Koo Ch 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

In search of a better world

For the Macaenses in Mainland China, as for other foreign communities, the Communist victory in 1949 provided a dramatic end to a century of settlement.7_1@1 In this chapter, we summarised the key features of the various Macaense communities in China. One was the importance of political patronage in their success; when such patronage ended, they became marginalised. Another was the curious aspect of their multiple identities and the crisis of identity that sometimes projected from such complexities. Yet another was the controversial localisation issue debated for much of the twentieth century which masked the communities’ struggle for recognition and relevance. In the case of the Macaenses in Macau, these issues converged on the political struggle of the late 1970s and early 1980s that resulted in the demise of the Macaense settler mentality as represented by the Macaense-controlled Legislative Assembly. The chapter concluded with how and why the Macaense diaspora came into being, focusing on the various efforts to ensure the survival of their culture and their communities.

Common features of the communities

Despite being scattered all over China, the Macaenses were bound together by the same customs, enjoyed the same foods and celebrated the same important days. The intensity with which cultural traditions were observed varied according to the size of the community and the degree of acculturation that had taken place over time. At the different places, if numbers permitted, they even established identical institutions such as Club Lusitano. In Macau and Hong Kong, their members were involved actively in the important social and political institutions, especially the respective legislative assemblies. The younger generations shared a common zest for life and knew how to party and enjoyed themselves.7_2 The intense social life previously described by Henrique de Senna Fernandes in Macau was similar to that experienced by A. de O. Sales in Hong Kong during the same period. According to Sales, this period (1920s to 1930s) could be considered as the high point of Macaense community life in Hong Kong:

The three focuses of life were the church, sport and social functions, where the young people, the girls carefully chaperoned, danced the night away. … Social life was intense. Some dances at the Club Lusitano, like New Years Eve and Portugal’s National Day, were very formal and you had to dress up. … Other events, like dances at the old Anglo-Portuguese Victoria Recreation Club were much more relaxed and more fun. … World War II suddenly brought that era to a rude end.7_3

There were similarities in their career choices with the majority employed by the foreign businesses, the banks and in the government service. It was part of the Macaense folklore that until the 1950s, the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation gave preference to the recruitment of Macaenses over the local Chinese, resorting to recruit from Macau when Hong Kong could not supply sufficient Macaense candidates.7_4 Sometimes such preferential treatment lulled many of the younger generation into complacency, a concern expressed by community leaders such as J.P. Braga on several occasions and in letters such as the one to his son Jack dated 9 October 1935:

As far as Hong Kong is concerned, the family will tell you to what an awful state of affairs employment has been reduced in Hong Kong. … If such is the case at the present time, what it is going to be when all these educated Chinese who are eager, submissive and educated above the standards of our people should be dreadful to think since, candidly between you and me, some of our younger people refuse to be disciplined and are not nearly as well equipped as our competitors.7_5

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",'0'); }); improve themselves in such a marvellous fashion.’ BMC-NLA, MS 4300, Box 43, Folder 2.”]

Luckily many young Macaenses took heed so that those with means and ability managed to join the various professions.

There was great similarity in the institution of family. When Henrique de Senna Fernandes described the family structure in Macau during the period between World War I and II, we observed similar elements in the Hong Kong Macaense community.7_6 The key element was the role played by the fathers in the lives of their families. More often than not, it was the fathers that decided whether children should be sent overseas to study, or to Macau to learn Portuguese, or to Hong Kong to learn English. Often it was the fathers who arranged job interviews for their sons through their network of friends and acquaintances. When the young people wanted to do something, if their father said no, that was the end of the matter. When it came to the decision to emigrate, it was more a family decision taking all factors into consideration, such as availability of visas, friends and extended families, job availability, language background and the climate of the prospective country.

