Chinese Studies Program of De La Salle University in 1991. This was smaller in scope with about 50 participants from Asia, America, Australia, and the Philippines.
- International conference on "Intercultural Relations and Cultural Transformation of the Ethnic Chinese" held in 1998 and sponsored jointly with the Chinese Studies Program of the Ateneo de Manila University. This conference was on a much larger scale and held under the auspices of the International Society for the Study of Chinese Overseas which has Dr. Wang Gungwu as president. More than 200 delegates from six continents — Asia, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, and Australia — attended the conference.
Most of the projects mentioned above have been conducted bilaterally. One institution provides funding and the other undertakes the project, i.e. in the case of the joint project with the Institute of Modern History in Taiwan, funding was provided for Kaisa to undertake and monitor the archive microfilming and the tombstone projects. In the case of the Beijing University, Kaisa sources funding to support the university's research on overseas Chinese. There have not been collaborative efforts yet with other institutions on any research project that would be mutually beneficial to these institutions. Since this conference is on international collaboration, some of the possible projects which we believe can be undertaken on a collaborative basis are:
- A databank of library holdings and digitized research materials that can be readily accessible to any researcher.
- Research on interrelations and linkages among Chinese families in Southeast Asia. For instance, in my late husband's family, there are relatives scattered in Malaysia and Sarawak. My late father's family has relatives in Burma. Connecting these families are relatives based in Hong Kong. Aside from kinship relations, there are also linkages among schoolmates. My late husband has a classmate from National Taiwan University who is now defense minister of Singapore. He also has a classmate who is a professor in Brazil and other classmates in Australia and Brunei. How are such direct and indirect links maximized? How extensive are business connections or guanxi based on these links? This can be a subject of joint exploratory multilateral research.
- Archive and other documentary sources in Latin American countries on the Chinese presence there since it is directly connected to the presence of the Chinese in the Philippines.
- Joint exploration of archive holdings in Seville, Madrid, Washington, and London which pertain to the Chinese in the Philippines. The archives in Spain surely must reveal a lot of new information on the Chinese community at the time. A researcher once recounted that he saw old documents in the British Foreign Office referring to letters of some prominent Chinese who sought British intervention and succor against the Spaniards. The Washington Archives also has extensive holdings on the Chinese in the Philippines. The Lilly Library in Indiana University, U.S.A. holds the Boxer Codex, about 75 photographs of early indigenous natives, including Filipinos and early Chinese. These materials should be made accessible for joint research.