MACAO: A 'PRE-POST-COLONIAL' ERA

Jorge Álvares' arrival at Dunmen Island, in 1513, not only marked the first "official" encounter of the two Civilizations, but also unveiled the dawn of Portuguese dominance in Macao. However, the Sovereignty of Macao has long been a problematic issue since the Portuguese gained shelter there, in 1557. In particular Anders Ljungstedt and Montalto de Jesus's work regarding the History of Macao was dramatically controversial. As a result, these two writers inadvertently fell into the web of a Janus scenario of a hero/traitor paradigm. As Macao is destined to be de-Colonized on the 20th of December 1999, there has been an unprecedented fervour in publications from both the Portuguese and the Chinese, making a nostalgic epilogue in relation to Macao's syncretic Cultural matrices and its particular role in History. Moreover, well in advance of its de-Colonization, Macao has already been permeated with a kind of "pre-post-Colonial" ambience. The removal of the Ferreira do Amaral equestrian monument (on the 28th of October 1992 -- from the rotunda facing the new Bank of China [headquarters] Building, in Macao) may perhaps offer a test case for this seemingly awkward labelling. The questions at issue are: how can this contradictory rubric "pre-post-Coloniality" explain the somewhat peculiar situation in Macao; can Western Cultural disciplines be applied to the specific Historical moment in Macao today?

"I seek Christians and spices."

Vasco da Gama

One of the most celebrated Portuguese navigators, Vasco da Gama, left Portugal in 1496 and successfully sailed round the Cape of Good Hope and reached India, in 1498. The discovery of the Cape of Good Hope not only marked the zenith of the most difficult and dangerous journey of Maritime exploration, but it also unveiled the dawn of European Imperialism and Colonization in the Orient. The whole project of Colonization is perhaps condensed in this laconic remark: "I seek Christians and spices", which announces a symbiotic relationship between ideological inducement and economic adventure.

During the isolationist Period of the Ming Dynasty, in China, it was believed that Jorge Álvares, feitor (factor) of Malacca, was the first Portuguese to set foot on Chinese soil, at the bay of Damen, in June 1513, in the name of the King of Portugal. 1 Alvares' arrival marked the momentous rendez-vous in which the Middle Kingdom first met its Iberian "other", and also led to the subsequent "Occupation" of Macao as a religious centre and a trading Post. Álvares was no doubt the harbinger for the grafting of the East with the West. While he paved the way for the later arrival of the influential Jesuits, such as Fr. Matteo Ricci, St. Francis Xavier and St. Ignatius of Loyola, he also consolidated the "fabulous" stories about the riches of the Celestial Empire brought back to his native Country, by Marco Polo.

The monument of Jorge Álvares, erected in a prominent place [opposite the High Courts of Justice] in Rua da Praia Grande, in Macao, in 1953, could imply the following connotations: commemorating the Grand Mission in initially"opening the door" during Ming China's "closed-door" Policy, and celebrating a kind of Pax Lusitania2 ideology of ecumenicalism and commercial expansion which were the two decisive forces that prompted the Portuguese Eastward sail.

The year 1557 was generally accepted as the date of the Portuguese permanent settlement in Macao. The Ming Government was tolerant of their presence due to two dominant factors: a pragmatic pro-trade attitude towards deriving incomes from Customs dues and taxes, and the pratical considerations of coastal defence against pirates and local rebels. 3 As Fok Kaicheong points out, the Ming Policy toward the Portuguese 'operation' in Macao well deserves its title of the "Macao Formula". However, this toleration of the Portuguese presence was never clearly stated as a formula in any Official text. Moreover, this very Policy marked a deviation from any Ming pattern of trade and relations with other states in the Sinocentric World Order, and did not gain direct Imperial endorsement from the Ming Dynasty. 4 Portugal was neither recognized as a vassal of Ming China, nor was Macao ever ceded to Portugal as a Colony. It is therefore obviously incorrect for the Portuguese to declare that the Emperor of China gave Macao to them. They had never acquired the Right of Sovereignty over Macao through Official endorsement, although they have been "settled" there for some four-hundred years. With regard to the problematic Sovereignty, Lin Qi Xing has conducted a research and concludes:

"That the Portuguese held Macao by right of conquest or by Imperial munificence is also incorrect since the Portuguese were but "squatters" who maintained their position in Macao through a combination of weakness, corruption and hesitant Policy on the part of the Chinese local Government."5

Unlike the Portuguese acquisition of other Colonies through aggression and violence, Macao was "Occupied" and "Colonized" in an anomalous way in comparison to the usual pattern of Colonization by conquest.