The leaders of the community did their best to encourage education amongst its young people. It was to meet the educational needs of the Macaense community that the Roman Catholic Mission schools were established in Hong Kong and Shanghai during the early years of European settlement.7_7 From such humble beginnings, the Roman Catholic schools became a significant part of today’s education scene in Hong Kong.7_8 After World War II, in response to the difficulty in obtaining places for their children at the schools, the Hong Kong Macaense community established its own primary school, Escola Camões. This was later added to so that by the end of the 1970s, there were three schools (one primary, two kindergartens) all opened to other communities. English was the medium of instruction in the Primary school but Chinese and Portuguese were also taught.7_9

Patronage

Another common feature of the communities was the patronage extended by the ruling elite at the various places. The support was strongest in Macau where Portuguese was the official language and a cultural affinity existed between the Macaenses and the European Portuguese elite. In Hong Kong, due to the long historical association between the Macaenses and the British, the patronage shown by the British was strong in the beginning. At one stage, the closeness led to jealousies and the Macaenses were accused of monopolising the clerical and civil service positions.7_10 According to Jack Braga, the relationship with the British was akin to an alliance and “in the long history of the colony of Macao, no single factor has had a greater influence on Macao and its inhabitants than its relations with the British and the colony of Hong Kong”.7_11 In due course, as British official policy encouraged sinicization as a way of responding to Chinese nationalist sentiments and more and more Chinese became western-educated, the Macaenses were increasingly overshadowed.7_12 British businesses in Hong Kong became increasingly accommodative towards local Chinese aspirations as indicated in the farewell speech of Sir William Shenton, one of the Colony’s most influential figures of the early twentieth century:

During my life here I have always been very interested in our Chinese people who hold a very great stake in Hong Kong, more valuable than any other nationality. They are the holders of the landed property which is the lifeblood of the Colony’s commercial life, and they are equally important as shareholders and tax payers. I therfore knew my duty was to be heart and soul with the Chinese community.7_13

Elsewhere in China, old British firms like Butterfield & Swire were recruiting educated Chinese to posts formerly reserved for Europeans out of economic and operational considerations.7_14 In Shanghai, due to its complexity and the presence of a large number of other foreigners, patronage was not so clearly defined although the Shanghai Macaenses were also said to have monopolised the well-paid clerical and shop positions.7_15 Nevertheless Shanghai Macaenses faced similar sinicization pressures as their Hong Kong counterparts.

Localisation debate – the struggle for relevancy

Into this sensitive environment, the Macaenses’ push for greater localisation of the civil service in Macau and Hong Kong must have led to gross misunderstanding. In the mid 1920s to the mid 1930s, Montalto de Jesus in Macau and J.P. Braga in Hong Kong championed localisation. When Braga became a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council in 1929, he pushed localisation fervently and was accused of acting out of communal self-interest. Braga refuted the claim and contended that localisation was about practicality, efficiency and economics due to the exhorbitant costs of hiring and maintaining expatriate personnel and the economic depression. He said he merely wanted Hong Kong to follow Shanghai’s example to hire more locals if they possessed the necessary qualification and experience.7_16

To the expatriate civil servants whose contracts were under attack, the Macaenses’ push for greater localisation could seem like a case of “biting the hands that feed it” and did not promote goodwill between the two groups. In championing localisation in the early 1930s, Braga appeared to reflect the feelings of the expatriate business community who suffered the lingering effects of economic depression since 1929. They had hoped that the Hong Kong government would alleviate the situation by reducing its expenditure and not increased taxes to cover its anticipated deficits. 7_17 The government might consider that, in championing greater localisation, J.P. Braga had his ulterior motives but it could hardly ignore similar calls from institutions such as the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. The bank’s 1936 annual general meeting called on the government to curtail its expenditure due to the lean times experienced by the business houses who were not in a position to bear additional taxation.7_18

More appropriately, the push for greater localisation could be seen as a struggle for relevancy. In 1926, when Montalto de Jesus criticised Macau’s recruitment of overseas personnel when suitable qualified Macaenses were available, many believed he was expressing the frustration of his fellow Macaenses. Echoing Montalto’s concerns, an anonymous article appeared in a Canton newspaper expressing the fear that Macaenses were “destined to vegetate as the proletariat of prosperous foreign communities in the Far East, to eke out a jaded, hopeless existence, to which was condemned many a gifted, promising youth.”7_19 In letters to his family, J.P. Braga expressed similar fears concerning the competition faced by his community from the increasingly educated Chinese.7_20 Overtaken by the local Chinese in commerce, faced with increased competition from well-educated Chinese for their jobs and obstructed by the glass ceiling of expatriate recruitment, the Macaenses’ push for localisation could indeed be viewed as a struggle for their own relevance.

