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Preface
Since Macau’s return to China on December 20th 1999, gambling tourism has become the leading industry. With the opening of the right to gamble in 2002, Macau has become, in just a short period of ten years, the world’s No. 1 city of gambling, playing a pivotal role. At present, Macau has a total of 36,000 people employed in casinos, accounting for over 10% of its employed population. At the same time, its gaming income also exceeds 100 billion MOP or Macau patacas. Accordingly, Macau’s GDP growth rate reached about 35%.(1) Urbanization, driven by rapid gambling industrial economic development, increased due to the construction of quite a number of huge gambling structures. What then are the impacts that these changes will bring to this small city that has profound embedded historical and cultural values?
On July 15th 2005, 25 old buildings and the Square-Spaces were listed in The Catalogue of World Culture Heritage by UNESCO, becoming therefore “The Historic Centre of Macau”. These cultural heritage buildings of Macau are mainly concentrated in the old city zone to the south of The Ruins of St. Paul, i.e. the famous City of Name of God / Cidade do Nome de Deus in history.(2) From this superficial point of view, these old buildings and the Square-Spaces are not mutually exclusive in relation to the gambling houses of the reclamation area concentrated in New Port, Cotai, etc. In fact, to a certain extent, the present new city construction has already had an impact on the existing cultural landscape.
Caring and Understanding of the Macau Government
The former Macau Portuguese government was actually already paying attention to the care of cultural heritage. Aside from the renovation of western buildings, such as a great number of churches and government offices, etc., the former Macau Portuguese government also rebuilt the Macau A-Ma Temple four times, spending more than 2 million. After the return of Macau to China, the Bureau of Culture of Macau has become more active in renovating quite a number of Chinese style temples.(3) Since 2004, the Bureau of Culture renovated The Ruins of St. Paul on a grand scale to stabilize the ground structure and to protect its appearance, investing more than 30 million.(4) In fact, what could have left a deeper impression in tourists might be the beautification projects in the Dangzi (Taipa) Old City Area along Rua da Cunha (Guan Ye Street), which includes the reconstruction of the old island municipal building into the Museum of Taipa & Coloane History, relaying of pitching along Calçada do Quartel, Carlos da Maia Street, and Rua do Suplico, etc., also installing featured street lamps, thereby creating an island atmosphere with a sense of history.
One of the methods that the Bureau of Culture of Macau uses to promote its care of cultural heritage is through promotion and publicity, by which we can also understand some of the concepts of government institutions towards cultural heritage buildings of different periods. For instance, in the desktop calendar “Historical Architect of Macau 2004”, specially printed at the end of 2003, 12 old buildings were selected to match the 12 months of 2004. Old buildings, listed by the Macau SAR Government, include Gao’s Family Mansion (Casa de Gao Kau) of the Gao Kening Family, Tang’s Family Mansion of the Tang’s Family, Tashi Art Museum, Student Aid Building, the No. 64th Pawnshop of The October Fifth Street (Rua De Cinco de Outubro), Office Building of the Monetary Authority of Macau (Auturidade Monetaria de Macau) that once served as the Convent of the Sisters of the Precious Blood, the Luk Kwok Hotel, the baroque style Calçada Da Igreja de São Lázaro, the Chinese style architecture of Fuk Wing Lane No. 5 – No. 23, Lingnan Middle School Building, the Portuguese style residence of Travessa da Paixão (Love Lane) No. 5 – No. 11 with its neo-classical architectural style, etc.(5) A careful mutual reference to these buildings with the old constructions listed in the Catalogue of the World Culture Heritage 2005, one will discover that, except the Lou Kau Mansion, other constructions are not exactly the same.
Notwithstanding this, before China applied for “The Historic Centre of Macau” (Le centre historique de Macau) as a world cultural heritage site from the United Nations in 2005, private individuals had already expressed their opinions in relation to the following engineering projects proposed during the construction of The Museum of Macau (Museu de Macau): city wall heritage of the Ming Dynasty of the Macau Monte Fort be dismantled; green windows of the shop front along the Rua da Felicidade be transformed to red doors and red windows; tiles on the rooftop of Sam Po Temple of Taipa be changed to glass, etc. They further pointed out and expressed regret that, in the list for protection of Law on Protection of Cultural Heritage, architecture such as the site of The Big Drug Bureau of Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine founded by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Ye Ting’s Former Residence, Hong-Chan-Kuan-Mio Charity Association (Associação de Piedade e de Beneficencia “Hong-Chan-Kuan-Mio”), and Pagodâ Sam Cai Vu Cun, Macau (Guandimiao) of Longtian Village, etc. were not included.(6)
Impact of economic development on cultural heritage buildings
It should be said that the impact of opening up the right to gamble on the society and economy of Macau is no less than the political return of Macau to China at all. This is more obvious, especially in terms of urban landscape, when a garden city permeated with the style of Southern European small towns is transformed into an international gambling concrete jungle. Excessive attention to the casino economy is also one of the main reasons that care of cultural heritage has not been able to attract due attention from the public, albeit indirectly. The newly developed Taipa-Coloane reclamation area is one of the key towns of newly emerging casinos with American capital, and Rua da Cunha in the nearby area is a scenic spot for cuisines and specialties or local snacks. Of these, Casas Museu da Taipa (The Taipa Houses-Museum), branded as one of the eight scenic spots of Macau by the local Chinese community, where five old housing buildings were built in the 1920s as the residence of Portuguese government officials, and were later reconstructed as museums, such as “Home of Portuguese in Macau”, “Home of Portuguese Region”, “Island Home”, etc. In those years, as these buildings faced the water course between Taipa and Coloane, the coastal corridor was therefore named Avenida da Praia. From April to June each year, water lily blossoms in full bloom, and at twilight, swarms of aigrettes return and perch on the mangroves nearby. But now, because of land reclamation for the construction of casinos, this water course in front of these museums has already become a pond.(7)
It has been so for quite some time that because of economic reasons Macau’s government has altered the purpose or functions of these cultural heritage buildings. For instance, Fortaleza de São Tiago da Barra, built in 1629, was reconstructed as a hotel as early as 1981. And public attention to the Golden Road also resulted in the following consequence: the low-lying areas, where quite a number of featured old constructions are concentrated, such as Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, Estrada do Repouso, Rua da Barca, Rotunda de Carlos da Maia, Estrada de Adolfo Loureiro, etc., have been bothered by water logging problems for many years, and yet this still could not attract due public attention.(8)
The new casinos excessively concentrated on the new port and the Taipa-Coloane area, have also caused unbalanced urban development in Macau. In fact, in sites of the old city area of the inner port, such as hotels, tea houses and temples that tourists to Macau would certainly have visited in the past, have been preserved and, with their historical and cultural values, they actually need to be tapped and restored to rejuvenate their past splendour.(9) The sacrificial altars to the god of land, scattered in the big and small old streets of Macau, are the focus of belief of folk religions and also the collective memory of the landmark between different communities in the past. Yet, they exist in silence amidst the onrush of gambling economic development, and have gradually been marginalized as no one cares about and pays attention to them.(10)
Statistical data shows that, although the number of tourists in Macau doubled in 2005, the average stay of a tourist in Macau was still 1.2 days only. Of the 18 million tourists, more than half do not have an overnight stay in Macau.(11) Quite a number of them are gamblers and business tourists, and ordinary tourists know very little of these scenic spots because they do not have time to ponder upon them carefully in detail: for instance, some small temples with a long local history such as Sha Lei Tau God of Earth Temple, The Moon-in-Water Palace (Shui Yue Palace), the Temple of Guanyu in Taipa, Tianhou (Heavenly Queen) Palace, Tin Hau Temple in Coloane, etc. Therefore, these scenic spots need more study and research.
Fireworks, incense, ship and match manufacture were the four major industries of Macau in the past. However, these ancient sites have not yet caught enough attention and protection. For instance, the site of Fabrica de Panchões Lec Long Da Taipa, currently the biggest scale firework factory in South China, is the most striking example. Nowadays, tourists or visitors interested in knowing about these economic types can find out little about it only by a visit to the museum.(12)
Importance of the buffer area
To better protect the scenic spots of world cultural heritage and balance it with the surrounding urban development, the Macau SAR Government has defined buffer areas in the surroundings around historical sites in Macau to maintain their styles and features. These cultural heritage buildings are landmarks of the daily life of Macau, and they are therefore good examples to digest information about the daily lives of the people of the time. Notwithstanding this, the Macao SAR Government has taken the Guia Lighthouse, Largo do Senado (Senado Square), A-Ma Temple, and vicinities of the old town of Taipa as key heritage protection zones...
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1. Zhong Wen, Lottery and Tourism Industry Becomes the Main Driving Force for Economic Growth, published in Journal San Wa Ou, January 1st 2004, p. 3, and Macau Strengthens its Advantages and Strive to Expand its Diversified Economy, published in Prime Magazine, October 1st 2009, [Special Edition for Celebration of Macau’s Return to China], pp. 58-59.
2. For masterpieces of recent years concerning research on Macau’s cultural heritage buildings, please refer to César Guillén-Nuñez, Macao’s Church of Saint Paul: a Glimmer of the Baroque in China, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 2009.
3. “After meeting with provincial leader Li Changchun and Lu Ruihua, Edmund Ho Hau-wah declared that Guangdong and Macau will soon initiate and renovate the Chinese style temple for effective cultural heritage protection”, published in Macau Daily News, July 30th 2000, [Macau News], p. B1.
4. “Optimize Tourism Environment and Support World Heritage Application, The Ruins of St. Paul Will Undergo Major Repair the Next Year”, published in Macau Daily News, August 23rd 2003, [Macau News], p. B3.
5. “Index of Desktop Calendar of Macau Historical Architecture”, published in Jornal “Va Kio”, December 19th 2003, p. 23.
6. Chen Du, “Cultural Heritage Protection Entails Strong Professionalism, Lacks Talents, and Trouble Continues”, published in Jornal Informacao (Son Pou), December 27th 2003, [Wa Ji Fu], p. 3.
7. For the historical development of Taipa-Coloane area, please refer to 何伟杰 Vincent Wai-kit Ho, “Beyond World Cultural Heritage: The Transformation of Taipa, Coloane, and City Development”, (《世界文化遗产以外：路凼地区的转型与城市发展》), Chinese Cross Currents, Vol. 5.4, 2008, pp.102-107.
8. “Macau Strides Forward towards Diversified Development and Builds ‘World Tourism Centre for Leisure’”, published in Prime Magazine, October 1st 2009, “Aomen Hui Gui (Macau’s Return to China)”,
pp. 56-71.
9. Yue Ming, “Take the Lead to Protect Valuable Architecture”, published in Macau Daily News, October 1st 2009, [Macau News, Xian Liao Fang], p. B8.
10. For details, please refer to Vincent Ho “The Social Discourses of Temples, Ethnical Identities and Communities’ Development: to Reconstruct Qing Taipai from Monumental Inscriptions and Couplets”, in《澳门历史研究》Aomen lishi Yanjiu (Historic Studies on Macao), 澳门历史研究会 Aomen lishi Yanjiu Hui (Society of Historic Study of Macao), Vol. 6, 2008, pp. 63-74.
11. Jeremy Au Yong, “Macau will not reduce S’pore’s allure”, The Straits Times, Singapore, September 24th 2006.
12. Yue Ming, “Take the Lead to Protect Valuable Architecture”, published in Macau Daily News, October 1st 2009, [Macau News, Xian Liao Fang], p. B8.
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Dr. Vincent Ho Wai-kit graduated from the Department of History of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and is currently teaching at the Department of History of the University of Macau. In the past, he once held posts in several government departments in Hong Kong, including the Public Library, Inland Revenue Department, and Home Affairs Department, etc.; he also taught world history and Chinese history in middle school and the advanced diploma curriculum. His current interest of research is mainly in the history of Macau, taking up also tourism research, urban research, cultural geography and translation. His academic articles have been published in the History and Culture of Macau; translated works in Chinese Cross Currents of the Macau Ricci Institute; universal publications found in the Heritage Hong Kong: Newsletter of the Antiquities and Monument Office, a Hong Kong government publication. Currently, Dr. Vincent is engaging in writings on Hong Kong general history, Macau history of tourism, and history of relations of Macau and Hong Kong. |
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India’s Peaceful Rise
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