Cultural Affairs Bureau  [Organizational structure]    

Main objectives

• To protect, maintain and revitalise Macao's historic, architectural and cultural heritage and to draw up the guidelines ensuring their survival, growth and dissemination.
• To promote research in fields connected to understanding Macao cultural heritage.
• To promote and stimulate literature by supporting the publication and distribution of books.
• To organise and maintain the libraries and archives in order to promote good reading habits and research.
• To promote, encourage and support cultural and artistic activities and festivals, seminars, lectures and other cultural meetings.
• To promote the teaching of music, dance and drama.
• To maintain the Macao Museum and support the propagation of its themes.

  The Cultural Affairs Bureau organises:

• Performances
• Concerts
• Exhibitions
• Film Cycles
• Conferences and Seminars
• Publications
• Review of Culture
• Music Courses and Competitions
• Dance Courses
• Drama Courses
• Young Musicians Competition
• Macao International Music Festival
• Macao Arts Festival
• Macao Biennial Art Exhibition
• Consultation of Books and Documents

  The Cultural Affairs Bureau provides:

• Subsidies
• Research Grants
• Publications
• Support for Research and Artistic Training
• Administrative Film Licenses

Cultural Events [Organizational structure]

The Cultural Events Department is responsible for promoting and organising concerts and exhibitions and also includes the Special Projects Division which organises both an annual International Music Festival and an Arts Festival as well as a Biennial Art Exhibition.

Cultural Events Department

Special Project Division

Cultural Heritage [Organizational structure]

The Cultural Heritage Department focuses on classifying, restoring, renovating and up-grading Macao's cultural heritage, including both buildings and artefacts. Of particular importance are the monuments, classified urban areas and sites whose enviromnent must be protected. This is done by issuing reports limiting building work in the protected area and drawing up plans to restore buildings that are in a state of decay.

Cultural Heritage Department

Studies, Research and Publications [Organizational structure]

The Studies, Research and Publications Division is in charge of promoting, organising and supporting research work, producing studies concerning the Territory's culture, granting subsidies for training in the Arts, holding competitions for Research Scholarships in the fields of History, Literary Studies, Cultural Heritage, Anthropology and Sociology, and organising and supporting seminars, conferences and lectures. It maintains regular contacts with universities, institutes and research centres.

In the field of Publications, its goal is to publish works that consolidate Macao's identity, promote a mutual understanding of the Portuguese and Chinese cultures, record memories and the history of Macao and stimulate new values. It is also responsible for attracting collections of books and also for promoting literature and reading by taking part in book fairs.

Studies, Research and Publications Division

Periodicals [Organizational structure]

The Periodicals Section is responsible for drawing up the editoral plan, designing and producing the quarterly Review of Culture, published in three separate language editions: Portuguese, Chinese and English. It is also in charge of distribution, sales and advertising in Macao, Portugal, the People's Republic of China, Portugese-speaking countries and areas where there are Macanese communities.

Periodicals Section

Macao Conservatory [Organizational structure]

The Macao Conservatory is attached to the Cultural Affairs Bureau and is aimed at promoting training in the Arts. It consists of three schools: Music, Dance and Drama.

The Conservatory provides teaching in the Arts at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.

Macao Conservatory

Macao Central Library [Organizational structure]

The Macao Central Library was initially founded in 1895 and was taken over by the Cultural Affairs Bureau in 1986. It is a legal deposit and is divided amongst several buildings. There are two sections: the General Collections and the Chinese Libraries.

The Leal Senado Library has a collection of around thirty thousand books including rare editions dating from the seventeenth century. The Sir Robert Ho Tung Library consists in large part of the legacy of Sir Robert Ho Tung, including 18th and 19th century works on Chinese History, Chinese Literature and China's foreign relations with, amongst other countries, Portugal.

In addition to these libraries and the main library (located in Tap Seac), there are libraries in Mong Ha, Ilha Verde, the islands of Taipa and Coloane and also a mobile library service.

Central LIbrary (head office)

Avenida Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida 89 A-B, Macao
Tel. (853) 28 558 049 / 28 567 576 / 28 371 642
Fax. (853) 28 318 756
Open Mondays to Fridays, 2pm to 8pm
Email : info.bc@icm.gov.mo

Macao Historical Archives [Organizational structure]

The Macao Historical Archives were founded as the Macao General Archives in 1952 and restructured in 1979 prior to being taken over by the Cultural Affairs Bureau in 1986. The facilities currently offer excellent conditions for safe storage of the precious works held there and viewing is possible with a computerised system.

The archives pertaining to the Public Administration and Municipal Council can be consulted and there is also graphic and cartographic material.

The Historical Archives offer researchers countless microfilms of documents in the Portuguese and Chinese languages as well as other foreign languages. There are also microfilms of rare works on Macao's history and Portugal's relations with the Far East. Most of this information is also available through a data base.

The Archives publish the Historical Archives Bulletin, a development of the Archives of Macao (published since 1929) which is an invaluable source of information for those interested in studying Macao.

Macao Historical Archives

Situated on the South coast of China, the territory of Macao currently houses a numerous population which since the beginning the 80’s has not ceased to increase as a result of the intense immigration arriving from the Peoples Republic of China. This influx of new residents brings people to the cities in search of better working opportunities and a brighter future for them and their families, many of whom wait patiently in their remote villages in China.