The Sovereignty of Macao has long been a debatable issue. As early as 1832, Anderst Ljungstedt (°1759-†1835), a Swede, published his study of the History of Macao: An Historical Sketch of the Portuguese Settlements in China [...], the first ever written, in English, asserting that Macao was Chinese Territory. Moreover, he relentlessly pointed out the arrogance and the pretensions of the Portuguese, in particular the absurdity of their claim to be Sovereign Masters of Macao when they still conformed to the Chinese demand for an annual ground rent of 500 taels for the right to use Macao. He writes:

"As no covenant or Treaty of Peace ever appeared in public, it remains an absolute impossibility to determinate the ultimate limits of the conquest the Portuguese pretend to have made on that Island (Macao). [...] A town, called Cidade do Nome de Deus de Macau (City of the Holy Name of God of Macau), rose by degrees on the peninsula, not by the grace and concession of any of the Emperors of China, for such was denied, but by the success of the chivalrous arms of Portugal."6

After the publication, he was violently attacked by Portuguese historians who regarded his assertion as fallacious. However, in the Foreword of the 1992 edition, Mgr. Manuel Teixeira, a renowed Jesuit historian, condemned the accusation but highly praised Ljungstedt's serious and objective work on the History of Macao. Ljungstedt's assertion of the Sovereignty of Macao was based on research of Historical Documents and Manuscripts. Also, Ljungstedt's knowledge of Portuguese was a tremendous asset in gaining access to Portuguese Documents and in writing the first History of Macao, in English. Ljungstedt was criticized by the Portuguese critics chiefly because his "História" upset the Portuguese claim of legitimate Sovereignty over Macao.

In a different vein, Carlos Augusto Montalto de Jesus, a polyglot born in Hong Kong (°1863-†1927), wrote another Historical account of Macao, which was first published in 1902, seventy years after Ljungstedt's. Montalto's first edition of Historic Macau [...] was greeted with acclaim and the Senate of Macao even suggested that the author be given a Royal Honour for his great work. Contrary to Ljungstedt's claim that the Portuguese had no Rights whatever in Macau, Montalto gave the version:

"[...] that the Portuguese had been invited by the Chinese to settle in Macau, and that in the early days there was no ground rent."7

He immediately became a hero in the Portuguese community as his version was the Government of Macao's favourable "História", and above all, he openly vindicated the somewhat illegal presence of the Portuguese in Macao.

After some time, Montalto was deeply disillusioned about the relationship between Macao and Portugal. He began the second edition of Historic Macau [...] to which he added several new Chapters. It was precisely those last Chapters that instantly turned him from a National hero to a "sleazy traitor"? The second edition appeared in 1926, in which his tone sounded piercing to the Portuguese:

"Fundamentally the ruin of Macau is due to the dual, perpetuated shortcomings of both Portugal and China as well as to Hong Kong's blasting machinations, particularly in that Colony's early days [...]."8

In order to rescue the thrice victimized Colony and the once "gem of the Orient" from the foreseeable coup-de-grace, he continued:

"[...] unless the expected happens providentially, Macau will have to drift along with the tide of misfortunes until wrecked altogether, or she will have sooner or later to be supported by Portugal as a dead burden, or rather as a just penalty for the systematic neglect and misgovernment of ages. Such, is, alas, the sad fate that awaits the ever self-supporting Portuguese Colony whose privileged heraldic blazon is the very National escutcheon, and whose proud motto is ('None More Loyal') 'Não Há Outra Mais Leal'."9 The History of Colonization can hardly show another such case of cruel expiation, of illrequited loyalty. Civilization may well stagger at such an irony of fate, so patiently endured through centuries of martyrdom. But it obviously needs some catastrophic shock to awaken the dozing Nation [Portugal] to its sense of duty in face of the stern logic of facts and the nemesis of fate in full swing. 10

Rapt in total disillusionment about the Government of Macao Montalto was simultaneously caught up with a utopian vision towards the League of Nations, which he hoped would steer Macao from total wreckage. The League of Nations is remarkably idealized as "a veritable godsend". Organization in which Montalto put all hope for its messianic intervention. Montalto had never dreamt that the abandoned old "gem of the Orient" would be taken back by China at the fin de siècle; then he might have put forward another Chapter arguing for China to ensure due regard for Macao.

