Koo Ch 1

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

The Macaenses

On 19 December 1999, during his final hours as the last Governor of Macau, General Vasco da Rocha Vieira delivered his farewell address to the assembled crowd of local and visiting dignitaries. The South China Morning Post‘s report of the occasion stated:

Colonisation was never the aim of the Portuguese, the departing Governor said last night as Lisbon’s 442-year presence drew to an end. At a cultural event featuring top artists from Portugal and China, General Vasco [da] Rocha Vieira quoted poet Fernando Pessoa: ‘Essentially, we were navigators and discoverers, and only as a result of this were we conquerors and colonisers. Before the empire, our approach was already universal.’ The General said that navigators were motivated ‘solely by a desire to encounter and understand other people. … In the past, as now and in the future, what the Portuguese navigators always desired was understanding, willing co-operation and the creation of something new.¹

Looking at the early contacts between the Portuguese traders and the Chinese people in the early sixteenth century, one could warm to such a notion of the Portuguese pioneers as accidental colonialists. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to venture by sea beyond the southern tip of the African continent. In the process they forged a sea-borne empire which, at its height, circled the globe incorporating parts of Africa, Brazil, India, Malacca, Timor and Macau. Its impact was felt as far as Japan. In the wake of these pioneers, settler communities were established. Macau, at the south-eastern corner of the Chinese mainland, had been the home of one such community since the mid-sixteenth century. Their metamorphosis from discoverers to colonisers provides the framework for this thesis.

When the Portuguese first arrived on the Chinese coast in 1513, it had been a mere five years following the official establishment of a presence in India and barely two years after their conquest of Malacca. Before China, their experience of Asia was confined to the various coastal mercantile centres that dotted the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Malay world of Southeast Asia. They had some prior knowledge of China and some of her products but had never been in direct contact with Chinese traders. It was at Malacca that direct contact was first established. When the Portuguese first arrived on the Chinese coast in 1513, it had been a mere five years following the official establishment of a presence in India and barely two years after their conquest of Malacca. Before China, their experience of Asia was confined to the various coastal mercantile centres that dotted the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal and the Malay world of Southeast Asia. They had some prior knowledge of China and some of her products but had never been in direct contact with Chinese traders. It was at Malacca that direct contact was first established.

The first group of Portuguese that ventured to China comprised mainly of private traders and adventurers. They went in search of new markets and direct access to Chinese products such as silk and porcelain. China with its wonders, both real and imagined, proved seductive. From such humble beginnings commenced a Sino-Portuguese relationship that became the longest chapter of European colonisation in East Asia, one that lasted continuously for nearly 450 years.

The Chinese products that managed to find their way to Asia and beyond were sought after not only in far away Europe but also in neighbouring Japan. For nearly a century, the Portuguese managed to monopolise the business with Japan until the Dutch and the British intruded upon the scene. The Japanese trade was lucrative and it was possible for one to retire comfortably to Europe after just one successful shipment, if one so wished. But many decided to stay, having got used to the lifestyle and the environment. Most historians agreed that Macau was established and built on the profits derived from the Japanese trade.

For the Portuguese, the establishment of a permanent settlement in Macau during the reign of the Ming emperors was no easy task and there was a lack of consensus regarding the precise nature of the permission granted in the first place. Before long, Macau became an important centre for regional trade linking China with Japan, Manila, Goa and places beyond. This prosperity continued until the first half of the seventeenth century before the Dutch ravaged their strategic outposts and before its traders and Jesuit priests were banned from Japan. Despite these serious setbacks, Macau survived and served as the main entry point to China for all traders, missionaries, diplomats and adventurers until the Opium War (1839-1842) forced the opening of other treaty ports. Thus for three centuries, Macau was the only maritime gateway to China – well before Hong Kong was even envisaged and Shanghai was just a small indigenous settlement surrounded by mud flats.

The early Portuguese settlement in Macau bore close resemblance to the colonial societies that existed in other parts of the Portuguese empire. Among the settlers were traders, adventurers and buccaneers. Priests and missionaries ministered to the spiritual needs of the Christian population and to evangelise wherever possible. There were male and female slaves to service the households and to augment the soldiers who manned the garrisons and protected their ships. Officials were sent from Goa, the imperial administrative capital, to represent the interests of the Portuguese government in Lisbon.

From the beginning, Portuguese men showed little inhibition in forming liaisons with indigenous women wherever they happened to be. As the foundations of the empire were laid, for pragmatic reasons the settlers were encouraged by official policy to marry local women who had converted to the Christian faith. Official records indicated that from the outset, the traders that ventured to the China coast had with them women from Asia and Africa as slaves, lovers and perhaps wives. This process of miscegenation through successive generations produced offspring with exotic mixtures that became the genetic pool for a significant part of the present community. In deference to their origins, the English called them “Macanese” but they prefer to call themselves Macaenses or Filhos de Macao due to the current political connotations associated with the English terminology.^foot1_2 The Macaenses are unique and possessed a strong communal identity, distinguished by their own language, culture and cuisine, a result of the convergence of many influences to which their community had been exposed to through succeeding generations.

From this tiny enclave of Macau, through choice and circumstance, a significant number of Macaenses moved to Canton, Hong Kong, Shanghai and to other cities around China. Some went further afield to Japan, Indo-China, the Philippines, Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia. In the latter part of the twentieth century they continued the process of emigration to geographical extremities, principally to the United States, Canada, Brazil, Portugal and to Australia. In the process they gave birth to the Macaense diaspora that exists today.

