Tina S. Clemente is Professor at the Asian Center, University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman. She earned her Ph.D. at the School of Economics at the same university. Her research interests include China Studies, Philippines–China economic relations, economic history, and development.

The state of China/Chinese Studies as a field in the Philippines and the corresponding expertise landscape have increasingly generated interest especially owing to Philippine relations with China. In the Philippines, studies on China and the Chinese do not necessarily adhere to strict academic demarcations such as those associated with Sinology, Area Studies, and Chinese Overseas Studies in accordance with civilizational, state, and ethnic interrogations. My discussion begins with the historical interest in the Chinese and proceeds to an exposition on the domains of scholarship, which consists of discussions on academic programs and types of research.