The last Chapter was thus as an ulcer on the whole book and an open challenge to the impotent Portuguese Administration. It inevitably provoked a furore in the Government of Macao, in particular when Montalto relentlessly flogged the Portuguese who knew so little about Macao, cared so little, and were so incompetent in meeting Macao's wants that it would be preferable to haul down the Portuguese flag, and for the Territory to be Administrated by the League of Nations. The Government of Macao immediately condemned the newest edition as "a heresy" and "[...] seized the entire edition, burning it in public. Anyone who had purchased a copy was ordered to surrender it for destruction."11

Both Ljungstedt and Montalto seemed to be traitors to the Portuguese Officials. While the former was a Swede, the latter was a Hong Kong citizen, but both wrote in English about the "História"** of Macao. It was obvious that the English versions were meant not only for Portu guese readers but for a wider circulation. It is worth mentioning that the word "História" in Portuguese means both 'history' and 'story' and this was also the case in English up to the early 19th century.

Whether it is a real Record of events or a madeup account, it is destined to be censored or repressed if it does not side with the ruling Government.

Walter Benjamin aptly observed that History is "a tool of the ruling classes."12 Not only does History tend to reflect the dominant ruling Power, but it also comes to terms with the victor and the ideology of legitimate rule. It is not the least surprising to see that Ljungstedt's book was stigmatized and he was mercilessly attacked, simply because the History he had written did not celebrate the achievements of the Portuguese but revealed the unbearable "truth". However, at long last, in 1992, his writing was regarded as an invaluable Source in studying the History of Macao, and his reputation was restored. He is now a traitor-turned-hero, having engaged in writing the first English History of Macao. Despite the fact that Montalto was once condemned as a hero-turned-traitor due to the furore provoked by the second edition, his work is indispensable for the study of Portuguese Settlement from the very beginning of the sixteenth-century to the early twentieth-century. By and large, these two historians are inadvertently caught up in the web of a Janus13 scenario of a hero/traitor paradigm under Portuguese Colonial ideology. They dramatically vacillate in the praise/condemnation scenario through their publications, and also oscillate between the ambivalent demarcations of "a good subject" and a "a bad subject" under Colonial Administration. In the main, both Ljungstedt and Montalto represent a two-faced paradigm in which they straddle the opposition of the good and bad aspects in Colonial discourse.

After the 1987 Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration, Macao received unprecedented attention both from the Chinese and Portuguese with regard to its Four-Hundred-Year-History and its syncretic Culture. In the past, the History of Macao written in Chinese language, was often included as a Chapter or part of the History of Guandong Province, 14 but in July 1988, Aomen Shilüe, 15 (A concise History of Macao, in its own right), was first published in classical Chinese characters, in Hong Kong. China also lost no time in publishing, in simplified Chinese characters, Aomen Sibainian16, (a Four-Hundred-Year History of Macao), in September 1988. Ironically, the author of Aomen Sibainian admitted in the Epilogue that he had never been to Macao and that his archival research might not be comprehensive. It seems that he had a sudden fervour in writing a History of Macao. Both Aomen Shilue and Aomen Sibainian are published by the Chinese which may represent a one-sided monologue from the Chinese perspective.

