Owing to its information and reference value, RC is publishing, in its first issue, the following Document - the official version of the Government's cultural strategy for the first years of the 1990 decade.
1 To reinforce the foundations of the collective identity and the community consciousness of the population of Macau through a cultural equation of the main questions concerning the future physiognomy of the Territory.
2 To autonomize the cultural structures of the Territory's Administration, to make it possible for their future inclusion in an autonomous cultural structure of the Foundation model, so as to ensure the emphasis of the essential character of Culture over the adjectival character of Politics and Administration.
3 To promote both the values of Portuguese culture in the Asia-Pacific area and the values of Chinese culture especially within the Portuguese-speaking world and in Europe.
4 To amplify the support given to the Portuguese-speaking communities as well as those of Portuguese descent and stimulate their solidarity among themselves and with Portugal, Brazil, and the African Portuguese-speaking countries, divulging their specific cultural values.
5 To establish the bi-lingual teaching of high quality of the various arts as well as the specialization of artistic and cultural agents abroad and their respective professional careers.
6 To create the conditions for the practical teaching of the national languages of Portugal and China as well as of the dialect used in the region where Macau is situated, and promote the creation of lectureships in the Universities of the Asia-Pacific area.
Cultural Policy
The creation of the Instituto Cultural de Macau (ICM) in the end of 1982 was a decisive action for the implementation of a cultural policy adapted to the realities and the specificities of the Territory and basically characterized by the organization of manifestations connected with the Portuguese-Chinese intercultural living experience.
The actions since then promoted have been directed by the will to preserve and value the cultural and historical heritage and promote the values of both the Portuguese and the Chinese cultures, preparing the way for a progressive cultural autonomy of Macau in relation to the exterior, creating the conditions for the development of an artistic and cultural life of its own.
However, the budget endowments for Culture have always been relatively meagre, although a positive evolution can be noticed between 1983 and 1986, when the amount in question was increased from about 4 million MOP to 13.3 millions.
Such budget limitations did not help to find the adequate solutions in terms of equipment and qualified staff; that being so, the human, material, and financial resources available have generated considerable delays in the materialization of many of the programmed actions, or even their inviability.
Macau being '... in itself, a multicoloured net woven with threads of different cultures intersected in a thousand ways...' and appearing in History as 'an interface including various peoples races and civilizations (...) Macau is (...) a territory with enormous potentialities in what concerns every project which presupposes and even has in mind a vast cultural pluralism.'
50 kilometres away from Hong Kong and 100 from Canton, at a one-hour distance from Manila, Macau is profoundly different. The four hundred years of common living of two such strong and different cultures as the Latin and the Chinese are - and sometimes even their conflict - have marked it with the deep originality which distinguishes it. Built by the Portuguese but lived and inventively made home by the Chinese population, Macau is, as it could not fail to be, a Territory of contrasts, where the confrontation of two cultures leaves its marks upon every space and transgresses every rule.
Thus, Culture achieves an incontroversial political dimension in the context of the Government concerns and it cannot constitute a surprise that, in an historical and political context such as the present one, Culture may emerge within the priorities of governmental action. Culture seen as the most objective outcome of the never-ending human capacity for creation translated into multiple and varied manifestations and activities, as a means of communication and as a vehicle for the coming together of peoples and civilizations.
The cultural policy of the Government is based upon the trust of both the Portuguese and the Chinese cultures, and on the possibility of their creative virtualities, projecting them also onto the Asian and European contexts.
To conciliate tradition and modernity, to promote freedom of creation and the universality of access to the fruition of cultural goods, to intensify the dialogue between the two main cultures cohabitating the Territory, to give support to the enterprise of artists and intellectuals, and also to that promoted by the associations and other entities which constitute the most genuine expression of the cultural traditions of local origin, to preserve the heritage of spiritual, historical, cultural, and natural values which are the basis of a collective identity, to foment the cultural relationship with the exterior and cultural appetency, those are the main objectives of the cultural policy which finds its ultimate target in THE INTEGRATION OF THE CULTURAL DIMENSION IN THE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY.
It thus becomes necessary to find the means to effectively actualize a cultural policy which can meet the necessities of the whole population of Macau. The Goverment has therefore decided that the political priority should be translated into financial terms, making it possible for Culture to be endowed with a budget amounting to 36 million MOP, which will allow the overcoming of many of the above-mentioned difficulties, if a number of relevant measures is effectively taken.
And so, the Government proposes:
A Cultural Patrimony Policy
To promote the analysis of the defining conditions of protection areas and the definition of the urbanistic rules to which the buildings to be erected there must obey.
To adjudicate the studies for the elaboration of detail plans for the classified sets of the 'Largo do Lilau' and the 'Bairro de S. Lázaro'.
To re-analyse the Plan for Urbanistic Intervention in the 'Avenida Almeida Ribeiro' and its Area of Influence.
To re-appreciate and update the list of classified cultural pieces annexed to the 'Decreto-Leino56/84/M, de 30 de Junho'.
To continue with the improvement of buildings of historical and cultural interest, with a special emphasis for the 'Ruínas de S. Paulo' and the conclusion of the rebuilding of the 'Arquivo Histórico', as well as its re-equipment.