For the Macau Macaenses, localisation continued to be a major issue well into the 1990s. It became extremely heated during the mid 1970s when the Macau Governor announced that more expatriate staff would be recruited to improve efficiency and “to stamp out collaboration between senior public servants and local vested interests”.7_21 The Far Eastern Economic Review sympathised with the Macaenses, convinced that “not all of them [expatriates] are striving for the best interests of Macau. Some have been described as refugees from the Revolution [in Lisbon] who prefer to hang on to well paid jobs rather than face hardship at home.”7_22

Amidst the public outcry, Governor Leandro defended the recruitment program as the natural outcome of Macau’s colonial status and an essential link between Portugal and Macau.7_23 In response, the Macaense-dominated Legislative Assembly, led by Carlos Assumpção, pointed out that too many military officers had already been appointed to key civil positions; that these expatriates generally lacked an understanding of the local conditions; and that “Macau needs technocrats not soldiers”.7_24 Assumpção went further and sought to amend the political structure to enable the Legislative Assembly to sack these senior civil servants. Thus the localisation issue became highly politicised, caught up in the power struggle between two dominant personalities occupying the two most senior political offices in the enclave: the President of the Legislative Assembly versus the Governor of Macau. In the ensuing political tussle that spanned nearly a decade, the Macaenses’ privileged position became a major casualty.7_25

Multiple identities – an identity crisis?

It had been observed that the most profound feature of the various Macaense communities was their sense of belonging to a common Portuguese heritage.7_26 Henrique de Senna Fernandes expressed it thus: “We fiercely defend our ties with Portugal, the Fatherland we quietly love, the Fatherland above the insanity, the whims and the errors of men. Hence our refusal to be absorbed by the larger community that lives and works side by side with us. It is not for vain nostalgia. It is solely the affirmation of an identity.”7_27

The Macaenses in Macau, Shanghai and Hong Kong had echoed this feeling of patriotism on many occasions, usually in the presence of Portuguese dignitaries. Portuguese officialdom encouraged this Portuguese identity among the Macaenses. They stoked patriotic fervour through frequent visits from the Governor of Macau and other Portuguese dignitaries.7_28 During one visit to Hong Kong in 1937, the Macau Governor Barbosa reiterated the mutuality in these terms: “Portugal has to look after her sons in Hong Kong, Shanghai and all other Far Eastern ports. We are all sons of Macao and are working for the honour of Portugal.”7_29

For the communities in Hong Kong and Shanghai, visits such as the one above provided a measure of comfort in times of uncertainties and reinforced the feeling of belonging to the larger Portuguese community in the Far East. Often these sentiments found practical expressions such as in the financial support extended to Club Lusitano, Hong Kong in the early days.7_30 In times of war such as the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and during World War II, the Portuguese authorities in Macau provided temporary shelter and extensive financial assistance notwithstanding the fact that many Macaenses were technically British subjects.7_31

This sense of Portugueseness bonded the various Macaense communities together, invoking mutual privileges and obligations. In 1929, the Shanghai Macaenses were asked to promote the Macau Fair and to participate in the exhibitions.7_32 Later that year, they even felt the need to move a motion reaffirming their loyalty to Portugal.7_33 The previous year, Jack Braga asked the Shanghai community to help pay Montalto de Jesus‘ fines and legal fees incurred over his controversial Historic Macau.7_34 These gestures were reciprocated when the Sino-Japanese conflict accidentally hit Shanghai in 1932.7_35 In the next two decades, there would be more occasions when the Shanghai community would be thankful for the support of their Portuguese compatriots in Macau and Hong Kong.7_36

Although this Portuguese identity appeared strong, there were other realities that emerged from generations of living on the China coast. Shanghai served as a good illustration. Shanghai Macaenses could be said to possess multiple identities. They had a Portuguese imperial identity, a Macaense cultural identity, the long-term residents could identify themselves as Shanghailanders and, if married with local Chinese, a Chinese identity as well. In Shanghai, the local “imagined” identity of the Shanghailanders loomed large in the thinking and behaviour of its long-term foreign residents.7_37 Macaenses born and bred in Shanghai could not have escaped its mindset and the sense of identity to which that mindset subscribed. Likewise in Hong Kong, the Macaenses talked of belonging to Hong Kong and of being British, indicating that identities were as mixed and as complex as elsewhere.

