ASPECTS OF THE 'ETHNIC IDENTITIES' OF THE MACANESE

INTRODUCTION

    "Macanese people, 
    you who are (un)defined
    in not fitting in, 
    which you do not, well... 
    being more or less
    between two poles
    that attract
    and repel each other
    because of differences, 
    in diverging
    ignorance. 
    Diffuse boundary
    in a sea of people, 
    so transparent
    and fragile
    as to be forgotten. 
    Passers by
    stumble
    on the silent
    and profound
    wailing. 
    A mirage
    of eyes set on the West
    and a heart that waits. 
    The free fall, 
    the abadonment
    of a flight
    over the endless sea
    endless
    sea
    to be extinguished... 
                    [Dated] 23. Dec. 89"

This poem by Cecília Jorge seems to express a profound, heartfelt lament, a bitter acknowledgement of the inexistence of a collective Macanese identity. However, the words "between two poles" contain the essence of the 'collective identity' of the Macanese of today. 2

From a theoretical point of view, identity signifies 'sameness' and implies that what has substance is equal to itself. From a social point of view, identity is the collective character that results from the common characteristics of members of a group. It is termed 'collective identity' and has an underlying 'basic personality'. If, as the poem states, one of the common characteristics of the Macanese of today is that they are undefined and between two divergent poles that repel each other, then that is undoubtedly an essential aspect of their 'collective identity'.

People who settle in Macao for a while will have little difficulty distinguishing the Macanese from the Chinese or the European Portuguese who live there. They will easily feel the differences, although it may be difficult to define them.

Unfortunately, there are no scientific studies that provide data on what is specifically Macanese from a socio-cultural point of view. This enormous lacuna becomes all the more serious if considered within the general context of the population of the Territory and the socio-political context of Macao's transition to full Chinese Sovereignty. The political process of transition was initiated and continues instinctively and on the basis of superficial or aprioristic judgement. No interdisciplinary scientific studies focusing on sociology, anthropology, social psychology and demography were conducted in relation to the three main segments of Macao's population (the local Portuguese, the local Chinese and the Chinese immigrants), and to their relationship to, and influence on, one another. But this is a subject for politicians and rulers, and for the successes they always take credit for, even if it means that the people must remain silent.

§ 1. POLYETHNIC ORIGIN

The Macanese can trace their roots back to the mid-sixteenth century, when the Portuguese settled in Macao. The first census taken by [Metropolitan] Portugal (1527-1532) showed that there were 280,528 households, corresponding to a population of between one and one-and-a-half-million people. In 1640, the population of the Kingdom of Portugal was still below two-million. Incidentally, when the Portuguese arrived in Macao, it is estimated that China had about two-hundred-million inhabitants.

At the height of Portugal's expansion, between 1495 and 1521 (during the reign of King Dom Manuel I), the control of extensive regions from key points in South America, Africa and Asia required a considerable effort in terms of human resources, but the Country was in no position to sustain such an effort. Interbreeding with Oriental peoples led to an increase in Portugal's European population and to the appearance of the first generations of Eurasians, who reached adulthood when Portugal's power began to decline in the Indies and the Pacific. Fighting side by side, the Portuguese of European and Asian origin surrounded the places where they had settled and defended them as best they could.

Greek tradition was to establish several political entities — the City-States — within one cultural area. The Portuguese, however, based their expansion on the Roman model, grouping various cultural areas — the dominions, conquests or Colonies — under one Political Authority.

Cultural hybridization resulted not only from interbreeding, but also from the Christianization of the peoples with whom the Portuguese established lasting relations. Even today, the terms 'Christian' and 'Portuguese' are synonymous in certain parts of the East. And in some Eastern communities, the Portuguese stereotype does not correspond to the Iberian somatotype, but to that of the Eurasians of Portuguese descent who live in communities scattered throughout the Indies and the Pacific, which, for many centuries, have been the only reference to Portugal among the neighbouring peoples. 3

The first Macanese would have been Christian Luso-Asians, mainly of Euro-Indian and Euro-Malay origin. Much has been said about the polyhybrid origin of the Macanese, but there is no definitive synthesis on their origin and their evolution over the centuries.

It is an accepted fact that the Macanese are Eurasians of Portuguese descent. Historically, the Portuguese component has been the structural element of their 'collective identity'. The Asian component has varied and is at the moment predominantly Chinese. However, there is abundant information suggesting that, in the past, the predominant element of the Asian component was non-Chinese.