Survival techniques and skills

With the outbreak of World War II in China, Macau proclaimed neutrality but Hong Kong came under Japanese control. Elsewhere in Portuguese Timor, the declaration of neutrality proved ineffective as the Japanese staged a military takeover and interned the Portuguese Governor. Understandably Macau feared that it would meet with the same fate.^6_8 According to the British Consul in Macau, Pownall Reeves, the reason this did not eventuate was entirely due to one man – the Macau governor:

Only the clever diplomacy of Governor Teixeira saved Macao from being dragged into the war. She had most narrow shaves and sometimes fighting actually lapped across the shores of this single island of peace in the Far East. … We have enjoyed a shelter granted to no other community in a war-torn East. No one of us who have been driven from our homes by war, whether from Chinese or British territory can ever forget what has been done for us and for our families in Macao. … We can freely offer our gratitude to His Excellency Commander Gabriel Teixeira, who himself a sailor, has steered the Colony through storms, avoiding reefs and shoals alike with uncanny skill. His ship is safely in port and we thank him for his Captaincy. Without it we would have been lost on uncharted seas.^6_9

In the course of the war, the Japanese became increasingly aggressive in dealing with Macau demanding formal recognition of its puppet government in nearby Zhongshan county and insisting on being allowed to conduct house to house searches in Macau.^6_10 It was a blessing for many that Macau’s neutrality was recognised as people of many nationalities had taken refuge there. An exhibit in the new Macau Museum showed that in 1937 at the start of the Sino-Japanese War, Macau’s population numbered some 150,000. However, in 1943, it was estimated that 500,000 people crowded into the small enclave. The exhibit also recorded that Macau’s generosity extended beyond its borders to some 17,000 refugees in nearby Sek-kei and that at its worst period, one hundred Chinese died each day on the streets of Macau from exhaustion, hunger and dysentery.^6_11

João Bosco da Silva, a member of the Macaense diaspora in Brazil, was a youngster in Macau during World War II. He recalled walking the streets and seeing a lot of people dying especially in winter due to starvation. Luckily his father was working for the government; every day they had their ration of rice and sugar that enable them to survive. He considered that they were the lucky ones.^6_12

Most people agreed that hunger was the chief problem in Macau during World War II. Monsignor Manuel Teixeira was a parish priest during that period. While Macau’s civil servants managed on meagre rations, he remembered that the worst affected were the Chinese refugees who died of hunger in the streets. He recalled that “Japanese soldiers would come to Macau to enjoy themselves. In the Hotel Kuok Chai (Grande Hotel) they would drink, eat and enjoy the girls. They would then leave dead drunk and throw up in the streets. The starving Chinese picked up the vomit and ate it.”^6_13

The arrival of the Macaenses from Hong Kong following its surrender strained the available services even more. According to Armando da Silva, the first wave of refugees from Hong Kong arrived on the Japanese ferry boat Surigane Maru on 6 February 1942. For those who could not stay with relatives, refuge centres were allocated to them. The two community leaders Leo d’Almada and J.P. Braga personally selected the group that was to be housed at the Hotel Bela Vista. Armando’s father was most fortunate to be chosen to stay in the famous hotel with some of the top Macaense families from Hong Kong.^6_14 So too were Gloria de Souza and her mother.^6_15

In one of Jack Braga‘s radio broadcast, he asked one of the early arrivees to give a talk to urge more Macaenses to leave Hong Kong for the safety of Macau. The radio message was located among the Braga Manuscripts but the speaker’s identity could not be determined except that he was from Kowloon and that he came with nine hundred others on the Surigane Maru.^6_16 The account recorded that the Japanese officers on board were really nice to them. On arrival, the Governor of Macau was at the pier to greet them. They were “well housed with two solid meals a day, and a loaf of bread for breakfast provided by the Salesian fathers”. Centres that had been set aside for the Macaense refugees were Clube de Macau, Escola Luso-Chinesa, Grêmio Militar, Clube 1 de Junho, Caixa Escolar, Penha and No 7 Rua do Barão (generously provided for their by the owner of the house). A government medical officer regularly visited the centres for health checks. Employment was available with the police, the government-controlled commodity centres and through odd jobs. Teams were organised to participate in sports and classes were arranged for the children’s education. There was a brass band and orchestra to provide entertainment. The general feeling was that “we do not feel lost or idle”.^6_17 Refugees from Hong Kong received $30 per head for each adult and $24 for each child, on top of lodgings and food and health care. This caused Jack Braga to realise that the employees of the Macau Water Company, where he was the manager, were really worse off financially compared to the refugees. He wrote to senior management to rectify the situation, which they did to some extent.^6_18

Indeed for the refugees from Hong Kong, there were many distractions and activities. Schools were organised to occupy the children while adults pursued more grown-up activities. There were public debates, cinemas, mahjong and card games, plays and work if one was lucky to find one. Mickey Sousa found work in the British consulate and in intelligence gathering for Jack Braga. Gloria de Souza was then only a young girl. Like other youngsters, she went to school and was fortunate to be invited to the governor’s residence for a meal and to children’s parties hosted by the British consul.

The Macaense who took refuge in Macau were not immune from petty crimes such as that experienced by C.H. Chaves and family from Hong Kong. In a letter dated 15 February 1944, Chaves asked Jack Braga for a loan of a suit for a few days to go to the British consulate to seek financial assistance to buy some clothing. He had a wife and seven children and their clothes were all stolen. He concluded: “Really my dear Jack, I have taken this bold step because I know of your qualities and your good heartedness as I have tried everywhere but of no avail and you are my last resource.”^6_19 In view of Jack Braga‘s generous reputation, it was likely that Chaves would not be disappointed.^6_20