The multiple identities of the Macaenses varied from place to place, tempered by circumstance and history.7_38 F.A. Silva believed it was due to the fact that Hong Kong and Shanghai Macaenses “have had an English education and worked with British institutions. With English as a basic language we were at the same time exposed to British and American thought and traditions.”7_39 For many, the lack of proficiency in the Portuguese language served as a point of differentiation. Even outsiders were surprised that Macaenses such as the Remedios brothers, implicated in the “Shanghai trunk murder case”, could only speak fluent Japanese and English but not Portuguese.7_40

Such multiple identities sometimes proved bewildering to observers such as G.B. Endacott. He pointed to the slow rate of adoption of British nationality by the Macaenses in Hong Kong. Of the 2,263 Macaenses in Hong Kong in 1897, only 51 claimed to be British although over half of them (1,214) were born in the colony.7_41 Although the low figures were suggestive of a lack of commitment to the British colony, one had to account for the cumbersome nature of obtaining British nationality.7_42 Thirty-five years later, when the Registration of Alien Ordinance came into effect on 1 June 1934, the Macaenses in Hong Kong still figured prominently as “aliens”. They ranked second after the Japanese, followed by Americans and Filipinos.7_43 So it remained that even though many Hong Kong Macaenses did became British subjects, others decided to remain Portuguese for one reason or another.7_44

S.L. Burdett, the British Consul-General in Shanghai, had difficulty coming to terms with the multiple identities of the Macaenses. In 1950, referring to the Macaenses in Shanghai who were British subjects but who claimed Portuguese neutrality during World War II, Burdett asserted that they were only British by “technicality” and that “many would discard their British nationality without any qualms whatsoever if it suited them to do so. This was demonstrated clearly in 1941-42.”7_45 Thankfully not all British officials held the same view. When political reforms in Hong Kong were contemplated in the post-World War II period, Governor Grantham (1947-1957) wrote in a secret dispatch to Colonial Secretary Creech-Jones in 1949:

It is estimated that there are 2,500 Indians and Pakistanis in Hong Kong today, as compared with 3,000 Portuguese of British nationality. By the logic of numbers the Indians have as good a claim as the Portuguese, but the Portuguese have a better claim historically since there has been a Portuguese on the Legislative Council for many years;7_46 moreover, they have the interest of Hong Kong really at heart – which cannot be said of the majority of Indians in the Colony – if for no other reason than it is to them ‘home’. The contrast between the loyalty of the local Portuguese and many of the Indians was amply demonstrated in 1941. [As] Mr d’Almada so truly made clear in his speech [the Portuguese] have more claim to call themselves the real citizens of Hong Kong than either the Chinese or the expatriate British.7_47

Multiple identities gave way to competing identities during times of political uncertainties or when Macaense interests were under threat. During the localisation debate of the 1930s in Hong Kong, J.P. Braga invoked emotive imagery when he declared that “there has been too great a tendency for the sons of the soil to be passed over in Hong Kong.”7_48 Previous mention had been made about the World War II period in Shanghai when British officials looked disapprovingly at the manifestation of the Macaenses’ multiple identities.7_49 In Hong Kong, many Macaenses did chose to emphasise their Portuguese identity when seeking travel documents and claiming neutrality; however, there were also many who openly identified with the British cause and were interned for belonging to the Volunteer Defence Corps and the Auxilliary Police. The Hong Kong Macaenses in general were suspected of being British sympathisers and rounded up for frequent questioning. Some were actively involved in clandestine work for the British Army Aid Group.7_50

Competing identities also emerged when it came time for repatriation. Macaenses such as Phillipe Nery in Shanghai and the McDougalls in Shantou were faced with the dilemma of “where is home?” when forced to leave their place of birth and childhood.