The hypothesis that the Chinese element became relevant only in the twentieth century has become more widely accepted. According to this hypothesis, there was an anthropobiological and cultural mutation that consisted in the following:

1.1. The gradual extinction of the traditional Macanese community, which was predominantly of non-Chinese Eurasian origin, because most families emigrated. This phenomenon:

1.1.1. Began in the years following the Second World War, due to the great difficulties the Colony experienced;

1.1.2. Was accentuated after the '1, 2, 3' riots that occurred in Macao in December 1966, reflecting the instability generated by the Cultural Revolution in China;

1.1.3. Intensified again in the years following the revolution that took place in Portugal on the 25th of April 1974, because of a general belief that Portugal's new leaders intended to hand over Macao to the People's Republic of China under the same tumultuous circumstances they got rid of the other Provinces.

1.2. The growth of a Luso-Chinese community whose leaders were the children of:

1.2.1. Chinese women of modest means and European men of similar background, ex-servicemen of low rank, policemen, etc.;

1.2.2. Macanese women and Macanese men;

1.2.3. Macanese women and European men of modest means, ex-servicemen of low rank, policemen, etc.;

1.2.4. Chinese women and Macanese men;

1.2.5. Macanese women and Chinese men.

Only a systematic study that uses birth, marriage and death records as the main sources of data can give a more precise indication of the relative importance of the different ethnic components in the formation and renewal of Macanese society.

India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Siam, Cochin-China, Japan, Timor, Bengal, China, Asian Russia, Arabia and the coastal African Countries were the main non-European places of origin of the Macanese. In most cases, the native people of the area were already mestizos of Portuguese descent.

From an' ethnic' point of view, the character of the Portuguese, and their festivities, which were often recreated locally, shaped the various cultures that in four-and-a-half centuries were combined in the Macanese.

Even among peoples whose stratification is older, characteristics and cultural traditions change over time. Nothing remains rigidly stable. The cultural heritage of a people is always affected by acculturation, resulting from external influences and internal changes that are determined by evolution. Anglo-Saxon anthropologists referred to this process of acculturation as 'culture change'.

The cultural heritage of the Macanese is extremely rich because over the centuries it has known considerable influence from the outside. Its 'ethnic' diversity has given the Macanese a great flexibility, which is clearly evident in their capacity to adapt, whether they remain in Macao or integrate into other societies, as they did among the expatriates in Hong Kong and Shanghai since the mid-nineteenth century; in Australia, North America and Brazil; since the middle of this century; in Portugal; and in the former Portuguese Colonies/Provinces.

§ 2. 'ETHNIC IDENTITIES'

It is not easy to come up with a concept that defines what is Macanese. In the Eighties, in a unique political context, it was proposed that anyone born in Macao was Macanese. Such a proposal was part of a process to try to lessen the influence of the leader of the Macanese, Carlos Assumpção. Contrary to a secular tradition, it was claimed that the local Portuguese community, which was predominantly Macanese, constituted an obstacle to the reconciliation of interests between the Portuguese Administration, the leaders of the Chinese community and the unofficial representatives of the People's Republic of China. It goes without saying that the proposal is unsuccessful.

First of all, the sector of the population that was born in Macao consists mainly of Chinese people, who do not consider themselves Macanese but rather Ou-Mun-ian (people of Macao, or Chinese of Macao), whereas they call the Macanese t'ou-sán (Port.: filhos da terra, or sons and daughters of the soil born in the Territory, locals). Macao Chinese also make a distinction between the Macanese and the European Portuguese, whom they call kuai-lôu (slang: he/she-devil), ngaû-sôk (lit.: uncle ox) and ngaû-pó (lit.: woman ox).

The Macanese also differentiate themselves from the local Chinese [of Macao], even if the latter are family members. The term they used to designate themselves in the old local Dialect was Macaístas. They call the Chinese, Chinas, but this term seems to be declining in popularity among the younger generations because it currently has a negative connotation. Traditionally, Chinese people who were baptized and thus acquired a Christian/Portuguese name were known as t'ching cao (converted to Christianity, New Christian).

Ngaû-sôk and ngaû-pó, both Guangdongnese terms, were used traditionally by the Macanese to refer to European Portuguese men and women. They had a depreciative connotation, somewhat like the nicknames that emerged from regional or club rivalries, but they never became 'ethnic' markers. The term Macaio — used by European Portuguese to express their supposed superiority to the Macanese — is similar, but its content is somewhat different.