Although refuge in Macau was preferable to Japanese-occupied Hong Kong, not all Macaenses made the journey. One who stayed behind was F.P. de V. Soares (“Frank”). J.P. Braga wrote about him, his intense loyalty to Portugal and the enthusiasm he brought to all his projects such as the formation of the Associação Portuguesa de Socorros Mutuos and land development in Homantin and Kowloon Tong.^6_21 However, it was in his capacity as Chancellor-in-charge at the Portuguese Consulate in Hong Kong at the outbreak of World War II that won him the admiration of the Macaense community. Braga wrote:

A situation of unprecedented difficulty was created for him without previous warning and with a minimum of material resources and a lamentable deficiency of professional personnel. He had thrust upon him duties and responsibilities unparalleled in their magnitude and of the most complex nature.^6_22

Also thrust upon him was the wellbeing of several thousand Hong Kong Macaenses who in normal times were well able to look after themselves but were suddenly rendered vulnerable and destitute. His private residence was converted momentarily into a cramped consular office and refuge centre. At one stage there were about four hundred people staying overnight inside the premises, all requiring to be fed. Soares freely provided Portuguese documents to enable many to leave for the safety of Macau. He and his family stayed behind in Hong Kong because the Japanese had interned his sons for being part of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. Those that remained not only had to find the means to survive but also to fend off gangs of looters who preyed on people and property.^6_23

In Shanghai, many Macaenses also remained put believing that the city would fare better due to the presence of other Western PoWers, and the fact that the French Concession, where many Macaenses lived, was exempt from Japanese control. Nery had written about the Shanghai scene during World War II and his story was consistent with one provided by Michael McDougall, a prominent member of the Macaense diaspora now resident in California, USA.^6_24@24 McDougall arrived from Shantou in 1942 with his parents and three siblings en route to Mozambique as part of an international prisoner exchange between the Allied and Axis powers. Although technically internees, they were allowed to seek private accommodation in Shanghai pending the arrival of the ship which was to take them to Mozambique. As British subjects, they were able to draw on the generous financial assistance provided by the British Government through the Swiss Consul-General. The assistance was a “loan” repayable after the war. In the McDougalls’ case the father’s employer, Jardine Matheson & Company, took responsibility for the loan which was sufficiently indulgent for McDougall to consider themselves to be well off. They were able to go out to restaurants and movies and to stock up on other luxuries. Furthermore, the Japanese allowed “enemy nationals” to withdraw two thousand Chinese dollars a month out of their “frozen accounts”. Because there were no restrictions on their movement, they had time and opportunity to catch up with many old friends from the Macaense community in Shanghai. To the McDougalls, Shanghai appeared very vibrant and deceptively normal, with shops, restaurants and markets still open for business. Open too were the entertainment places, gambling and nightlife that gave Shanghai its reputation. In contrast “enemy firms” were forced to close by the Japanese authorities, their bank accounts frozen and their employees discharged.^6_25

It was a sad day for the Macaense community when J.P. Braga passed away in Macau on 12 February 1944. Not only did it rob them of one of their more prominent members, it interrupted his compilation of the history of the Macaenses in Hong Kong that he commenced barely two years earlier. The letters of condolence reflected J.P. Braga‘s standing in the community and attested to how much he “had done for Hong Kong”.^6_26 Jack, his son, felt the loss most keenly as the father was staying with him and they collaborated on the history project. Jack Braga expressed his deep loss in a letter to his brother in California two Christmases later.^6_27

By 1945 it became apparent that the Japanese were in retreat. Some Hong Kong Macaenses participated in the drafting of a comprehensive plan to regain Hong Kong in case the Japan withdrew prematurely exposing it to a takeover by Chiang Kai-shek before British forces could reach the Colony. Jack Braga notated: “A great deal of time went into the discussions and some rivalry became apparent in the selection of the individuals chosen for the various assignments”.^6_28 It was a lot of paper work that led to naught as London had its own plans drawn up. In his note, Jack Braga did not intimate that he was behind the idea but a letter written by “Larry” dated 4 April 1946 clearly credited him with the idea for the project.^6_29

From Macau, Jack Braga was also busy managing a network of informants that included Mickey Sousa.^6_30 Their task was to obtain information about the Japanese in any way they could and passed them to the British at Allied headquarters. Braga reported to the British Consul Reeves who was the Macau chief for the British Army Aid Group (B.A.A.G.) which helped British escapees to flee from Japanese controlled areas and was responsible for the safe repatriation of the American airmen Lt. George C. Clarke, Don E. Mize and Charles Myers who were shot down by the Japanese in the vicinity of Macau.^6_31

Jack Braga‘s contribution to the Allied cause during World War II was mentioned in a reference offered by Pownall Reeves, the British Consul in Macau dated 24 July 1946:

I am pleased to testify to the services rendered by Mr José Maria (Jack) Braga to the Allied governments…He acted as liaison between myself and the Nationalist Government of China’s representative in Macao; he was instrumental in effecting the escape from Macao of four American airmen; he provided guards for my Consulate; I am in a position to know that he provided much useful information to Allied authorities. It is perhaps enough to say that his life was at one time threatened by the Japanese.^6_32

And in a personal note to Jack Braga, Reeves wrote: “I will say little personally; some things cannot be put into words”.^6_33

Many letters in the Braga Manuscripts alluded to the great disappointment of many people about the lack of recognition and reciprocity given to those who risked their lives for the Allied cause. A Eurasian named Cotton wrote to Braga complaining bitterly:

I cannot help being bitter, more so, when I gaze around and see people who have collaborated and made money under the Japs are in favoured positions. … When I look back to those anxious days … I hate to think what would have happened to my wife and kiddies, had the Japs walked in and discovered the half ton of radio equipment in my house.^6_34

The contributions of the communities

The history of China’s interaction with the West would be incomplete if we failed to acknowledge their presence and contribution. The contributions of the community were many. They built up Macau. Through their efforts and some good fortune, often against seemingly insurmountable obstacles, they clung on tenaciously to China through five turbulent centuries – through the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Chinese Republican period, the period of Warlords and the People’s Republic. They helped other nations in their dealings with China and in the process sowed the seeds of modernisation in China. When it became evident that their days of glory were over, they graciously allowed other European nations to come in. Perhaps it was expedient for them to do so; nevertheless they did not hinder others’ progress; in fact many of them toiled and laboured enthusiastically for the new masters in their own homeland.

