Social evolution and situational learning in Jose Santiago “Chito” Santa Romana’s China Studies 1

This chapter is inspired by the premise that the people who observe China have different lenses, and these lenses are determined by their unique peculiarities and experiences. The vast differences among those who look at China and the notions that they develop must be acknowledged through an admission that these notions are premised differently (Shih 2013). The purpose of this article is to disaggregate and make explicit the causal pathways, mechanisms, and social contexts that had influenced the ideas of Santa Romana—an important figure in the epistemic practice of China Studies in the Philippines—about China and about China Studies in the Philippines.