This Site established November, 2023 An.Dom.
Lun͠gsód n͠g Quezon, S. P.

Mr. 宝静明 Pao Ching-ming, Esq. voted
Tweeter of 100% Quality
by a plurality of Twitter (presently "X") "netizens."

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Dear visitor, reader, sibling in Christ:

Thank you for visiting my site on the World-wide Web. Its name, Tapilók-bángon, I derived from two Tagálog words: "tapilók," which is to stumble injuriously, and "bángon," to arise or get back up again. In that sense, I think it's as apt a metaphor for my life and for Creation at large as any.

The sketch superimposed on the picture beside the foregoing paragraph is by my ex-boyfriend Yixi, who is an incredible artist and translator. We're still very good friends. Our main point of connection was eunuchism, where two long-time interests of mine intersect: Queerness and Chinese history. The former though is both interest and (one could say) entanglement. As I recall, the first-ever protracted or "proper" conversation we had involved me sending him what must have been hundreds of words on the Eunuch vis-à-vis sexed/gendered modes of being in feudal China vis-à-vis the same in the semicolonial, semifeudal Philippines. If I were more knowledgeable then, I would have included a point about able- or really whole-bodiedness, for as one source notes:–

Because of a long held belief that the body should remain complete the castrated parts were preserved and buried with the eunuch so that he may become whole again in the after-life. The severed parts were available for inspection once a year and were referred to as 宝 bǎo "the precious."

Incidentally, that character is the same one in my name, which began as a silly pseudonym I came up with during 13-year-old me's Sinophile phase. I am 17 now, and still probably Sinophile-adjacent. My objective view of China to-day though is that it is an imperialist power out to further its own interests by disrupting US hegemony, which it has so far been successful in doing. That, however, doesn't stop me from having interest in its history and in its world-historic achievements during the all-too-brief period of New Democracy and socialism, when "Red China" was actually Red and when a quarter of humanity felt for the first time in 5,000 or so years what it was like to be human in the truest, profoundest sense of the word.

At any rate, I am only a patriot for and of the Philippines, and nowhere else. That patriotism, that love of country and love of its people, for me goes hand-in-hand with my Christianity, my antiïmperialism, my Queerness, my disability, and everything else that makes me who I am. I love the Lord and therefore I'm an antiïmperialist; I'm an antiïmperialist and therefore I'm for Queer liberation; I'm for Queer liberation and therefore I'm for disability justice, too; &c., &c. It's love—sweet love, critico-revolutionary love—all the way down!

If I can spread love, if I can love and be loved in turn, then I will have lived as full a life as I can. And being really just an extension and/or representation of myself, that's all that this Web-site is about. Count me then, dear friend—and pardon me if at this point you think that a liberty!—

Yours in revolutionary solidarity,

Pao Ching-ming.

N. B. I wrote the above on the morning of the 24th August, 2024. Some notes on the pictures and the quotes below each of them in the sidebar to the left:–

1. Gu Kaizhi, to the left of the masthead, and the emperor from the Admonitions Scroll, traditionally attributed to him, to the right. Part of the thousand-plus-word draft that would originally have made up the bulk of the prefatory letter above: On the Admonitions Scroll (Under construction!).
2. Prof. José Ma. C. Sison fresh out of the Hague's Scheveningen prison, 13th September, 2007. For a year before his death, we were comrades, friends, and cobiographers. More on that here: José Ma. Sison on various current issues. The Bible verse below is one of my favourites.
3. A map of the Philippines, its rightful territory of Sabah included. (I have been told, by the way, that it should only be eastern Sabah, and not the whole of the province. Apologies!) Kim San's quote from p. 212, Song of Ariran: The Life Story of a Korean Rebel, coäuthor N. Wales, published 1941 by The John Day Co., New York.
4. Iconic picture of Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled. Excerpt from one Joma piece, "The Bladed Poem."
5. The Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Palestine. Another favourite from the Bible.
6. Life-size clay sculpture of a Tibetan serf in revolt, from an exhibit of 105 other figures done during the Cultural Revolution. Two scans are available on-line of Foreign Languages Press's 1976 picture book: a PDF file and a compilation of image files, both of reasonably good quality. Excerpt from Angeli Lacson's Unbecoming, published 2023 by Paper Trail Projects, Quezon City, p. 25. And seeing as there's no e-copy (yet), read also her "Notes on Paralysis," Protean, 5 June 2023.
7. Sculpture from the same exhibit. Excerpt from María Lorena Barros's "Liberated Women II," Pugadlawin Year 18, No. 3, Jan.–Feb. 1971.
8. Art by martyred revolutionary cultural worker Parts Bagani. Excerpt from the introductory "Toward a Philippine Theoretical Culture," p. 16, in Praxis and Philosophy, first ed., published 1990 by Kalikasan Press, Manila, by Prof. Domingo Castro de Guzmán.

As regards the row of music above, those are just some songs I like listening to and which you might as well while browsing through this Web-site or even on their own. Also, the "Makibáka pará sa pambansâng demokrásya" in my best friend Teya Logos's budóts remix of the Internationale in Tagálog is actually my voice!

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