Making possible the launch of many businesses and colonial administrations, they established Hong Kong for the British. When the treaty ports were open, many of them followed the British, American, French and others to Guangzhou, Shanghai and other parts of China. They lived at these treaty ports and sometimes died there, far from the placid shores of Macau. For the most part they worked as clerks, interpreters and professionals becoming a significant part of the foreign communities in those ports.

Perhaps their greatest contribution was their function, indispensable for a time, as a bridge, mediator, intermediary and facilitator between the Westerners and the indigenous Chinese. This contribution was one for which they were mostly remembered. It is illuminating to observe that this bridging role was still very much evident in Macau in 1999, where only a small proportion of the population (3%) spoke the official Portuguese language. With the transfer of sovereignty at the end of 1999, the need disappeared overnight. But in the early colonial days, their skills were sorely needed as the Westerners were too conscious of race and class to mix with the local Chinese, except with the elite. The foreigners kept themselves apart. Ensconced in their exclusive clubs, they did not bother to learn the local language beyond a smattering of “pidgin”.

Literature Review

This thesis examined the social history of the Macaense communities in China and the nature of their presence in the major centres of the China coast. It identified the process by which they survived the disintegration of Portuguese power; how they adapted themselves and remained useful and relevant in the new environment. Through sheer tenacity, they managed to carve out a niche for their small community and forged a presence that outlasted all the other foreign communities that came to China in their wake. For three and a half centuries, their settlement at Macau was widely acknowledged as the finest European city outside of Europe until the beginning of the twentieth century when Shanghai wrested the mantle from her. By the time Macau was returned to China in December 1999, their continuous occupation of this tiny part of China spanned nearly four and a half centuries. Such a long period of colonisation produced the odd confrontations but in the main they co-existed in relative peace though buffeted always by the volatility of China’s internal politics, by events in other parts of the Portuguese empire and the arrival of other Western powers hungry for trade, each eager to establish their own Macaus. The scope of this inquiry encompassed this vast canvas and although we surveyed the earlier period by way of background, our focus was the period ranging from the Opium War (1839-1842) to the end of the twentieth century. Even though the presence of the Macaenses in China had not been well documented due to the lack of records that survived the ravages of wars, revolutions and neglect; yet through the scant information that was available, a fairly coherent picture could be drawn.

An investigation into the social history of the Macaenses in China suggested several avenues of inquiry. First, we aimed to examine the general composition of Portuguese colonial society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in order to highlight the distinguishing features of the early Macaense pioneers. One observation derived was that in the case of China, the solteiro merchants and the Jesuit priests played a unique role in forging trade and cultural interchange; that Portuguese officialdom was often relegated to a lesser role unlike elsewhere in the Portuguese empire.^1_20 The examination of the early Macaense pioneers was also essential to an understanding of the long-running debate over the ethnic origins of the early Macaense pioneers. At times, the debate appeared absurd and annoying even to members of the present community. This early period also provided some clues to the debate surrounding the nature of the “founding” of the Portuguese settlement in Macau circa 1557, specifically the nature of the permissive occupancy granted by the Chinese. Disputation over the precise meaning of the occupancy permits caused many diplomatic and military skirmishes between the two sides in the centuries that followed until the Sino-Portuguese Treaty of 1887 put matters on a firmer footing.

The second avenue of enquiry covered the Macaense presence in China in the centuries before the Opium War (1839-1842). The review of this period aimed to provide a background for our main story. One could observe the fragility of the Macaenses’ early prosperity and Macau’s economic vulnerability. The early prosperity had been achieved through the triangular trade with China and Japan and other export markets via Manila, Malacca and Goa. As these markets succumbed to Dutch assaults and British competition, we observed the resilience and adaptability of the Macaenses as they struggled to survive. As the thesis demonstrated, Macau’s economic vulnerability was a prime factor for Macaense emigration to other parts of China when new treaty ports were opened following the Opium War (1839-1842). Another observation concerned their role as “mediators” and “keepers of the gate” when Macau was the only maritime gateway for Western traders to China. The nature of this role evolved over time and was a major factor that made them attractive as partners and employees of the many Western enterprises that flocked to China in the wake of the Opium War. The Macaenses were so skilful at this that even at the end of the twentieth century, ample evidence remained of their role as mediators between the local Chinese and the Portuguese administration in Macau.

As mentioned above, the main focus of this investigation was the period commonly known as the “treaty century” that was ushered in by the Opium War. Without doubt, it was a most significant period for the Macaenses in China. An examination of this period showed that the Macaenses were uniquely qualified and well-positioned to serve the mercantile ambitions of other Western powers as well as their own. We examined the nature of their presence at the various treaty ports to identify the factors that encouraged so many to emigrate from Macau. In the process, they contributed significantly to the modernisation of China and its relations with the Western world. We highlighted some of their institutions acknowledged in the local press at the time and through the life stories and autobiographies, the life of the Macaense communities could be glanced in some detail. Progressing the examination to the present time, we identified the factors why so many members of the community decided to emigrate from their homes in China to set new roots in the far corners of the globe. A recurring theme through out the long history of the Macaenses in China had been that they emigrated in search of a better world for themselves and their families; hence the title of this thesis.

