Macau: Where Chinese and Portuguese Cultures Blend

• Sabrina Ballah, Chinese Studies, University of Delaware

• Yuanchong Wang, Department of History, University of Delaware

Macau is a region in southern China that was previously colonized by Portugal, but reverted to China in 1999; due to cross-cultural interactions and colonization, it holds an interesting blend of China’s and Portugal’s culture and a separate governing system from mainland China with greater autonomy. In what ways have Macau’s colonization and the post-colonial era impacted the culture of Macau and the system governed by the Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region? Scholarly sources and research have already detailed the distinct identity of the Macanese through interracial marriage between the Chinese and Portuguese, and Macau’s complicated ‘sort of’ sovereignty status throughout history. However, through analyzing various scholarly books on the culture, society, and history of Macau—by discovering Portugal’s resistance to relinquishing the Macau colony in the past, modern-day Macau’s autonomy in action, the modern persistence of shared cultural behaviors, Patuá—an endangered creole language of Macau with a blend of Portuguese and Cantonese—the current public opinion of citizens of Macau toward a government with democratic elements, and the two modern-day official languages of Macau [Cantonese and Portuguese], one can see a fuller, more contemporary picture of the lesser-known yet interesting and multicultural region of Macau. The fuller picture reveals that it is vital that Macau continue to preserve the blend of culture that remains with careful attention, and that despite contemporary problems related to this newfound autonomy, through cultural preservation, Macau has great potential to attract a large number of tourists and be a beacon of the beauty of living side by side despite differences to the rest of the world.