The situation where Macanese people of Luso-Chinese origin attach a disproportionate value to the constituent elements of their ambivalent cultural heritage, maximizing the Portuguese component and minimizing the Chinese component, may appear, to a less attentive observer, to be an incomprehensible racist attitude and a sign of unspeakable filial ingratitude. I have heard accounts that indicate the existence of prejudice — with respect to relations with Chinese family members, the rejection of traditional Chinese values and the refusal to accept certain customs, for example — but this type of behaviour is a result of the role that has traditionally been assigned to parents within the family, in both Portuguese and Chinese society. The leading role of the husband as the authority figure never posed a problem in inter- 'ethnic' marriages between Portuguese men and Chinese women.

In such marriages, the Portuguese cultural references are transmitted from one generation to the next as the main references because of the internal structure of the family, rather than racial prejudice (if there were prejudice, the marriage would not take place). One of the most important decisions to be made in such marriages concerns the education of the children. A Portuguese education has been the obvious choice, as obvious as the father's authority within the family; however, it has acted as a centrifuge that separates the two cultural components of Macanese people of Luso-Chinese origin, shaping their Portuguese cultural matrix and relegating the elements of their Chinese cultural heritage to the periphery of this basic matrix. It is therefore understandable that Macanese people can write and speak Portuguese, but, as a rule, can neither read nor write Chinese.

The ability to read and write a Language is the key to gaining access to, and disseminating, a culture. In the case of the Macanese, their mastering of Portuguese has been the strongest factor attaching them to Portuguese culture. Similarly, the inability to read and write Chinese has been a decisive factor in their detachment from Chinese culture, of which the most erudite forms have become alien.

The life of the Macanese of Luso-Chinese origin has been characterized by permanent stimuli of fidelity to their Portuguese cultural matrix that contribute to their detachment from their Chinese cultural heritage. The same happened with previous generations of Luso-Asians of non-Chinese origin.

Once they have completed their Secondary studies (Grammar School), some young Macanese go on to University in Portugal, but the rest remain in Macao. For these, their entry into professional life, mainly in the Public Service, crowns the efforts that began with a decision made by their father when they were children and rewards them with the social prestige of being part of the Administrative machine that regulates the life of the Territory.

From the second half of the Seventies, inter-'ethnic' marriages between European Portuguese men and Chinese women (which were the norm in previous decades) became less frequent, mainly because Portugal stopped sending Military contingents to Macao. Instead, marriages between Macanese men and Chinese women with academic qualifications that gave them a higher social status than women of previous generations became relatively more common.

At the same time, something new happened, at least in terms of frequency. Since the number of Portuguese men with whom they could marry was reduced, Macanese women began to marry Chinese men more often.

The first children from these marriages have only recently reached adulthood. Since these families are also Luso-Chinese, the father once again assumed the position of head of the family, so his cultural references, and not the mother's, became the main references. In addition, since the decision concerning education would also have been made by the father, the children's cultural matrix was shaped by that of their father, which has nothing to do with Portuguese culture but seems to be guided mainly by that of Hong Kong, due to its greater emphasis on wealth. It is therefore understandable that for these very young Macanese, Portuguese is a strange Language. They speak and write Chinese (in non-simplified, i. e.: traditional characters) and English. In their relations with Luso-Chinese family members who have a Portuguese cultural matrix, Guangdongnese has become the Language of communication.

Natural distances apart, the substitution of 'ethnic identities' among these very young Macanese is a phenomenon similar to the one that occurred as of the second generation of Portuguese people with roots in other European Countries or of people from various Countries that settle in Latin America, for example. But there is one difference that must be noted. The change in 'ethnic identities' among the latter groups was the result of the dynamics of migration, whereby elements with a certain 'ethnic identities' were reintegrated into another group with a different 'ethnic identities'. However, the substitution of 'ethnic identities' among the young Macanese of Luso-Chinese origin occurs in the geographical area where they, and their parents, were born.

The opening of the Macanese group to members of the Chinese group, through Macanese women, will contribute to its progressive extinction, unless it is compensated by an equivalent number of marriages between Macanese or European Portuguese men and Macanese or Chinese women. A study of Parish Books of Marriages and Birth Records might provide a good indication of the evolutionary prospects of the Macanese group.