Of the many books about Hong Kong and Shanghai in the period following the Opium Wars, scant mention was made of the Macaenses who were there. Almost nothing has been published about their contributions. Perhaps this was due to the communities’ own indifference, the common practice of recording history from the victors’ perspective or that most historians tended to look at this period only from Eurocentric and Sinocentric points of view. On the rare occasions when they were mentioned, it was usually in passing, as part of that diverse group of Eurasians and foreigners comprising of clerks, missionaries, adventurers, professionals and traders that made up the foreign population of these cities during the heyday of the treaty century. Nevertheless, they were present not as uninvolved spectators but as serious stakeholders. They were at the nuclei of the British and Portuguese colonial administrations and inside other foreign consulates. They ran the secretariats of Big Business that controlled the International Settlement in Shanghai. Many were active members of the volunteer and security forces that maintained law and order during times of civil strife. Their communities in Hong Kong and Shanghai were sizeable; according to some sources, equalling if not exceeding the numbers that remained behind in Macau. It was a major assertion of this thesis that the influence of the Macaense community in China had been under-assessed if not also ignored. This investigation of their social history is aimed to demonstrate that, out of proportion to their numbers, the Macaenses made significant contributions to the modernisation of China and her relations with the West and the development of Chinese cities especially Macau, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Despite their prolonged presence in the China region and their not insignificant contribution, very little had been written specifically about the history of the Macaenses in the China region. This was attested to in the foreword to F.A. Silva‘s booklet which described it as “an only child”.^1_7 First written in 1979 as a pamphlet, its publication in the form of a book in 1996 comprised only fifty-four pages. It covered many topics and provided a comprehensive guide to the community’s history during much of the twentieth century. As a historical reference, it had major drawbacks such as the deliberate omission of names and dates. There were memoirs written and published privately by members of the community during the same period. Although these memoirs might be considered self-serving by some, nevertheless they added to the general picture of the Macaense experience.

J.P. Braga‘s The Portuguese in Hongkong and China had been acknowledged as the definitive work on the early Macaense pioneers of Hong Kong.^1_8 Its status and authenticity had been acclaimed by many of Braga’s contemporaries, most notably by Leo d’Almada e Castro, their most prominent Macaense community leader of the post-World War II period.^1_9 Commenced by Braga during World War II, it remained unfinished at Braga’s death. His son, Jack Braga, had collaborated on the project but did not complete the project as many had hoped, a point much regretted by the historian Monsignor Manuel Texeira in his editorial note.^1_10 The period covered by Braga’s publication extended only to the first few decades of the founding of Hong Kong and although the title referred to the “Portuguese in China”, there was no reference to the communities in Shanghai or the other ports. As for the missing chapters alluded to in the foreword, many are amongst the papers of the Braga Manuscript Collection in the National Library of Australia with much of it still in bits and pieces.

So far, the most important publication concerning the Macaense communities in China is Famílias Macaenses. Covering three massive volumes, the Portuguese genealogist Jorge Forjaz attempted to construct the genealogies of the various Macaense families by delving into the records of the parish churches and cemeteries in Macau and Hong Kong, the records kept by individual families and the civil records (those that survived) kept by the various Portuguese consulates in China before 1949. Forjaz himself admitted that the work would contain many mistakes but was convinced that “no Macaense … will fail to find the name of a near ancestor”.^1_11 Despite the acknowledged difficulties and inconsistencies, this work provided an important reference for our study of the Macaense diaspora especially as it also included many personal stories from around the world.

Of the history of Macau, a few of the popular volumes invited comment. A Macao Narrative was written by Austin Coates at Jack Braga‘s suggestion who had assisted Coates with some of his sources.^1_12 The story was well told and highly readable, however Coates made several points which are open to challenge. First, he stated that: “With their characteristically easy-Going temperament, the concept of a trading empire imposed by military force was alien to the Portuguese.”^1_13 Here was one instance where Coates allowed his affinity for Macau to stray from the known facts. Many historians had highlighted the Portuguese’ use of force to plunder and loot coastal communities as well as ships in the Indian Ocean and the Straits of Malacca, not to mention the antics of the Portuguese ships and acts of piracy on the China coast.

Secondly, Coates challenged the commonly accepted view of the close relationship between Church and State in the expansion of the Portuguese empire. In support of his view, he pointed to the fact that Francis Xavier, the first missionary to Japan, died friendless and alone having failed to enter Mainland China and that missionaries, in general, caused severe embarrassment and political problems for the early traders.^1_14 His view appeared to contradict the one advanced by Jorge Manuel Flores in his study of the early Portuguese traders that “discovered” Japan.^1_15 Flores pointed to Xavier’s friendships with merchants such as Jorge Alvares who was an important figure in the China trade being the first Portuguese trader to visit China. Furthermore, the partnership between the Jesuits and the Macaense merchants sustained the missionary efforts in Japan in the latter half of the sixteenth century. This closeness ultimately ended badly for both parties when they were all expelled. Coates’ view also appeared to contradict Jack Braga‘s. In an article published in the Hongkong Daily Press in 1933, Braga wrote: “A feature of all these discoveries was the great impetus given to the missionary work … and no Portuguese ever refused passage to a priest or was ever backward to support a demand for help when such was required in the name of Christ”.^1_16

Was Coates mistaken then? Looking at the Portuguese colonial society in general, Coates was correct in believing that profitable trade was their main consideration and that the missionaries often got in the way by being overly critical over the exploitation of slaves and the loose morals of the settlers. However, in the case of Francis Xavier, he was wrong to assume that there was animosity between him and the traders. The reason why Xavier could not get into China proper was not because the traders did not allow him but because they themselves could not get in. On the island of Sanchuang, they were just re-grouping after being chased out of Fujian and Zhejiang province.

