Sangley (English plural: Sangleys; Spanish plural: Sangleyes) and Mestizo de Sangley (Sangley mestizo, mestisong Sangley, chino mestizo or Chinese mestizo) are archaic terms used in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era to describe respectively a person of pure overseas Chinese ancestry or a person of mixed Chinese and native Filipino ancestry. The Sangley Chinese were ancestors to both modern Chinese Filipinos and modern Filipino mestizo descendants of the Mestizos de Sangley. (These were Chinese mestizos, mixed descendants of Sangley Chinese and native Filipinos), who were mestizos (mixed peoples) under the Spanish colonial empire, classified together with other Filipino mestizos.

The Spanish had such categories as indios (Spanish: indio, lit. 'Indian' for natives of the East Indies), mestizos de Español (descendants of colonial-era ethnic Spanish and native-born Filipinos), the tornatrás (Spanish-Chinese mestizos, descendants of colonial-era Spanish Filipinos and Sangley Chinese), the mestizos de Bombay (Indian mestizos, descendants of colonial-era Indian Filipinos and native Filipinos), mestizos de japoneses (Japanese mestizos, descendants of colonial-era Japanese Filipinos and native Filipinos), etc.

The overseas Chinese had entered the Philippines as traders prior to Spanish colonization. That development increased some work and business opportunities. Many emigrated to the Philippines, establishing concentrated communities first in Manila and throughout the island of Luzon, then in other cities and settlements throughout the archipelago from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Other Filipino terms that refer to Chinese or Filipinos with overseas Chinese ancestry:

• Intsik (derived from the Philippine Hokkien Chinese: 引 叔; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ín-chek; lit. 'uncle') is the native colloquial informal term in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages used to refer to Chinese people in general, albeit now mostly retired in favor of 'Tsino' (see below) because of pejorative connotations.
• Chinoy or Tsinoy (derived from a Blend of Spanish: Chino, lit. 'Chinese' or Tagalog: [[wikt:|]]Tsino, lit. 'Chinese' with Tagalog: Pinoy, lit. 'Filipino' or the Tagalog: -oy, lit. 'diminutive suffix') is a modern term currently used in Philippine English and Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages to refer to a person of Chinese descent born in the Philippines or Filipinos with Chinese blood.
• Chino or Tsino is a term derived from Spanish that literally means 'Chinese', where "Tsino" is the formal term used in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages.
• Chinito or Tsinito is a term derived from Spanish that means 'a young Chinese man', from Spanish: Chino, lit. 'Chinese' with -ito. "Tsinito" is the form used in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages.
• Chinita or Tsinita is the feminine form of the above referring to 'a young Chinese woman', also from Spanish: Chino, lit. 'Chinese' with -ita. "Tsinita" is the form used in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages.
• Chekwa or Tsekwa is an offensive derogatory slang or slur used to refer to both Chinese people in general and Filipinos with Chinese ancestry. It was derived from Cebuano Bisaya as an elided compound of Insik + wákang, from "Insik wákang, káun, kalibang!", which was an old derogatory Visayan children's limerick during the late Spanish colonial era, where "Insik"/"Intsik" was originally derived from the Philippine Hokkien Chinese: 引叔; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ín-chek; lit. 'uncle', while "wákang" was originally derived from 我工; guá kang; 'I work', while the last two words come from Cebuano: kaon, lit. 'to eat' and kalibang, forming the full limerick "Chinese (laborer), I work, eat, and shit!" from the late Spanish colonial era when opium dens were rampant and many Chinese migrants worked as low-wage laborers.