The Philippines was named in 1542 after King Philip II of Spain (who also became King Philip I of Portugal in 1580). According to the Treaty of Tordesillas that preposterously divided the newly discovered lands beyond Europe between Spain and Portugal, this archipelago of over 7,000 islands fell under Spanish claims. However, the first European expedition to reach the Philippines, while sent by the Spanish crown, was led by the Portuguese explorer Fernão de Magalhães, known t

The 37th World Expo is currently being held in Osaka (大阪), Japan, from April to October this year. This is only the fourth World Expo to...

Map of Southeast Asia in Fernão Vaz Dourado's Atlas Universal of 1571 The Portuguese shocked maritime Southeast Asia when Afonso de...

This is the third and final post on José d'Almeida, a Portuguese pioneer of Singapore. Part 1 describes d'Almeida's life prior to...

200 years ago, in 1825, José d'Almeida Carvalho e Silva arrived as a 41-year-old Portuguese physician in Singapore, then only into its...

I’ve written about how Singapore, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of its independence from the United Kingdom this year, could...

The 23rd floor reception of the Club Lusitano in Hong Kong The Portuguese presence in East Asia is firmly anchored in Macau, which Ming...

A golden barrel cactus, known in Japanese as キンシャチ (kinshachi) or 金鯱 in kanji As the first Europeans to make contact with the Japanese,...

As the first Europeans that the Japanese encountered, the Portuguese made a deep cultural impact on the Land of the Rising Sun. Many...

福砂屋 (Fukusaya) logo incorporates a Portuguese ship. I wrote last year about the delicious Japanese castella cake  (カステラ) that originated...

I recently made a few trips to India, and drinking chai (tea) was definitely a highlight. [Here's an interesting post about the...

It is a common lament among Portuguese people living in Asia why there aren't more direct flights to Portugal. Currently one can fly...

Today, August 9, is Singapore's National Day. The country is celebrating 59 years of independence a few days before the close of the 2024...

The Emmy Awards nominations caused a stir last month, July 2024, when Shōgun (将軍) topped the list with 25 nominations including best...

There are many famous naval battles in history: the Battle of Midway in World War II, the Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars,...

In a post a few years ago, I wrote about the fact that when the Portuguese first arrived in India , they were surprised to encounter...

Portugal celebrated 50 years of democracy a few weeks ago on the 25th of April. On that day in 1974, a military coup ended 48 years of...

文明堂's beautiful wrapping paper showing a Portuguese man with a servant. A few months ago I wrote a post about how the Portuguese...

To be Eurasian is to be between two worlds, with ancestors from both Europe and Asia. From the perspective of ethnicity there is much...

I just returned with my family from a year-end vacation in Cebu, in the central part of the Philippines. While we spent most of the time...