In summary, it could be said that the various Macaense communities in China possessed multiple identities being the product of their unique circumstance and history. This reality provided the fundamental rationale to the communities’ existence and the key to understanding their actions and responses to events surrounding them. Multiple identities were not confined to people, but were descriptive of places as well. Portuguese Macau in the late twentieth century could be said to be three colonies embodied in the one: a colony of Portugal, of China and of Hong Kong with its fate determined to a large extent by decisions taken in those three centres. British Hong Kong could also be said to have two masters: Britain and China. Just as the success of British Hong Kong depended on its ability to serve the interest of its two masters, the success and survival of the Macaenses in China required the skilful juggling of its multiple, sometimes competing identities.

The empire strikes back

The Macaenses’ Portuguese identity would have been sorely tested during the heated localisation debate in Macau in the 1920s and the late 1970s when economic rivalry drove a wedge between the Macaenses and the Portuguese expatriates. Writers such as Henrique de Senna Fernandes asserted that in the 1920s and 1930s, there was no tension between the two groups and no difference made between them: “It was unthinkable. Everyone belonged to the same community. This fact was one of the most charming aspects of Macau. Those who came from far, from Portugal and the other colonies, were quickly integrated in society and actively participated in its events.”7_51

That the Macau Macaenses readily absorbed new comers from the other colonies could be seen in the examples of two of its most prominent identities, the late Pedro José Lobo7_52

",'0'); });
",'0'); });",'0'); });",'0'); }); is certainly Macao’s most colourful character, … the old city’s most picturesque story of local boy makes good. Today, Pedro José Lobo heads an empire that covers most of big business in Macao. His interests extend to Hongkong and from there, to other parts of the Far East. As his wealth is inestimable so is the extent of his philanthropy. … No institution in charity-prone Macao is completely independent of the Lobo handout.’ He was also known as the ‘Gold king of the Orient’. South China Morning Post, 28 March 1928, BMC-NLA, MS 4300, Box 1, BRA/3985, 109-113. See also Gunn, Encountering Macau, 124-134 and Hong Kong Standard’s Special Supplement, 18 January 1958, BMC-NLA, MSS 4300, Box 12, Envelope 2.”] and Father Lancelote Rodrigues.7_53 There existed a degree of suspicion towards the Portuguese from Europe who tended to be only there for a short time. Suspicion and tension coalesced when Montalto de Jesus‘ ill-fated second edition of Historic Macau was published in 1926. Expressing the latent feelings of anger and frustration of his fellow Macaenses towards the Portuguese expatriates in their midst, Montalto described them in almost parasitic terms. Of Portugal, he wrote:

By a process of juggling, Macao was made to owe the Home government an enormous sum of money, not to speak of the continuous drain upon Macao by the administrative system which saddle Macao with incompetents from Portugal, whose salaries and pensions have eaten up the greatest part of the colony’s income.7_54

He described the Portuguese expatriates as “keener than elsewhere, their [the Portuguese expatriate] sole ideal is to get rich quickly, by hook or by crook; and yet the poor nation is thereby rendered the poorer day by day, forasmuch as [the] fortunes are usually horded up abroad.”7_55

Tension was aggravated by class distinctions in the colonial society. Carlos Marreiros pointed to the existence of a class system where the “reigning class” comprised the Portuguese expatriates from Europe who looked down upon the use of patuá by the Macaenses prompting families such as Henrique de Senna Fernandes to speak only in the most proper Portuguese.7_56 It was not for terms of endearment that labels were used to describe each other. Jorge Morbey referred to these labels when he wrote that European Portuguese used the term Macaio “to express their supposed superiority” to the Macaenses while the Macaenses referred to the expatriates as ngau-sok and ngau-po.7_57

Some writers blamed the 1976 removal of the Portuguese garrison in Macau as a major factor in the deepening division between the two communities. Not only did it remove an eligible pool of young European men for marriage with local girls, the decision was seen as retarding the growth of Portuguese culture and language in the enclave.7_58 Added to that, many Portuguese came looking for work from economically depressed Europe, attracted by the buoyant economic conditions in Macau in the 1980s. The resultant economic competition between the two groups drove them further apart.7_59