§3. MACANESE CULTURE

It is not easy to define the fundamental elements of Macanese culture. Is there such a thing as Macanese culture? Is it autonomous in relation to Portuguese culture and to that of the Oriental peoples who have lived in Macao over the centuries? Or is it simply a hybrid form of Portuguese culture?

An analysis of the culture of a 'civilized' people cannot be limited to forms and institutions. As a matter of fact, the Macanese were not able to innovate in these areas. Historically, the forms and institutions of the Macanese were modelled after those of the European Portuguese. In some cases, their penetration by elements of Eastern cultures can be discerned, but their basic configuration has remained Portuguese.

The spiritual content of each culture is even more important than the forms and institutions. It is the key to understanding the culture of a people and its evolution because it is what remains most stable through the morphological and ideological changes that occur over time.

The different aspects of a people's culture are variable, as they are selected and modified by the basic temperament of the people, which is the ballast and the constant in each people's culture. Given their original cultural heterogeneity and its renewal over the centuries, is it possible to speak of a basic temperament constant where the Macanese are concerned? Or are the Macanese, on the contrary, the product of various mentalities that, throughout their history, concealed situations of real or latent conflict under the guise of peaceful coexistence?

Apart from conflicts of interest and variable violence, the history of the Macanese has been marked by conflicts between different mentalities, even between European Portuguese people who settled in Macao and usually set the recently arrived against those who had resided in the Territory for a longer period of time. At the root of such conflicts was a confrontation between European Portuguese mentality, which as a rule is more puritanical, and a Portuguese mentality that was acculturated to the East and pervious to Asian customs that the European Portuguese considered sinful or simply disgraceful. These conflicts of mentality emerged because groups had different ways of viewing the structure of the basic unit of society — the family — and from there they progressed horizontally and vertically through the whole group.

In such a context, the Christian Church acted as a source of social standards and control that often superseded the Civil Authorities and sometimes temporized with practices that were not completely in accordance with its canons. Overall, however, by taking direct action jointly with its members or by exercising its influence jointly with Civil Authorities, the Christian Church shaped the social standards of the Macanese, and its leaders emphasized those standards from one generation to another. The social standards were complex, so in case of infringement they were often complacently modified. It follows that a great religiousness is part of the basic personality of the Macanese, and so is the adoption of standards of conduct that disagree with Christian morality.

Individuals or groups from various areas who arrived in Macao either complied with the standards or were not integrated into the Macanese group. As new forms of infringement emerged, the standards were modified accordingly.

An important factor in the homogenization of the Macanese group was the Macaísta Dialect spoken in Macao. A remnant of the lingua franca that for centuries was the means of communication between merchants, members of Religious Orders and the inhabitants of the ports of the Indies and Southeast Asia, it was significantly influenced by the papiá · Cristang 4 of Malacca and minimally influenced by Guangdongnese. Because it was easier to learn than Portuguese, the Macaísta Dialect made a decisive contribution to the integration of foreign elements into Macanese society.

Macao's small size determined the physical and cultural closeness of the newly arrived, who integrated into the social whole. But the superior culture of the Macanese is not the sum of the cultures of the various people who integrated into-Macanese society. Rather, it is the result of a continuous process of integration of these cultures and Portuguese culture into something new, into which they were all integrated and in which they all influenced one another through spiritual sublimation.

Birthday party of Gustavo Sales da Silva (Guta).

Back row. Left to right: Armando Rodrigues da Silva (Gigue), José Sales da Silva (Zézé), Mário Soares, Alexandre Airosa, Américo Ângelo, Gilberto Soares, António Batalha, José Marcos Batalha, Arnaldo Basto and Mário Basto.

Centre row. Left to right: Fernando Ribeiro, José dos Santos Ferreira (Adé), Gustavo Sales da Silva (Guta), João Martins, Armando Rodrigues da Silva, Reinaldo Ângelo and Armando Basto.

Front row. Left to right: Hugo da Silva, Alberto Rodrigues da Silva (Betita) and Maria Manuela da Silva (Boneca).

Photograph taken on the 21st of October 1931.

Macanese society owes its unification and its endurance to the sea. Its secular roots are transoceanic, and from the five continents they, converge on the minuscule peninsula that served as its cradle. Its prosperity sprang from the great attraction of the South China Sea, and was furthered by the voyages to India, Japan, Manila, Timor and the 'Spice Islands'. The sea was the source of energy that protected Macanese society from China's enormous centripetal force. The more Macao depended on the sea rather than on the land, the greater were its autonomy and its prosperity, and the greater the impact on its 'collective identity'.

