EDITORIAL

In Summary of this issue, RC brings together once again articles from a wide range of contributors who have researched Macao 'from the outside', who have visited this outpost of the Portuguese Empire, and who have produced past and present works of art under the Territory's inspirational umbrella. Although for once the amplitude of themes explored in this issue might not be stated explicitly on its cover, this does not invalidate the wide range of on-going stimulating research into Macao's history and cultural heritage. Our aims remain unchangeable: that of unraveling the complex historical links of continuous East-West interchanges and developing new cultural matrixes in order to explicate their diversity and importance.

The absurd statement of Henri de Montherland comparing the auto-critique of nations to the self-esteem of ordinary individuals is a deliberate tour-de-force intended to caricature those who, unashamed of their own improper actions or lacking in objectivity, rush into easy opinions or condemnation of others' conduct.

Bearing in mind the diminutive area of its territory, Macao must be one of the few places on the planet visited during these last four centuries by so many different nationals and described systematically in so many chronicles, travel journals and literature at large.

This edition of RC presents a few examples of this plethora of eclectic writings about the city and its modus vivendi, ranging from seventeenth to eighteenth century Chinese poetry on the extraneous religious 'rituals' of the 'foreign' Catholics to the affected and somewhat picaresque nineteenth century impressions of Welleursse and the Count of Beauvoir.

These narrated multi-faceted metropolis, differently extracted by each author from a unique Macao, are testimonies of its mysterious vocation: that of being a pivotal centre of life's encounters and a melting pot of universal fraternities.

Luís Sá Cunha

Editorial Director