Philippine Centennial Literary Prize winners (the other winning novels were Alfred Yuson's Voyeurs & Savages and Eric Gamalinda's My Sad Republic). Ong created an alternate country – one smaller than an archipelago, and with a different name – to represent the Philippines and its social, economic, and political situation and atmosphere. Because Ong is of Chinese descent, there was a possibility that the reader of ''An Embarrassment of Riches can be interpreted as an "allegory of the Chinese gaining power – control and supremacy – in the Philippines". The strength of An Embarrassment of Riches as a novel is that it did not "essentialize", simplify, and "exoticize" the Philippines (even if represented as the "Victorianas", the nation of the "Victorianos") and the Filipino experience. R. Kwan Laurel described the ending of An Embarrassment of Riches being similar to Filipino writer Nick Joaquin's play the Portrait of an Artist as Filipino, because Ong's hero pledges to survive, live, remember, and await for another opportunity, for the sake of all the people in the past. References External links Excerpt from Charlson L. Ong's An Embarrassment of Riches at the Philippine Literature Portal, Panitikan.com.ph Philippine satirical novels 2000 novels Philippine English-language novels Philippine political novels Philippine historical novels Parodies Novels set in the Philippines