To examine the possibilities of rehabilitation of both the 'Teatro D. Pedro V' and the 'Seminário de S. José' building.
To organize a contest of suggestions for the rearrangement of the 'Praça do Leal Senado' and for the treatment of the Square at the foot of the 'Ruínas de S. Paulo' staircase.
To continue to divulge the notable buildings of Macau through the issue of cardboard models and monographic brochures.
To follow the urbanistic intervention plans, namely the 'Plano Director de Macau'.
To implement a program of events in connection with the defence of the cultural heritage of Macau and especially dedicated to the youth.
To elaborate the project for the recuperation of the building where the 'Direcção dos Serviços de Educação' is now operating, so that it can be used as the official seat of the Instituto Cultural de Macau.
To promote the study of the archeological vestiges of Coloane.
A Cultural Action Policy
To establish a program for the collection of images on the subject of the Portuguese presence in the east (photography, cinema, video) having in view the creation of an image-record on the theme.
To articulate with the 'Teledifusão de Macau' a program which includes the production of cultural programmes, documentaries on the historical and cultural reality of Macau, the previous promotion and the broadcast of cultural events and shows organized by, or with the collaboration of, the Instituto Cultural de Macau, the inclusion of the Portuguese and the Chinese cultural news and cultural productions of Portugal and the People's Republic of China. To study the possibility of the production of a television serial based on a book about the reality of Macau.
To make it possible for the inclusion of Macau in the network of Portuguese film distribution agencies.
To organize programs of film cycles of high quality.
To begin the studies leading to the creation of the 'Cinemateca de Macau'.
To organize two concert seasons by the 'Orquestra de Câmara de Macau'
To organize a program of monthly music performances.
To organize the 5th 'Festival de Música para a Juventude'.
To promote a program for the divulgation of music in the schools. To create the conditions for the constitution of a Chinese Instruments Orchestra and promote their public performances. To organize two ballet seasons by the 'Grupo de Bailado do ICM'.
To organize a program of exhibitions.
To promote the organization of a bi-annual exhibition of the arts in Macau.
To commemorate relevant historical and cultural dates.
To promote a program for cultural animation in the hospitals, the central prison, and the refugee camp.
To continue to divulge the cultural activities of several countries through the organization of the 'Semana de Cultura', in collaboration with cultural entities credited in Macau.
To participate in inter-department cultural animation projects relating to the monuments of Macau.
To stimulate and support the cultural activity of Macanese artists and cultural associations.
To encourage and support artistic and cultural programs related to the Portuguese-Chinese intercultural living experience.
To promote and encourage projects for cultural interchange and the participation of Macau in international meetings on cultural themes.
To organize an itinerant exhibition on Macau to be shown in Portugal, Brazil, the African Portuguese-speaking countries, Portuguese-speaking communities and communities of Portuguese descent.
A Book, Edition, and Reading Divulgation Policy
To divulge both Portuguese writers in Chinese and Chinese writers in Portuguese, through the edition of their respective works.
To support Macanese writers or those whose books include Macanese themes and matters, creating the concession of scholarships, prizes, and the organization of literary contests.
To foment the divulgation of books Macanese writers of both Portuguese and Chinese cultural matrix, in Portugal, Brazil, the African Portuguese--speaking countries, and within the Portuguese communities.
To participate in bookseller's fairs in Portugal, the People's Republic of China, and Portuguese-speaking countries. To divulge the book in the media.
To encourage the study of the literary spoils of Macanese writers and promote their acquisition.
To support the edition of relevant cultural and historical books.
To promote Portuguese, Chinese, and English editions of works on the architectural and artistic heritage of Macau.
To amplify the program for the divulgation of reading for Chinese population of the Territory, namely with itinerant libraries and the animation of the Chinese library of the 'Centro Cultural Sir Robert Ho Tung'.
To promote and participate in bibliographic exhibitions.
To organize activities for the divulgation and the animation of the 'Biblioteca Nacional'.
To implement the edition of a basic library of Portuguesse culture in Chinnese and of a basic library of Chinese culture in Portugtuese.
To publish a cultural periodical in Portuguese, Chinese, and English.
A Studies and Research Policy
To continue the organization of Portuguese language and culture courses.
To ensure, in collaboration with the 'Instituto de Cultura e Língua Portuguessa', the coordination of the Portuguese lectureships in the Universities of the Asia-Pacific area, as well as make it possible for new lectureships to be created in that same area.
To create a Language Centre for the practical teaching of Portuguese, Mandarin, and Cantonese.
To grant scholarsships and other financial support both for the study and professional progression of young artists and for research works on Macanese history and culture.
To organize courses of art studies in the fields of Music, Theatre, Dance, the Fine Arts, and Macanese and Portuguese craftsmanship..
To launch the project for the creation of the "Conservatório de Macau'.
To support Macanese researchers and those whose works are dedicated to historical and cultural matters of the Territory through scholarships and prizes, and divulging their works in Portuguese-speaking countries and communities as well as in the communities of Portuguese descent, ensuring the translation into Portuguese of Chinese of those studies of greater historical and cultural relevance.
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