It was also the sea that defined the essentially expansive character of the Macanese, by giving them the mission of establishing ties with, and intermediating between, various peoples in the region. Macanese society was founded and evolved through the joint action of navigators, merchants and missionaries. From marine insurance to the production of lorchas, there is a three-hundred-year-old tradition of Macanese ingenuity inspired by the sea. The expansionist force of the South China Sea, which is strewn with typhoons, was the soul of Macanese society and dictated the Golden Age of Macao's history.

Macanese selection for field hockey, at King's Park, in Hong Kong.

Field hockey used to be one of the most popular sports among the Macanese.

Back row. Left to right, (standing): Leonel Borralho, José Victor do Rosário, José dos Santos Ferreira (Adé), Armando Basto, João Santos Ferreira and Alexandre Airosa.

Front row. Left to right (squatting): Frederico Nolasco, Fernando Marques, Lourenço Ritchie, Reinaldo Ângelo and Augusto Jorge.

Photograph taken in 1948.

Since it had an insufficient number of people to deal with what history had in store for it, Macao's society, which was undergoing constant change, did not have time to mature, something that is essential to producing major works of art. The musical works of Pedro José Lobo; the literary works of Deolinda da Conceição, José dos Santos Ferreira and Henrique de Senna Fernandes; the paintings of Luís Demée, Herculano Estorninho, António Conceição Jr., Carlos Marreiros and Vitor Marreiros, among others, indicate the auspicious emergence of truly superior and original artistic creations in Macanese society. Macao's future political leaders should foster their growth at all costs, to ensure continuity in the recording of four-and-a-half centuries of memories, something that was initiated by illustrious Macanese people such as Carlos Augusto Montalto de Jesus, José Maria Braga and Luís Gonzaga Gomes.

§4. BASIC PERSONALITY

The psycho-social personality of the Macanese is complex and contains antinomies that can be explained by the fusion of the different tendencies inherent to the 'ethnic' elements that make up the Macanese.

Sandwiched between the sea and the overwhelming shadow of China, with incomparably more freedom and prosperity than China's feudal society, which lasted into the current century, Macanese society produced a critically negative stereotype of China that is promoted from one generation to the next and has become an integral part of the basic personality of the Macanese, even if they are of Chinese descent. In 1912, Camilo Pessanha described it as "Ignorance, coarseness, superstition, disloyalty, cowardice, avarice, sensuality, cruelty, impudence, cynicism, moral atony [...]."5

The Macanese are both dreamers and people of action who are basically practical and realistic. Not really prone to cold reflexion, they are idealistic, emotional and imaginative. They are not overpreoccupied with comfort, but, paradoxically, are drawn to displays of wealth and luxury. They are religious but not mystical, and they have an excellent capacity to adapt to the most diverse situations, ideas, people and things, without experiencing any loss of character. Their behaviour is rather inhibited because they worry about what others think of them. Though they are not people of great humour, they are ironic, and have an extremely sharp critical mind and great wit.

The Macanese are also moderate to the point of being excessively modest in the expression of their individual and collective value. They deliberately effaced themselves in the epic of which they were the permanent protagonists, giving others the credit they themselves deserve. Their virtues and their faults were maintained over the centuries. Their reactions vary only with the historical context. When they are required to play a relevant role, their performance exceeds expectations. When confined to a minor role, they lose heart and vegetate. The epic figure of Vicente Nicolau de Mesquita is an example of the first statement made above. But there are many valorous Macanese people, whose memory has been modestly extinguished and who played an honourable and often heroic role in defending their land against the Dutch invaders; by joining the Military contingents that rescued the Ming Armies, despite death threats from the Manchu; by crewing lorchas in the battle against pirates; or by fighting in Africa, as militia officers of the Portuguese Armed Forces, during the Wars that preceded the independence of the Provinces. In a social context that does not galvanize them, because they are forced to play a mediocre role, the Macanese behave in such a way as to simply safeguard their existence. Perspicacious and intelligent, their imagination prompts them to make the most of the situation, without glory, in order to feed their taste for displays of wealth, and to sharpen their critical mind and their wit.

