Page 33 - WashingtonSyCip_Bio_Excerpt_2nd_Edition

Passenger on a Ship

by hiring a tutor to teach him Tagalog, along with his senior executives, but only he
persisted. Albino also spoke Spanish fluently, a language which served him in good
stead as a lawyer, as cases then could be argued in either English or Spanish. But
English was clearly the language of the future, and Albino made sure his sons were
immersed in it. In the afternoons, a tutor came to teach the children Chinese, but
that also met with little success. None of the children developed any kind of fluency
in Mandarin.

Of God and golf

Helen Bau, their mother, also came from a well-off, progressive family. Few Chinese
families then sent their children to study in America, but the Baus had no qualms
about letting their eldest daughter Helen go off to Oberlin in Ohio, a college known
for its music department. A sister would later marry someone with a PhD in chemistry
from Yale, and the husband became president of Nanjing University, helping that city
become a center for the international chemical industry.

When Helen joined Albino in Manila, she quickly became a leader among women in
the ethnic Chinese community, her husband being a prominent lawyer and banker.
While she never got to use her music skills professionally, Helen sought to teach her
children how to play the piano, without too much success. The youngest, Paz, was
the only one involved with music throughout her life.

The elder SyCips were devout Christians, and the Bible was read at home every
evening. Helen took the children to church. But Albino had his own ideas about
these obligations, manifesting a liberal streak that the children would inherit. Wash
explains: “My father’s philosophy was always that, ‘On Sundays, it’s better to be at
the golf course thinking of God, than to be at church and thinking of golf.” So he
would go to church only when there was something special. He believed much more
in living a Christian life. He gave away hundreds of rulers on which had been printed
the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.’ And he
would give these to patrons and clients of the bank.”

It was a close family, one that got together for dinner as often as it could—certainly
on the weekends, but also on weeknights when Albino could free himself from
business.

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