MACAU IN THE YEAR OF CAMILO PESSANHA'S DEATH

In the 1920s, Macau was still two cities al though there was already firmly in place the myth of a Western city transplanted to the Far East, of people uprooted from their homelands, of traders in merchandise and exotic dreams--a meeting point where cultures could fuse.

The Christian city and the Chinese city evoking colonial atmospheres, the corrupted memory of a far-off Europe and the constant presence of China during a period of political upheaval and shifts in attitudes and aspirations.

The following album is simply intended to record some of the places in Macau which Camilo Pessanha would have known.

Our hope is that the photographs printed here can give readers a glimpse of scenes which have now almost entirely disappeared but which can provide a backdrop for the images which inhabit our imagination.

Photographs lent by Victor Hugo Marreiros (first published in the 1927 Macau year book) and by Luís Sá Cunha (private collection).

Hong Gong Temple in the bazaar

Kong Nam Guest House (?) at nº 198, Rua 5 de Outubro

Rickshaw man and knife-grinder

Rua 5 de Outubro

Procession entering the Cathedral

Houses in the Inner Harbour

Silva Mendes' house and Guia Lighthouse with the entrance to the Parsee Cemetery in the foreground

View of Taipa town with the bell tower of the Church of Our Lady of Carmo on the far right

Flora Mansion

Taipa town -- Avenida da Praia -- with the Church of Our Lady of Carmo in the background

Public Security Headquarters

Kung Kao Chinese School in São Lázaro quarter

Macau Secondary School (main hall)

Macau Secondary School

Banco Nacional Ultramarino

Macau Secondary School (physics laboratory)

Military Club (smoking room)

Show in D. Pedro V Theatre

Macau Secondary School (boys, fifth form)

Harbour

Parade in São Francisco Barracks