Thirdly, giving his reasons for the decline of the Portuguese Empire, Coates cited the “spendthrift carelessness” that squandered the newly acquired wealth and described the Portuguese as “commercially inexperienced, carried away by vainglorious confidence, and with a failure to grasp economic actualities”.^1_17 It is debatable whether the Portuguese Crown was squandering its newly found wealth when much of that wealth was expended to consolidate and extend its empire in the various continents. Also it seems unfair and simplistic to tag the Portuguese elite as commercially incompetent when they did manage to carve out such a vast territory and held on to their successes for at least one and a half centuries before the other European powers muscled their way in. During that period, the European settlement in Macau became established and was considered by all as the most important European outpost in the Far East until Shanghai claimed that title at the end of the nineteenth century.

From Shanghai, Fei Cheng-kang’s Macao 400 years provided a welcome addition to the body of literature that contributed to our understanding of the history of the Macaenses on the China coast. Drawing upon Chinese and Western sources, Fei related the history of Macau from a Chinese perspective but it was apparent that the writer was heavily circumscribed by the socialistic mind-set. With repeated references to the corruption of local officials and the disposition of the Macaense traders to offer bribes, one was led to believe that all conflicts were settled through bribery and corruption.

Fei viewed many historical events through the prism of Chinese sovereignty and enunciated the many breaches made by the Portuguese. When local officials made decisions that seemed contrary to the wishes of the Central government, Fei appeared overly judgmental and condemned the officials as weak, incompetent and “muddle-headed”.^1_18 In so doing, Fei failed to appreciate the pressures that the local officials might be under to balance the demands of a group of foreigners armed with formidable weapons against the wishes of a remote and doctrinaire Central government. Furthermore, Fei’s obsession with “bribery” or “routine money” could be construed as an attempt to impose modern day inflections upon a practice that was an intrinsic part of the social and political protocols of the time. As Coates had stated, it would have been impolite for the Macaenses not to offer “gifts”.^1_19

Textual difficulties were encountered as a result of its translation from Chinese with further aggravations caused by its convoluted structure as the chapters were arranged thematically and not in chronological order while the absence of an index made it difficult for quick referencing. Despite the above reservations, Fei provided valuable insights into the early Portuguese squatters on the China coast and a probable explanation concerning the nature of the understanding that allowed the European settlement in Macau to be established. A Chinese perspective such as Fei’s contributed to a broader understanding of Macau and the Macaenses.

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Aims and scope of the Thesis

Approaches to the topic

In his study of the British presence in China published in 1999, Robert Bickers discussed the various approaches to the study of modern Chinese history and commented on their inadequacies. He considered that Western research had often focused too narrowly on western impact and actions while some China-centred work such as those that emanated from historians of the so-called “Shanghai school” were often too sterile, either ignoring or downplaying the significance of the foreign influence. According to Bickers, both resulted in an unbalanced view because the foreign settler communities which were part of the foreign presence and so crucial to the development of the settlements were “under-examined or clichéd”.^1_21 The Macaenses were one such foreign community in China. Apart from the British and the Japanese, the Macaenses were the next largest foreign community in many of the foreign settlements for many decades. They were surpassed in numbers only in the 1920s and the late 1930s with the arrival of the White Russians and the Jewish refugees from Europe. The study of the Macaenses’ presence in China was crucial to the balanced approach that Bickers talked about.

The historian C.R. Boxer shed light on the glorious age of the Portuguese empire when they pioneered European exploration and expansion into Asia, Africa and South America. The Portuguese government had honoured him for his works and in 1971 the University of Hong Kong also honoured him with a Hon.D.Litt. Degree.^1_22 Boxer’s works were mostly about the Portuguese empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and there remained a significant gap in our knowledge of the latter centuries when the Portuguese colonial empire in Asia was superseded by the Dutch, the British and the French. How the Macaense community survived the disintegration of the Portuguese empire became a recurrent theme in this thesis.

The volumes that had been written about the foreigners in China and of the British presence there hardly mentioned the existence of the Macaense communities or their contribution to the social and commercial life of the treaty ports. This lack of attention about the Macaenses’ presence might suggest their demise and descent into oblivion but nothing could be further from the truth. This thesis argued that, far from being redundant or irrelevant, the Macaense community demonstrated their skills in linguistics, in multiculturalism and adapted themselves in their struggle for survival and relevance. Together with other professional skills, they reinvented themselves and rode the winds of change. Many Macaenses served the mercantile interests of the British and other foreign firms in China as thousands of Macaenses left Macau to work alongside the early Western pioneers as clerks, interpreters, musicians and professionals. At a time when the Chinese were without Western formal training and not trusted by the Westerners, the Macaenses provided a ready supply of clerks for the foreign businesses and banks as well as the municipal governments of the treaty ports. Their presence was so pervasive that they were sometimes accused of monopolising these positions for themselves.

Research method

In the process of investigation I surveyed the available literature, published in English, concerning the early period of the Portuguese empire as well as the Portuguese presence in Macau, Japan and other parts of China. These publications were augmented by the Braga Collection of books and manuscripts housed at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. The Collection was fairly sizeable; the Manuscript Collection alone consisted of 200 boxes. José Maria (Jack) Braga was a Macaense businessman, teacher and historian from a prominent family directly related to the earliest Macaense settlers in Hong Kong. He was also well known for being a close friend and collaborator of other historians of Macau such as C.R. Boxer, Austin Coates and Monsignor Manuel Teixeira. The National Library acquired the major portion of Jack Braga‘s collection in 1966 and he was given the task of organising the materials in his collection. This he commenced to do in late 1968 however due to his illness in 1972 he could not finish the job and the papers and manuscripts were as he left them at that time.

