Macau is known as the “Las Vegas of Asia” for its glitzy casinos and huge gaming industry that surpass those of the United States, but the region is also home to a unique ethnic group: Macauans.
Almost 25 years after the former Portuguese colony returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1999, the mainland-born mixed Sino-Portuguese community is challenged to maintain its population, language and culture.
Their numbers (13,021 according to the latest census) and the decline in the use of the Portuguese language have raised concerns among Macanese that Macau will lose what is unique about its identity: its Portuguese influence. ing. Additionally, the government confirmed last year that it had ended preferential treatment for Portuguese nationals wishing to move to the city.
“This means that our Portuguese culture will be weakened for the next generation,” said Delfim Chasim, a retiree from a Macanese family who has lived in Macau for four generations. His granddaughter speaks Portuguese, but he says many young people in Macau don’t speak it because very few people speak it anymore, even though Portuguese is an official language along with Chinese. Told.
Most people in Macau are Chinese and speak Cantonese. According to the Macau Statistics and Census Bureau, fluency in English has become much higher than in Portuguese in recent years.
Over time, Chasim and others fear that only colonial-era buildings will remain, including the ruins of the landmark St. Paul’s Cathedral, a 17th-century Catholic religious site.
“All we see are fortifications and other structures built by the Portuguese, but they don’t know the real story,” Chasim said. Without its unique language and culture, Macau is “no different from any other province in China.”
The latest census conducted in 2021 showed that the number of full or mixed Portuguese people has increased by nearly 5,000 compared to 2011.
Since 2001, immediately after the handover, the population has remained at around 2% of the population.
Due to strict quarantine policies and border restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Macau’s total population has lost around 10,000 residents, including Portuguese expatriates and migrant workers. It is not clear how many of those who left have returned.
Adding to concerns about Macau and Portugal’s culture and population decline, the Macau government has quietly in recent years, and formally last year, begun granting resident ID cards and a path to permanent residence to Portuguese nationals wishing to reside in the city. has been discontinued.
Previously, Portuguese nationals received a card when they found a job in Macau and could obtain permanent residency seven years later. Currently, they are treated like other foreigners and given only temporary work permits unless they have special skills or have family already in the city.
“We want the next generation to be proud of who we are. We don’t want to lose our culture,” said Ivone de Jesús, a fifth-generation Macanese who helps run her family’s popular restaurant Cozinha Aida. Macanese cuisine has been passed down from generation to generation.
De Jesús said his late grandmother Aida, who carefully preserved her recipes before her death, was one of only 50 people in Macau who spoke a Creole dialect called Patua. This dialect is a mixture of Portuguese, Malay, and Sinhalese, and later came to be heavily influenced by Cantonese, but it has now almost disappeared.
De Jesús and others said the government is helping preserve Portuguese and Macau culture, including helping restaurants like her family’s preserve their food. The government also encourages people to learn the language by funding schools that teach Portuguese.
However, many Macanese and Portuguese people oppose the removal of preferential treatment for Portuguese people, pointing out that it will be difficult to maintain Macau’s Portuguese identity and language unless the Portuguese-speaking population increases. ing.
“First of all, it’s the Portuguese who give the culture here in Macau. …Let’s not talk about whether the place was run well or badly. It’s a very subjective thing, but it’s the Portuguese who give the culture here in Macau. Macau is Macau because they were here. It was dominated by them. They bring their flavours, their culture, their colors, everything, even their food, their lineage… So it’s really great for the Portuguese to come back here. It’s important,” De Jesus said.
Miguel Sena Fernández, president of the Macau Association, said the government’s decision contradicts the government’s policy of promoting Portuguese language fluency so that Macau becomes a platform for promoting relations between China and Portuguese-speaking countries. .
“The Macau government should be inviting Portuguese people to settle in Macau, but they are not doing that. They are doing the opposite,” Fenandez said. “They are giving an image of themselves as unwelcoming. …What’s the point of promoting Portuguese in their territory if they don’t want Portuguese-speaking people? It’s like they want to promote people but they don’t want Chinese people.”
Jorge Menezes, a Portuguese lawyer in Macau, sees the removal of preferential treatment for Portuguese nationals as part of a trend.
“The Portuguese are no longer special. … It is of course a betrayal of the whole idea of relations between Portugal and Macau after the handover,” Menezes said. “Language is disappearing in public affairs. …This is part of a trend toward Macau becoming less autonomous vis-à-vis China than was intended under the bilateral treaty between Portugal and Macau’s constitution.”
VOA has asked Macau authorities for comment on these concerns and the reason for the decision to revoke preferential treatment for Portuguese nationals, but has not yet received a response.
The government has long sought to protect architectural heritage and urged casino operators to acquire concessions and invest in revitalizing old areas. The Macau Government Tourism Office (MGTO) told VOA that it and other government agencies promote the unique culture of Macau cuisine.
“Macau’s designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy in 2017 is of great importance in helping to preserve Macau’s unique gastronomic heritage. Immediately after the designation, MGTO, in collaboration with other organizations, “We have developed a series of initiatives to make culinary preservation part of our plan to address the city’s heritage as one of our key mandates,” it said in a written response.
De Jesús said he did not believe the government was trying to reduce the Portuguese population, which had always been small even before the handover.
“They say China, this place doesn’t want foreigners. Actually, I have a different view. Over the past 10, 20, 30 years, we have always had people from different countries We have accepted a variety of foreigners. They have been workers, professionals, professionals, managers. I don’t really know, but my personal opinion is that what China wants is… employment. We want to give the opportunity back to the local people,” de Jesús said.
But de Jesús and other Macau residents agree that it is the combination of the two cultures that makes Macau special.
“I’m talking about Portuguese, Portuguese, Portuguese, but before the Portuguese came here, we were also Chinese, so the Chinese are part of Portuguese culture, The Portuguese were part of Chinese culture, always maintain the identity of having both,” said de Jesús.