In 1992, Fr. Benjamim António Videira Pires, also published a book, in Portuguese, Os Extremos Conciliam-se (The Reconciliation of Two Extremes), [...] which covers a Four-Hundred-Year-History of Macao and its Cultural formation. It helps to give a dialogic perspective of looking at Macao apart from Chinese views; and the reader can hear a different 'voice'. What is striking in Pires' writing is that: first, he reiterates that according to some Official Records and a Letter from the Macao Governor, in 1846, Macao was in fact given to Portugal "forever" and that: "it was not necessary to pay annual ground rents." It was Decreed, around 1557, by the Jiajing Emperor (r.1522-†1566), in a ground ownership Document called "chapa de ouro".17 Unfortunately, the whereabouts of this Document was 'a riddle'18 and it was probably lost in the early nineteenth century. 19 Moreover, Pires pointed out that when Ljungstedt's 1832 edition of An Historical Sketch [...] was published, the said Document had already been lost. But it appears unconvincing that such an important proof of a "gift" would have been lost? Secondly, at the end of the same Chapter, Amaral was hailed as a "hero" because he successfully forced the Chinese to waive the ground rent and drove away the Chinese Custom-House from the 'Holy City' (Macao). But the incidents of Amaral's assassination by the Chinese and Mesquita's invasion of Baishaling are totally left out. Also, the sordid history of the coolie-slave trade in Macao is completely missing in his "História". After all, the Colonial past, in Pires' text, is intriguingly mediated and his History of Macao is embellished after sifting out the undesirable events. His empathy with the Government of Macao is obvious.

Unprecedentedly, in 1987, the Instituto Cultural de Macau (Cultural Institute of Macao) [ICM] -- established in September 1982) -- published its first edition of "Revista de Cultura" ("Review of Culture") [RC] simultaneously in Portuguese, Chinese and English. RC is a quarterly magazine of the Culture and History of Macao. According to the Editor, this Cultural project aims at being: "[...] a servant to the cultural identity of Macau and the Portuguese presence in the East, the agent of the closest relationship between the Portuguese and the Chinese nations, [...]". In 1988, ICM also published a tri-lingual pictorial text, Macau Cultural Heritage comprehensively illustrating various types of architecture in Macao. In addition, Institutions, such as the Fundação Orient (Orient Foundation) and the Fundação Macau (Macao Foundation), were belatedly established to promote the Cultural legacies of Macao.

It was only after the destined fate of Macao became clear that both the Chinese and the Portuguese began to pay extraordinary and unprecedented attention to its evolution before the anticipated "Colonial closure", in 1999. Now, Macao is a place for nostalgia; a nostalgia for its syncretic Cultural heritage and its eccentric role in History. These passionate interests in Macao seem to echo Walter Benjamin's Thesis that only that which is about to disappear becomes an image. Macao is now like a dying person, who is lavishly pampered before he passes away. A decade ago, it was totally inconceivable to forsee such a flourishing publication about Macao from both sides of its peoples. It is as if the two peoples are always entranced in what Freud calls "reverse hallucination"21, that is, not seeing things which are actually there, but are then suddenly awakened by an alarm clock (ie: the Joint Declaration, in 1987) to realize that Macao is going to disappear as the last Portuguese Colonial outpost. In view of the uniqueness of this long neglected "reverse hallucinatory space", the two peoples all of a sudden show an unprecedented fervour by making a nostalgic Epilogue, or more appropriately, a variety of publications concerning Macao from every aspect.

The Joint Declaration, issued on the 13th of April 1987, between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Portugal not only stated that China will resume exercise of Sovereignty over Macao, on the 20th of December 1999, but it also signified the real and symbolic de-Colonization of Macao out of an anomaly of Colonial Administration. 22 It is indeed a mimicry of de-Colonization, since there was no evidence of actual Colonization.

However, The Amaral equestrian monument was seen as the very icon of Portuguese Colonization in Macao. 23 While Amaral was hailed by the Portuguese as a hero/martyr, he was regarded as an invader/oppressor by the Chinese. Again, Amaral became a Janus figure by being caught in the hero/ invader paradigm in different Cultural discourses. Not only does the monument metonymically be-come the fading shadow of Colonialism, but it also reminds the Chinese of the painful dismembered past of which they do not want to be reminded. The fiat for the removal of the monument by Lu Ping, Director of China's State Council's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, thus serves patent Political ideologies: it is the manifestation of the Chinese Political consciousness to deny the unpleasant past to create a Historical amnesia of the undesirable "truth" of its shameful days. For the Chinese, the History of Macao is what hurts and wounds. The "cleansing of the Colonial symbol" is then one of the tasks of the Culture of resistance since the restoration of a more congenial National Order than that provided by Colonial History is strongly felt by the Chinese as "a mission" in a fin de siècle.

