The Regional Flag of the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China: A Synaesthetic Exploration

Abstract

The Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is constituted of a small peninsula plus two connected islands located on the south coast of China, at the Pearl River Delta across from Hong Kong. Based on its Basic Law, the Macau SAR has been afforded a number of “special” features under the so-called “One Country, Two Systems” principle, including authorization to exercise a high degree of autonomy and to enjoy executive, legislative and independent judicial power locally, while also being enabled to participate in relevant international organizations and international trade agreements. Macau is thus a unique glocal player in the world, as also reflected in its right to use a regional flag and regional emblem in addition to the national flag and emblem of the PRC.To exemplify its unique character and to better highlight its identity, this chapter briefly describes written legal sources underlying the existence, context and use of the Macau regional flag as well as related symbols. By way of a synaesthetic exploration, the paper later complements written and visual representations of the Macau SAR by a short excursus into aspects that can only be explored by other sensory channels, such as smell and taste. This is to highlight the paradox that sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words and vice versa, yet both are insufficient to grasp the full extent of the complexity of reality as we perceive it.