The ugly Chinese
Ambeth Ocampo in today's Inquirer quotes the observations made by visiting French painter Jean Mallat regarding the Chinese in the Philippines in the 19th century:

"In general, the Chinese settled in the Philippines are of average height, although in China itself there are many good-looking men... The Chinese inhabiting Manila who have come for the most part from Macao, Chancheo, Nyngo and Canton are very ugly, and this is explained partly by their social position, for these are generally coulis (porters) and domestics who come to the Philippines to do business and who send their savings every year to their families. Like all the Chinese of Macao, they speak a little Spanish or Tagal[og]. Their costume is similar to that of coulis of Macao and Canton; this is a kind of overcoat in the form of a blouse, a shirt called bisia and wide pants made of white cloth, with very low seat, fastened by a string; sometimes these pants are black or blue."

If the Chinese immigrants were ugly, their mestizo children were even uglier, according to the French :

"Chinese mestizos, that is to say children of Chinese men and Indio women, are often uglier than the Chinese themselves... they have yellowish skin, wide faces, their noses are flat, though less so than the Indios; their eyes are slanted outwards and the transversal diameters form an obtuse angle on the nose; they are lymphatic and beardless..."