The removal of the Amaral statue in is essence due to Political reasons but also involves Cultural factors. It is believed that the monument created bad fengshui for the newly completed Bank of China Building. When looking at the entrance of the Bank building, it seemed that Amaral's whip was flogging the whole building; while in the opposite direction, when looking from the statue, it looked as if the horse was treading and stamping on the Bank. The statue, therefore, totally destroyed the harmonious geomancy of the new Bank of China Building which is the tallest building ever built in Macao [up to 1995]. However, one would argue that the statue was there well before the construction of the Bank building and if it was bad fengshui for the Bank to face the statue, the de-signer could well have avoided confronting disharmony by re-positioning the inauspicious direction. In this case, fengshui, being a Cultural phenomenon, becomes the Political pretext for the erasure of the Colonial symbol proper in a "premature" timing before the 1999 take-over.

The Bank building is, after all, not merely a skyscraper office building owned by the Chinese Government, but is a metonymic representation of an emerging Power; a tangible landmark in Macao signifying China's looming Authority and influence after some four-hundred years of foreign Administration. If the equestrian monument manifested Portuguese Colonial Power, the new Bank building certainly represents China's overwhelming Authority which is somewhat "anachronistic" in the Colonial milieu. The pulling down of the monument, on the 28th of October1992, blatantly marked the process of "a premature de-Colonization within a Colonial context". It is anachronistic and prematurely celebratory to erase the Colonial/Imperial iconography when Macao is still under Portuguese Administration. The order for the removal is anachronistic simply because the Chinese Government has exercised "in advance" the post-Colonial Power to restore a new Cultural order by petrifying the contamination of the very Colonial icon. This peculiar genre can be termed as "anachronistic de-Colonization" and renders a problematic temporality for a linear progress to post-Coloniality. "post-Colonialism" is coined to mark History as a series of stages along an epochal road from "the pre-Colonial" to "Colonialism", "post-Colonialism" and "neo-Colonialism". The term "post-Colonial" embraces a temporal connotation which implies a progression of Historical events.

The removal of the equestrian monument before the demise of Colonialism seemed to underline a passage into a new Era and a closure to a prickly Historical Age. However, it created an ambivalent scenario in defining a linear progress of chronologies of the History of Macao: Colonialism -- de-Colonization -- post-Colonialism. It is conspicuous, therefore, in the case of Macao, that the periodization and the relationship between theories and practices of the Eurocentric disciplines illustrate discrepancies and contested terrains. The physical disappearance of the statue may suggest the symbolic castration of Portuguese Colonial Power and at the same time renders an ambiguous locus of continuities of Portuguese presence but discontinuities of its Colonial discourse. Moreover, it marks a pre-starting point for the Official de-Colonization date of the 20th of December 1999. If the pulling down of the equestrian monument is looked upon as an implication that Colonialism is now a matter of the past, one may also realize that the aftermath of Macao's Historical span is not yet post-Colonial. Macao is now grotesquely situated in a Historically and theoretically problematic context which can perhaps be called "pre-post-Colonialism" from now on until 1999. Although the oxymoronic rubric appears to be awkward and eccentric, it nevertheless precisely portrays the unique pre-post-Colonial ambience in Macao where the Chinese have already displayed in advance their "legitimate" influence.

After all, the processes of Colonization and de-Colonization in Macao can aptly be described as almost an anomaly because the phenomena do not fit in with global Theorist's belief that Colonization is homologous to conquest and de-Colonization to revolution. Moreover, Western Cultural disciplines positing a linear progress of Colonial-ism-de-Colonization-post-Colonialism cannot possibly be applied to Macao because there is an obvious infraction of the linear periodizations of these labels, and Macao is now ironically in a "pre-post-Colonial" Era.

Original text in English.

Revised by: Ana Pinto de Almeida

CHINESE GLOSSARY

Aomen Shilüe 澳门史略

Aomen Sibainian 澳门四百年

Baishaling 白沙岭

Da Yu Shan 大屿山

Fei Chengkang 费成康

fengshui 风水

Guangdong 广东

Huo Qichang [Fok Kai Cheong]霍启昌

Jiajing 嘉靖

Lin Qixing 林启兴

Lu Ping 鲁平

Ming 明

Yuan Bangjian 元邦建

Zheng Miaobing [Cheng Miu Bing] 郑妙冰

**Although the word is the same, usually, in order to differenciate 'history' from 'story' the former is commonly written 'História' and the latter 'história', ie: História = history and história = story.

