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ASIA
APRIL 19, 1999 VOL. 153 NO. 15
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Macanese Sunset
As Macau contemplates its return to Chinese rule, a very special minority worries about its future
By NISID HAJARI
These days, most people in the Portuguese colony of Macau are concerned with what's coming. Chinese vice premier Qian Qichen caused a few nervous twitters recently when he reaffirmed that Beijing plans to station troops in the city before it reverts to mainland sovereignty on Dec. 20. This week candidates for the territory's post-handover chief executive will be announced. And on April 27, the man whose arrest sparked a wave of gang violence in the past year--alleged triad boss Wan Kuok-Koi (alias "Broken Tooth")--will be brought to trial under new legislation that targets organized crime. Certainly few residents mind that the December handover will also close the book on European colonial authority in Asia.
One tiny community, however, has good reason to fear that passing. The Macanese--largely the descendants of intermarriage between Portuguese settlers and local Cantonese--account for fewer than 5% of the enclave's half-million residents. But in spirit they embody precisely what sets Macau apart from China's other freewheeling coastal cities: its bicultural heritage. Already their numbers have been decimated by marriage and migration. (Some 40,000 Macanese now live abroad.) They and their once-graceful port at the mouth of the Pearl River will have a hard time maintaining a distinct identity under mainland rule. "Our culture will disappear," says Mandy Boursicot, a Macanese artist living in Vancouver, "and Macau will become just another Chinese city."
As the handover approaches, more and more Macanese are trying to defy that prediction. Boursicot, whose family traces its roots in Macau to 1710, has produced a series of paintings detailing the city's history. Last month a worldwide reunion attracted 1,300 members of the Macanese diaspora, many wanting to have one last look at the city before Beijing assumes control. Miguel Senna Fernandes, a lawyer and member of the local legislative assembly, has written plays for a theater troupe that performs in the original Macanese patois, an archaic blend of Portuguese and Cantonese. "When our theater company started [in 1994], most of us had to learn the language first," he admits. But the need seems to him increasingly urgent: "I don't expect that the Chinese will take a particular interest in helping us preserve our language. We have to depend on ourselves."
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