The current population of Macao is estimated at around 450,000 inhabitants, predominantly Chinese (93%) followed by the Portuguese community (5%) and other residents of different origins like Filipino’s and Thai’s.

This universal aspect of the city of Macao has been ingrained during the course of four and a half centuries of peaceful cohabitation from a population with a vocation for commercial trade in this strategic port at the mouth of the Pearl River which gives access to the prosperous city of Canton, generating indelible characteristics which until today still exist in the socio-cultural network of this society, the visible testimony is through the city’s urban mesh and architecture of it’s many buildings.

However, the accelerated economic, cultural and technological transformations which have been noted in all of Asia, in particular China are all reflected in Macao through the image of the city which has been witness to a historical backdrop begin to rapidly change and risk in the short term of loosing all its resulting characteristics of its cross cultural Asian and Western cultures.

For this reason it became necessary to urgently take steps of protecting, conserving and valuing of the existing patrimony preventing the deterioration of the image and unique identity of the city, subject to the pressures of property development and speculation, moreover the social requirements resulting from the populations constant expansion and demand on housing.

This recent growing is reflected in the current characteristics of the territories population where it is estimated that around 50% have arrived and been living in Macao over the last fifteen years, therefore being a population of recent immigrants of which the majority are Chinese who came to Macao with the intention of enjoying better living conditions but who’s cultural regards have little or nothing to do with where they live, naturally located in their birth places some of which are far from Macao and considerably different cultures.

Macao is a small territory without any natural resources, with a labouring population suffering from the competition of neighbouring markets where the labour is much cheaper and therefore much more competitive, so that which remains is tourism based on cultural and historical identity unmatchable in the rest of Asia, made up of its great patrimony which should be preserved and revitalised and which in the future will make this city different from that which remains in the vast Orient.

It is in the best interests that the future of Macao and its populations can defend their social and cultural values, maintain and enrich their valuable heritage of four and a half centuries of harmonious socialising between two such different cultures. That the foundations for the creations in Macao of Natural Museuological Institutions that reflect not just the history of the territory but equally the socio-cultural characteristics of its population, attempting to create a lively establishment, operational and essentially orientated by the following programmatic objectives.

To promote a greater understanding and interest in Macao’s unique cultural and historical heritage through a programme of exhibitions, lectures, publications, research and extension services.

To create and develop collections related to Macao’s archaeology, local history, natural history, ethnography and ethnology.

To serve, through research and study as a centre of learning for citizens by providing them with a vivid environment of discovery, learning and problem solving in matters related to Macao’s cultural and historical heritage.

To co-operate and assist in the recording, preservation and display of items related to the historical and significance of Macao with special emphasis on interchanges between Macao and other countries.

To co-operate and assist in the study and dissemination of knowledge related to Macao’s cultural and historical heritage with learned societies within the outside Macao.

Having established the programmatic foundations for the new museum which is called “The Museum of Macao”.

An extensive survey was made of all possible hypothesis of the location of the future museum, highlighted amongst them was the Monte fortress as being the most symbolic and historical location in view of the intended objectives.

The ancient fortification built by the Jesuit Fathers in 1626, on the peak of the Monte Hill, perched high above the city centre was the chosen location for the Museum of Macao.

This Fortress built in a quadrilateral shape with four bastions in the corners and thick exterior walls made from “chunambo”, or taipa, a highly resistant material made from mortar containing sand, lime, fragments of shells and crushed oysters.

The Museum of Macao began planning in April 1995, construction was initiated in September 1996, and it was inaugurated on the 18 April 1998. The museum building in itself implanted within the interior of the fortress and the third floor above the soil level of the Fortress interior. Its total area is 2,800 meters square from which around 2,100 meters square is exhibition space.

The administrative building, already on the exterior of the fortress but joined to the Museum by way of a tunnel with escalators that pass under the walls, contains the technical and administrative offices of the museum as well as the management and technician centre security headquarters, auditorium, etc.

The exterior areas of the administration building which has the total area of 2300 meters square house the museum shop and bar with esplanade to service the public and visitors.

As far as the thematic areas that The Museum of Macao features, they are divided into three main groups corresponding to each one of the three floors of the Museum building.

Genesis of Macao Region (floor 1)

Where the territory’s origins are presented from the prehistoric age until the middle of the XVII century, the golden of Macao as an important Asian and European commercial port.

Popular Arts and Traditions in Macao (floor 2)

This floor tackles themes which focus on ethnographic and anthropological areas, outlining the colourful socio-cultural characteristics of traditional Macao. Their rites and festivals, daily traditions, commercial activities and typical industries, etc.

Contemporary Macao (floor 3)

Third and last floor of the Museum, presents the more representative aspects of contemporary Macao. Macao from the beginning of the century which is still fresh in the memory of the third generation population up to the contemporary city. A perspective of the territory near future makes up part of the final areas of this display.

After a visit to the museum, a stroll around the Fortress exterior allows the visitor to indulge in a charming open area with unique views over the city of Macao.

In an ancient subterranean room existing in the interior of the fortress a permanent exhibition about the history of the actual Monte fortress from the date of its construction by the Jesuit Fathers, at the beginning of the XVII century until its transformation into a Museum in 1998 is opened to the public.