NOTES

1 KEIL, Luís. Jorge Álvares: The First Portuguese to go to China, Macau, Instituto Cultural de Macau, 1990, p.47.

2 Lusitania (which was given by the Romans) was the old Roman name for Portugal. "Pax Lusitania" is derived from "Pax Romana" which means Roman Peace. According to GOVE, Philip Babcock, ed., Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, Spring field/Massachussetts, Merriam-Webster Inc., 1986, pp. 1658-1659, "Pax" is: "3 usu cap : a period of international history characterized by an absence of major wars and a general stability of international affairs usu. resulting from a predominance of a specified political authority Pax Brittanica of the nineteenth century a vast empire of trade was built up -- E. H. Jacoby> < Pax Romana>."

3 FOK, Kai Cheong, The Ming Debate on how to accommodate the Portuguese and the Emergence of the Macau Formula, in "Revista de Cultura"(Português/English), 3/ 14, 1991, pp. 342-343.

4 Idem.

5 LAM, Chee Shing, A Study of Macau as a Portuguese Settlement in Chinese Territory from 16-18th century, Hong Kong, University of Hong Kong, 1970, p.828 --Unpublished Doctorate Thesis.

6 LJUNGSTEDT, Andrew, An Historical Sketch of the Portuguese Settlements in China; [...], Hong Kong, Viking Hong Kong Publications, 1992, p.8.

7 JESUS, Carlos Augusto Montalto de, Historic Macau, Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1984, p.vii.

8 Ibidem., p.510.

9 Idem.

10 JESUS, Carlos Augusto Montalto de, op. cit., p.506.

11 Ibidem., p.ix.

12 BENJAMIN, Walter, Illuminations. New York, Schocken Books, 1968, p.257.

13 Janus is a Latin deity of Antiquity, usually depicted with two faces looking in opposite directions. Hence, Janus is denoted to have two contrasting aspects.

14 For example, the History of Macau is only part of: PENG Qirui 彭琪瑞 et al, (Hong Kong and Macao) 香港與澳門, QU Dajun [SÊK Kâm Tchông] 屈大鈞, Guangdong Xin Yu (New Words from Guangdong) 廣東新語, vol.2; Xiangshan Zazhi 香山縣記, vol.8.

15 YUAN Bangjian 元邦建, ed. YUAN Guixiu 袁桂秀, Aomen Shilüe (A Concise History of Macao) 澳门史略, Hong Kong, China's Exchange Publishers, 1988.

16 FEI Chengkang 费成康, Aomen Sibainian (A Four-Hundred-Year History of Macao) 澳门四百年, Shanghai, People's Publishing House, 1988.

17 A "chapa de ouro" literally means a "golden chop". It was an Official Chinese Document [written] in gilt characters. The Portuguese always claimed that they had been given this honorific Document as a solemn cession of Macao to Portugal.

18 JESUS, Carlos Augusto Montalto de, op. cit., p.23.

19 PIRES, Benjamin António Videira, Os Extremos Conciliam-se.: transculturação em Macau, Macau, Instituto Cultural de Macau, 1992, pp. 93-101

In: "Review of Culture" (English Edition), Macau, (1) April/May/June 1987, p.2.

21 Since 'hallucination' means seeing what is not there, reverse hallucination means not seeing what is there.

22 In 1976, Macao was constituted with a special status --"Chinese Territory under Portuguese Administration" --a formula which was inappropriate to define Macao as a Portuguese Colony and it was, too, impossible to generalize the idea of de Colonization in Macao. It is indeed a peculiar formula to disallow Macao's status as being a Colony but to admit Portuguese Administration.

23 João Maria Ferreira do Amaral was a wayward Governor in Macau (elec. 1846-†1847). After taking Office, he implemented serious Chinese interferences. His strong policies eventually led to his being assassinated by some Chinese.

* Lecturer in the University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong).