My Heart is in Macau: "Local Portuguese" Carlos Marreiros

The story began during the era of great sailing ships. Four hundred years ago, a Portuguese trading vessel dropped anchor off the island of Macau, intent on doing business with imperial China. That one brief rest stop destined Macau to become a cultural montage that includes Chinese, Indian, Malay, Portuguese and other European influences. Today, Macaense (or Macanese), the free mix of the various ethnic currents of Macau has become the most vibrant element of its culture. "Without it, Macau wouldn't exist," says Carlos Marreiros, who once served as director of the Macau government's bureau of culture, and now works as an architect, painter, author and poet.

Ethnic melting pot

Marreiros is a typical Macanese. His grandfather was Portuguese, his grandmother Chinese. His mother has a mix of Spanish and Malay blood. In Macau, he's what is known as a "local Portuguese." Marreiros was born in Macau, but "most of my education took place in Europe," he says. He attended university in Lisbon, received his master's degree in Germany, and went on to study landscaping in Sweden. His principal impressions of China come from his family and his contacts with Chinese people.

When he was young, Marreiros worked in a Macau post office. One of his coworkers was a Chinese of the older generation, who often chatted with him about Tang-dynasty poetry, and Chinese proverbs and myths. For a while Marreiros taught Chinese people how to speak Portuguese. "I learned quite a lot about the way many Chinese people think," he says.

Carlos Marreiros speaks fluent Portuguese, Cantonese, English and German. He has done research on traditional Chinese poetry, and has included some in his Portuguese-language writings. He personally manifests a blend of Chinese and Western influences.

Marreiros emphasizes that in addition to Chinese and Portuguese influences, Macau also has its own unique blend of culture-Macaense, which is exhibited in "local Portuguese" of mixed ancestry such as himself. "The world's first mixed-race culture appeared in Macau," he says. Now with the convenience of travel and transportation, the intermingling of black, white and yellow peoples is nothing new, but 400 years ago, the people of Macau intertwined cultures from as far afield as India, Southeast Asia and Japan. Their influences can be seen everywhere in the cuisine, architecture and literature of Macau.

Intellectual assets

In the enclave's restaurants, such classic Macanese dishes as curry and Portuguese chicken are served up with a wide variety of seasonings, blending the sweet flavors of Cantonese dishes with the rich, tangy taste of old-style Indian fare. One example is Macanese baoguo, a combination of Chinese sausage, cabbage and tripe-not precisely Portuguese, nor Cantonese either.

The exteriors of traditional Macau buildings are noticeably southern European in style. But Marreiros, an architect, points out that while the outsides of many houses are European, the arrangement of rooms and furniture inside is often done in a Chinese manner. "The important space is given to the father and the eldest son. The remaining side rooms are for the ladies of the house and others-quite different from Portuguese architecture," he says. And the details of ornamentation, such as engravings, glasswork and wood carvings, are actually rendered in Qing-dynasty fashion. The most representative example is Macau's oldest church, Sao Paolo (the ruins of St. Paul's). Its surviving stone facade is embellished with stone carvings not only of such Catholic images as angels and the Virgin Mary, but also of dragon-and-phoenix motifs and fishing boats, as well as Catholic phrases written in Chinese characters.

Marreiros believes that the hybrid culture of Macau is its greatest asset. "Macau is so small. It has no land for industry or agriculture. All it has to rely on is intellect," he says. Three hundred years ago, missionaries in Macau built the first university in the Far East, the Jesuit College of St. Paul's. Since the 1980s, Macau has established six institutes of higher learning. "Macau's population is young, and the average educational level is quite high," he notes. Four hundred years of cultural intercourse between Occident and Orient has left behind enormous assets in Macau, and the enclave's people have the ability to form a bridge of exchange between East and West.

Now that Macau's sovereignty has switched hands, Marreiros has chosen not to return to his motherland of Portugal, but to remain behind. "Macau is my home. My heart is in Macau," he says. Marreiros is a person of Macau, part Portuguese and part Chinese. A diversity of cultures will only enrich a person, not create a crisis of identity.

For Taiwanese people, who have questions about their own identity and often ask themselves who they are, what thoughts does Carlos Marreiros's story bring to mind?

p.27(facing page) Carlos Marreiros is a good representative of Macaemse culture. His wife, as well, is a "local Portuguese" of mixed ancestry. (courtesy of Carlos Marreiros)