The character of the Macanese was a constant source of difficulty for the Territory's leaders, especially in times of increased stagnation, which are conducive to apathy and strengthen the critical mind of the Macanese. This was profusely illustrated by the traditional pasquins (lampoons) written in the Macanese Dialect, of which José dos Santos Ferreira was the last contributor, in the same manner as his fellow countrymen of the early nineteenth century, Antonino Haggesborg and José Maria de Oliveira Lima. Macanese social and political criticism is an important part of the history of the Portuguese press in Macao, but due to the intensity of the conflicting interests and the size of the Territory, it has generally taken the defensive form of 'letters by unidentified readers' and articles written under a pseudonym. But the Macanese are not always that cautious. History has recorded openly defiant attitudes in times of stagnation, most notably that of Carlos Augusto Montalto de Jesus in the second edition of Historic Macao. 6

CONCLUSION

To conclude this analysis of the 'ethnic identities' of the Macanese, which is by no means perfect, it seems appropriate to formulate an appeal, rather than providing a summary.

Very recently, the World congratulated itself and breathed a sigh of relief as it witnessed the end of the long nightmare that was the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

All peoples have the right to live and prosper in the land they consider theirs.

Within a few generations, the Macanese will cease to exist if they have to leave the land that served as their cradle. A human group of small size, but with its own indisputable 'collective identity', its disappearance would be an irreparable loss to Macao, which would become a vulgar place, monotonously the same as so many of its neighbours. In fact, all of humanity would suffer because it would lose a part of itself that, though small, is a part, and a valuable synthesis, of the Universal whole.

Translated from the Portuguese by: Paula Sousa

NOTES

1"Macaense

que te (in)defines

pelo que não ser bem

que também não és, bem...

um mais ou menos

entre dois pólos

que se atraem

e se repelem

pela diferença

no desconhecimento

divergente.

Fronteira difusa

num mar de gente,

tão transparente

e frágil que se esquece.

Por ti passam

calcando,

e tropeçam

no gemido

silencioso

e sentido.

Miragem

de olhos postos no Ocidente

e coração suspenso.

A queda livre,

no abandono de um voo

sobre o mar

difuso

difuso

a apagar-se...

[Dated] 23. Dez. 89"

2This poem by Cecília Jorge also seems to express a general feeling among the Macanese that reflects the trauma caused by the political solution found for their land. For the time being, they are confronted with the following dilemma: they must either leave Macao, if they want to keep the Portuguese nationality they have always had, or renounce their nationality to be able to remain in the land that served as their cradle. The Macanese were faced with this bitter dilemma when Portugal and China signed the Joint Declaration in 1987. If the Macanese are experiencing an identity crisis, it is the direct result of the Joint Declaration. Such a crisis can only be overcome through political negotiations between Portugal and China, within the context of Macao's transition to full Chinese Sovereignty, since it seems unlikely that the Macanese will put political pressure on the Chinese Authorities.

3I experienced situations that substantiate my statements: a) In 1965, I was staying at a hotel in Hong Kong. When the receptionist asked what my nationality was, I said I was Portuguese, and he immediately replied.

—"I'm also Christian."

b) In 1985, at a hotel in Malacca, during an identical conversation with a young Malay girl, she exclaimed:

—"You're kidding! You're tall, fair and light-haired. The Portuguese are much shorter and much darker."

She was referring to the people of Portuguese descent who live in Malacca.

c) In 1991, a Portuguese friend of mine married a young Malay girl who lived in Hong Kong. He told me about how surprised his fiancée's parents were when they met him because they thought he would be a mestizo.

4From papiar, meaning: to speak, converse.

5PIRES, Daniel Pires, ed., Camilo Pessanha, Prosador e Tradutor, Macau, Instituto Português do Oriente- Instituto Cultural de Macau, 1992 — The author quoting Camilo Pessanha, in his Preface to the book by J. António Filipe de Morais Palha: Esboço Crítico da Civilização Chinesa.

6JESUS, Carlos Augusto Montalto de, Historic Macao, Macau, Salesian Printing Press - Tipografia Mercantil, 1926 [2nd edition].

* MA in Social and Political Sciences by the Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Políticas Ultramarinas (Faculty of Social and Political Sciences), Lisbon. Former President of the Cultural Institute of Macau. Currently, Cultural Attaché at the Embassy of Portugal, in Beijing. Researcher on the history and sociology of Macao. Author of various articles and publications, including Macao 1999 — O Desafio da Transição (1990) and A Língua Portuguesa no Oriente: Passado Recente e Perspectivas de Futuro (1993).