In addition to publications and private papers, interviews were conducted with various members of the Macaense communities from around the world. These case studies were of Macaenses of different age groups, mostly in their fifties and sixties. The oldest was a man of 91 years of age. All were in good health and with lucid memories. They were selected based according to their wide-ranging backgrounds, their knowledge of community histories, and their residence in different parts of the diaspora. They provided valuable insights and a first hand account of their lives and times. The cumulative effect was a fairly comprehensive picture of the impetus to migrate to foreign lands and their successes in adapting to the new environment. Documents and paraphernalia from yester years were precious mementoes in their possessions, validating their stories as well as filling in gaps of lesser known ones. Some of them had rare books and publications, unobtainable from most public or university libraries.

These interviews were conducted according to the requirements set down by the Human Ethics Review Committee of the university which provided extensive protection for the interviewees against misrepresentation as well as providing them with the opportunity to withdraw at any stage from the project.^1_23

To broaden my knowledge of the Macaenses in the diaspora, I joined the community organisation Casa de Macau in Australia. As part of the Australian contingent, I attended the Encontro das Comunidades Macaenses III, the third reunion of the Macaense communities. Some two thousand Macaenses from around the world gathered in Macau for a week-long celebration of Macaense food and culture during which old times were recalled and friendships renewed. Held in March 1999, Encontro III was a very special occasion for the participants; many were overwhelmed by the fact that this would be the last under Portuguese rule. Perhaps because of this the President of Portugal programmed his visit to Macau to coincide with the Encontro and officiated at the opening ceremony. The Encontro provided a first hand experience to absorb the feeling of community, to meet some authors and interview various members of the Macaense diaspora. It was also an opportunity to gain an intimate sense of the history of Macau, to visit various institutions, libraries, study exhibits and to gather research materials.

Definitions and terminology

Who are the Macaenses? How are they defined and how has this definition changed over time? The Portuguese lived amongst the people of Asia and through inter-marriage and concubinage with persons of Asian ethnicity fathered many offspring. In Macau, these offspring of miscegenation were known as Macaenses. Many people believed that this Macaense community was what made Macau unique, otherwise it would be just another Chinese city. However, in the final decades of the twentieth century, the definition of a Macaense became rather blurred or taken to extremes. Definitions were attempted along various lines and included the following often overlapping elements.

Firstly by bloodlines: The key element here was the presence of Portuguese blood irrespective of percentages. Some, however, referred to themselves as “pure” Macaenses, meaning they do not have any Chinese blood in them at all but Malay, Goanese, Indo-Chinese, Siamese and perhaps African blood.^1_24 João de Pina Cabral provided the definitive statement in this category when he stated that: “To be a [Macaense] is, fundamentally, to be from Macao, to descend from Portuguese, but not necessarily to be a Sino-Portuguese descendant.”^1_25

Secondly by facial features: This is a derivative of the definition by blood. Unable to determine the exact mixture of the hereditary bloodlines, some people resort to the use of facial features as a point of identification. This had been criticised as it excluded many high profile public figures such as Anabela Ritchie, the former President of the Macau Legislative Assembly and J.M. Alves the former Mayor of Macau. At the opening session of Encontro II, Alves criticised the definition based on physical attributes as too narrow.^1_26

Thirdly by language: Some people consider that Macaenses, must by definition, be able to speak Portuguese and better still patuá, their hybrid language. However, this would tend to exclude those brought up in an English speaking environment who cannot speak either Portuguese or patuá such the Remedios brothers who were on trial in Macau in 1933. It was reported that these two Macaense youths from Japan by way of Shanghai could only speak Japanese and English but not Portuguese.^1_27 Even in Macau, very few Macaenses could speak patuá as revealed in an interview published on the 16 August 1998 edition of the South China Morning Post.^1_28

Fourthly by place of birth and residence: According to this definition, Macaenses were those who were born and resided in Macau. By inference, those born or resided outside of Macau were excluded. In the early 1980s, in order to counter the influence of Carlos Assumpção, then president of the Macau Legislative Assembly, the Portuguese Government affirmed that anyone born in Macau, including Chinese and other foreigners, were officially Macaenses also.

Fifthly by marriage: This element was perhaps the least controversial. If one was married to a Macaense, one could be automatically accepted as a Macaense. That was why some of the Macaense families possessed non-Portuguese surnames such as Danenberg, McDougall or Yvanovich.

Sixthly by adherence to Macaense culture: The Macaense literary figure Henrique de Senna Fernandes affirmed this cultural identification when he stated: “We call someone Macanese if he has Portuguese roots or identifies with Portuguese culture. Even if someone doesn’t have any Portuguese blood but has the culture, he is Macanese.”^1_29

Some influential Macaenses like Carlos Marreiros and Julie de Senna Fernandes preferred even more inclusive definitions. Marreiros told a reporter: “I have friends who are ethnically Chinese and friends who are ethnically European. They were born in Macau and are as Macanese as I am.”^1_30 Julie de Senna Fernandes maintained that being a Macaense “is a feeling, not a definition.”^1_31 With the Macaense culture in Macau expected to become more sinicized and Macaenses of the diaspora becoming assimilated into their local cultural environments, Julie de Senna Fernandes’ view might be considered as most inclusive and appropriate.

Inappropriate Labels: Portuguese, Macanese

But different labels had also been used to describe the communities in different parts of China at different times. In Hong Kong newspapers, the Hong Kong-based Macaenses were known as Portuguese while the Macau-based Macaenses were referred to as Macanese. This was a legacy of the treaty-port days when outside of Macau, all Macaenses were recognised as Portuguese for diplomatic and legal purposes. When historians wrote about the Portuguese in China, they often failed to distinguish between the different groups of Portuguese there. Broadly speaking, there were three groups of Portuguese. The first group were the European Portuguese sent out by the government of Portugal to occupy the senior posts in the diplomatic and civil service, the judiciary and the military.^1_32 Then there were the Eurasian Portuguese who were the offspring of centuries of miscegenation, born either in Macau or elsewhere (Goa, Malacca, Timor, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Japan). The third group consisted of Chinese Portuguese residents from Macau who claimed Portuguese protection.

