We can trace the history of the circus back to ancient history. The circus is part of the cultural fabric of American cartography, that is, sights and sounds, animals, and performers commonly not seen in towns.
The circus introduces the world to curious Americans who are unable to travel far from home. These traveling circuses bring not the actual world but the version of it imagined and marketed by the circus, reaching both small towns and cities.
The circus’ legacy lies in its method of spreading the word, using advertising techniques like parades and drumbeats to generate interest. Additionally, the use of posters, popularized by the circus, played a significant role in the development of contemporary graphic design.
The whimsical posters become vital in capturing attention and generating interest. The history of the circus posters came with advancements in technological leaps in printing, which took leaps and bounds from the late 19th to early 20th century. These posters share the aesthetic attributes and visual communication of the contemporary election campaign posters. After all, as the 2025 election campaign is upon us, the circus is literally in town with eager blowhards sprouting fanciful promises – much like a circus freak show, which is not much different from campaigning politicians.
The American circus has played a vital role in the emergence of the modern Philippine nation. The circus is related to the fairs, the expos, and most disturbingly, the human zoos used by white supremacist colonial powers. The United States had human zoos in the early 20th century that featured indigenous Filipinos in captivity. Shipped from the northern Philippines, these indigenous people appeared in these human zoos as entertainment in the guise of education.
Among the popular shows is the ritual of dog eating. This earned the insult “dog eaters” hurled against Filipinos then – which even showed up in Trump’s insane rants against Haitians who eat cats and dogs. This is a racist marking brown people as uncivilized, unhygienic, and should have no place in America. These human zoos helped convince Americans that the US government must “civilize” and “Christianize” the Philippines.
In effect, the Filipinos in these human zoos are just like circus clowns who wear garish makeup and act in what is considered absurd.
The traveling circuses showcased the stark difference in culture and values from the dominant White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) cultural cartography of the United States. The distance from the WASP enabled racist assertion of what civilization is…and should be, according to White America.
Baraboo, Wisconsin, has Circus World, among the most prominent museums dedicated to the circus on the planet. This place has the most extensive collection of circus carriages in the United States. Some of Disneyland’s old circus carriages are conserved and stored here. These carriages offer both storage and mobile advertising. Some carriages transport animals in cages that astound the people as they parade to the assigned fairgrounds of the town. Carriages that are heavily ornate and cover the entire thing moved tents, costumes, and other circus materials.
Among the carriages in Circus World are decorated with images of places, communities, nations, and ethnicities involved in the circus. Circus carriages are celebrating France with medieval flourishes reminiscent of the fleur-de-lis. An American carriage shows a scene of Christopher Columbus and his crew arriving at the beachfront of what eventually will be called the Bahamas.
One particular carriage features “Asia.” Faces of different Asian ethnicities with portraits of primary men in their imagined “national” image cover this carriage. From the Central Asian steppes to Imperial Japan, “Asia” is the Orientalist depiction that is distant from Europe, distant from whiteness, and distant from the American WASP.
However, the Philippines is glaringly absent in this carriage for “Asia.” Siam, Java, and Malaysia represent Southeast Asia, but no Filipino face here. This particular carriage appeared in the early 20th century, notably until 1930. The “Philippine Islands” were under Colonial American tutelage. The Filipinos during that time were considered “nationals” but not American “citizens.” Filipinos were not aliens like the Chinese and the Japanese, and they could enter the United States as cheap labor for the American agricultural machinery in Hawaii, Alaska, California, and even as far as New Mexico.
The absence of the Filipino in this “Asia” carriage is arguably because the Philippines was part of the American colonial machinery. If we were too “exotic,” too distant from the American WASP image, it would imply that the US has failed to assimilate us. Also, the “Asia” circus carriage features non-Christian people. The Philippines has been Christian even before the arrival of the Mayflower Pilgrims in Plymouth Rock. Our dominant Christian identity does not warrant the exotic, orientalist Asia of mystery, perfumed damask, incense smoke, and silk.
Interestingly, even today, the Philippines’ position in “Asia” is seen as suspect, for we are considered not Asian enough; we are more culturally attuned to the likes of Mexico. Perhaps it is comforting that though we started as a freak show in their human zoos, we eventually fell off from this “Asia” circus carriage because we are not exotic enough to be part of that circus.
You may reach Chong Ardivilla at kartunistatonto@gmail.com or chonggo.bsky.social
