FOREWORD

    Entre a folha branca e o gume do olhar
    a boca envelhece. 

    Sobre a palavra
    a noite aproxima-se da chama. 

    Assim se morre dizias tu. 
    Assim se morre dizia o vento acariciando-te
    a cintura. 

    Na porosa fronteira do silêncio
    a mão ilumina a terra inacabada. 

    Interminavelmente. 

    (from "Véspera da Água" by Eugénio de Andrade)

This issue of Review of Culture has been constructed beneath the transepts of history. The monumental issues which history deals with have been raised to the cupolas of the cathedrals whilst smouldering in the thuribles of Macau's researchers. Still, it is worth highlighting the following point: this edition of RC marks a move away from the passive input of miscellaneous articles which writers have generously contributed towards the realm of active intellectual organization of subject matter and independent research. We also present the first in a collection of Macanese historiography to be supplemented in later issues.

Examples of this are the sections devoted to the press and the origins of photography. Various authors present their personal impressions of these fields but they all reach the same conclusion that Macau was indeed a pioneer in these two cultural areas.

Father Manuel Teixeira and Luís Gonzaga Gomes have already claimed that the Abelha da China was the first periodical to be printed on the Chinese continent. This issue presents an in-depth analysis of the historical reasons lying behind this event, explaining how the Abelha came to be the first modern newspaper to be published in China. It also includes a facsimile of the first issue published in September 1822, a copy of which is held in Macau's Central Library.

Although the Abelha da China was in fact the official organ of a government administration, it still enjoyed enough freedom to offer overt criticism of the government's activities. In this sense, it was one of China's most significant cultural symbols, a symbol in which Macau led the way towards the future.

The section dealing with the history of photography in China was inspired by an exhibition held in the Historical Archives of Macau entitled "The First Photographs of Macau and Canton". RC focuses on the contribution made by those pioneers in photography who made their way to the Chinese mainland through Macau. Included in this section, appropriately entitled "The First Photographs of China", we have photographs taken by the French photographer Jules Itier. These were the first photographs to be taken of China and Itier's presence in the Middle Kingdom also represented the introduction of the equipment and techniques invented by Jacques Daguerre five years previously to the Chinese mainland.

The foundations for future buttresses are also laid in this issue of Review of Culture. The only viable path towards progress lies in maintaining our loyalty to Macau's traditions and enduring vocation. This is what has ensured Macau's existence since the thirties as a cultural bridge from the West in preparation for the institutionalisation of the New Age.

Now, in Macau, through the Arts.

New techniques, procedures and approaches to the art of engraving have provided the stimulus for a group of printers involved in cultural exchanges which have exposed the Territory to the best in the region.

The importance of artists in creating a collective imagination and sublimating Macau's identity is recognised in the section on Marciano Baptista.

This intense, incestuous fire blending sensations which are in theory impossible, is consumed in a flame of transparencies and blood-red flashes of light, the confidence in the indestructible continuity of Macau's history. It has been constructed on the pillars of time, far from the dust of contemporary issues, the intrigues of contemporary situations, the pseudo-intellectual acquiescence of ephemeral archaeologists submerged in yellowed papers or careerist politicians.

Carlos Alberto dos Santos Marreiros

President of the Cultural Institute