Since our investigation concerned the presence and contribution of the Eurasian Portuguese originally from Macau, the use of the label Portuguese did not allow for sufficient differentiation of this particular group. Worse still, one might give the wrong impression; for example, that the Portuguese Consul-General of Shanghai was a Macaense when we know that he was not – such lofty ranks being the preserve of European Portuguese. For the reasons above, the use of the term Portuguese to describe the Macaense communities was not only inappropriate but it also cast a Eurocentric view which we wished to avoid.^1_33

The use of the English label Macanese was also inappropriate and ambiguous because the term was confined to the community in Macau and because of its adverse political connotations. It tended to exclude those Macaenses who had moved away from Macau for whatever reason.^1_34 By inference it could also include the Chinese residents of Macau.^1_35

For our purposes, it was significant to note that members of the community preferred to call themselves Macaenses, Macaístas or filhos de Macao, all having roughly the same meaning – “sons and daughters of Macao”.^1_36 In this thesis the term Macaenses would be used exclusively to describe this community. If the English term was used in the original quotations, it would be retained. The term Portuguese would be used when we wish to emphasise the general aspects of the Portuguese empire of which the Macaense community represented only a small part.

Community

What constitutes a community? Whatever definition one chooses to adopt, it usually incorporates a sense of belonging by those from within and can be easily recognised and identified by those outside. While there was little doubt about the existence of a Macaense community in Macau, though small compared to the rest of the population, could demonstrate that the Macaenses outside of Macau were also identifiable as a community in a real sense. At virtually every major city they emigrated to including Shanghai of yore, there were clubs, associations, churches, sporting teams and in some instances, even schools to cater for the needs of the community. Today in the Macaense diaspora of São Paulo (Brazil) they have their own club premises, while other cities had made plans to acquire their own. Their social gatherings celebrated their rich culture, distinctive foods and perhaps keep up with their distinct language. In the early days of Hong Kong, they even lived ghettoesque in close proximity to each other. Many lived in houses that were rather grand in Portuguese Row as reported in the South China Morning Post.^1_37

Diaspora

One could well question whether the term diaspora could justifiably be applied to the Macaenses now scattered around the world. Traditionally, the term was used specifically to describe the mass dispersal of Jews from their traditional homeland to far away places. There was the implicit notion of exile forced through circumstance or choice. Maintaining a strong cultural and religious attachment to the homeland, the traditional sense implied a lack of acculturation to the dominant culture of the place of sojourn. There was also the hint of an eventual end to exile and a return to the homeland.^1_38

It would appear that the experience of the Macaense communities did not fall into the same category as the Jewish diaspora in the traditional sense. However, in New Diasporas, Van Hear applied the term more generally to describe a “trans-national community” dispersed from their homeland to two or more other territories. Their presence abroad is enduring; and there exists some kind of exchange – social, economic, political or cultural – between them.^1_39 According to Van Hear, the factors that caused migration between countries were apparent “disparities in socio-economic circumstances, perceived life-chances and human security”.^#foot1_40 These were the very same factors that gave birth to the Macaense diaspora.

The difference between the traditional usage and that adopted by Van Hear appeared in two areas: the degree of acculturation to the dominant host culture and the implied desire to return and resume residence in the homeland. Firstly, one could argue that the traditional usage was wrong because some degree of acculturation always take place when two cultures collide. As Schwartz put it: “[In cultural encounters] whatever the previous understandings and expectations, the contacts themselves caused readjustments and rethinking as each side was forced to reformulate its ideas of self and other in the face of unexpected actions and unimagined possibilities.”^1_41 Therefore it is highly unlikely that cultural purity, untainted by the surrounding values, existed in the traditional Jewish diaspora. Secondly, the desire for an end to exile was said to be implicit in the traditional definition of a diaspora. It could be argued that in the history of the Jewish state of Israel since its inception, those Jews who desired to go to Israel were mainly groups that had experienced repressive economic, political and religious conditions in depressed countries. In the Jewish diaspora of Australia, Canada, the United States and Western European countries, most Jewish people are happily and successfully settled in their business and professions. While these successful Jews might contribute generously to Israel, very few would readily and voluntarily end their exile. For the purposes of this study, Van Hear’s definition had been adopted to include the Macaense communities now dispersed to the various corners of the globe.

Today, there are more Macaenses outside of Macau than in it. While they remembered Macau with much fondness and nostalgia, few if any, having left there, yearned to return there to live. Through the marvel of modern technology, especially in the field of communications and transport, the communities today maintain a cohesive network of cultural associations, culminating in three international reunions of its people in Macau. In the course of this study, I attended the third of such reunions – Encontro III – in 1999.^1_42 To some of the participants, Macau was their birthplace; to others, it was the place of their forefathers, their ancestral home.

This thesis comprised of several parts. Following the Introduction, chapter two surveyed the colonialists of the Portuguese empire and shod light on the origins of the Macaenses. Chapter three described the presence of the Macaenses in China during the first three centuries by way of a lead into the Treaty Century which was the focus of our investigation. Confining ourselves to the major foreign settlements, chapters four and five explored the nature of the Macaense presence in China from the Opium War to the Cold War outlining some common features of the various communities. Chapter six looked at the cataclysmic impact of the decade of war on the communities, beginning with the Sino-Japanese War of 1937. Chapter seven dealt with the process of dispersal, how the communities maintained their links with each other while the Conclusion offered some reflections on the communities – past, present, and in the new millennium.