Abstract
After the transfer of the Portuguese administration to China, Macau kept its role as a bridge between East and West, inspired in the Portuguese settlement 500 years ago. The pragmatism of the Chinese central government, using the Lusophone specificities of this Special Administrative Region, supported the creation of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries, reviving the statute of the Portuguese language and culture in its own territory.
Highlights
The multi-cultural identity of Macau, shaped by the arrival of the Portuguese in the mid-16th century, inspired the Chinese enclave to embody the ideal of a bridge between East and West
The first Lusophony Games took place in Macau in 2006, a place considered “unique” by the organizers, who aimed at creating a common platform to sport, established together by countries and regions of Portuguese Official Language. [...] Participants from all over the world gathered for the first time around a unique element—one language, the Portuguese language. [...] It is the first time that such a sport event of this kind has the language as a common element. (Macau Sport Development Board 2013)
Portuguese-speaking countries’ technicians often attend training sessions in Macau in several areas proposed by their own governments according to their needs. During one of these courses, which was organized for professors, a “Colloquium on the Chinese and Portuguese Languages Education in China and in the Portuguese-speaking Countries,” the Forum Secretary-General Chang Hexi declared that the role of Macau is to be a channel, not a protagonist: Through the organization of this kind of colloquiums, all Portuguese-speaking countries can gather here in Macau and profit from this platform to exchange views, to improve education. [...] That is the role that a platform as Macau is playing (Chang 2012)
Summary
The multi-cultural identity of Macau, shaped by the arrival of the Portuguese in the mid-16th century, inspired the Chinese enclave to embody the ideal of a bridge between East and West. That would happen in the aftermath of the Sino-British negotiations on Hong Kong, resulting in the signature of the Macau Joint Declaration in 1987, which stated the transfer of Portuguese administration to the People’s Republic of China in 1999 (Mendes 2013). This openness, the maintenance of its Lusophone characteristics and the acceptance of Portuguese as one of the official languages along with Chinese, gave the Macau SAR the external autonomy required to develop an intense relationship, namely high-level, with the Portuguese ex-colonies. Soon after the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries was created in 2003, its Permanent Secretariat was based in the Macau SAR It is known as the Macau Forum, giving to this Special Administrative Region the role of a platform in connecting Beijing with the Lusophone world. The sections will analyze whether this platform delivers concrete results or is merely a symbol of Macau’s identity
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