But tension between the two groups could be traced to the earliest days of Macau, to when the private traders felt that the permission for the Portuguese settlement was a result of their efforts and their perseverance. Even before Goa received the good news, the Macaense traders had already elected a committee to run the place.7_60 In 1586 this committee evolved into a powerful local government body called the Senate which sometimes eclipsed the power of the early governors of Macau, especially in their dealings with the Chinese. According to C.R. Boxer, there was frequent friction between the two institutions derived from a power struggle between the Senate, representing the Macaenses, and successive governors who wanted to exert the Crown’s control over them. Tensions were further aggravated by the poor quality of many appointees to the senior posts and the systemic discrimination practised by the governors and viceroys in favour of those European-born.7_61 Before 1833, the Chinese authorities’ preference to deal only with a representative of the Macau Senate bolstered the Macaenses’ position.7_62

This same trinity of forces assumed central roles in the political tussle in Macau during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As President of the Legislative Assembly, the latter day successor to the Senate, Carlos Assumpção pushed for legislative reforms that would have relegated the Lisbon-appointed governor to just a figurehead. To the detriment of Assumpção and his supporters, they failed to convince China of the merits of their proposals. When China signified its opposition to Assumpção’s proposals, they were doomed to fail.7_63

Crushing the Macaense settler mentality

There were many elements in the decade-long clash between Assumpção and successive Macau governors but the end result was the crushing defeat of the Macaense settlers. The Far Eastern Economic Review criticised the handful of Macaense legislators “who often acted out of parochial and selfish motivations.”7_64 A fatal blow was struck in February 1984 when the Macau governor dissolved the Legislative Assembly in mid-term after amending the electoral laws to break the strangle-hold that the Macaenses had over the Legislative Assembly. In the election that followed, China urged the elimination of the “colonial mentality” that had existed in the Legislative Assembly, a comment assumed by all as referring to the Macaenses.7_65 Through the mobilisation of its allies in Macau, China got the election result that it hoped for. Through maintaining the status quo of elected representatives, the results dealt a blow to the prestige of the Macau governor who thought that the Macaenses would be totally routed. Even though the result saved face for Assumpção, the Macaenses were also the losers. By appearing to push their cause to the extreme, they alienated many people and were singled out as obstructionists. Having alienated their traditional allies, their interests were highly vulnerable when the Sino-Portuguese negotiations – covering the transfer of sovereignty – got underway.7_66

Much had been made of the concessions given to the Macau Macaenses in the 1987 Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration but their political position had already been eroded by the electoral reforms and their once powerful alliances, so vital to their survival, were in disarray. Whatever noises the Portuguese government had made about safeguarding the Macaenses’ position and Portugal’s heritage in Macau, it was generally acknowledged that since 1966, the Portuguese government in Macau had lost significant prestige. As the Far Eastern Economic Review put it: “The European Portuguese in Macao … lamented the vanishing lifestyle. But accurately reflecting the political reality, their views counted for little; since the Cultural Revolution-inspired upheaval of 1966 it was accepted that the Chinese tail was wagging the Portuguese dog.”7_67

Not only did the Macau government lose prestige from the debacle over the handling of the 1966 riots, the home government in Lisbon also lost interest in Macau and its other colonies. Having abandoned East Timor, the Portuguese government had thoughts of doing the same in Macau. According to Shipp, between 1974 and 1977, Portugal offered to return Macau to China on three separate occasions but China refused to accept the offers because it was not ready to deal with Macau until the question of Hong Kong had been settled.7_68

From settlers to émigrés

For the Macaenses in Hong Kong and Macau, they felt vulnerable in the decade of the Cultural Revolution fermenting within China (1966-76). Many thoughts turned to emigration, to join the growing numbers of their community in the diaspora. The Macaense diaspora is the product of successive waves of immigration that began in earnest soon after World War II, peaking during periods of heightened political tensions such as in 1949 and 1966-67 when rioting and disturbances spilled onto the streets of Hong Kong and Macau.

Political instability was only one of many reasons for Macaenses to leave in droves. It had been pointed out that the urge to emigrate resulted from the desire for better economic prospects and living conditions as well as fears regarding the future.7_69 While F.A. Silva wrote that there must be “regrets as well as rewards” among those who left, most of the people interviewed said they had no regrets in leaving.7_70 Their reasons for leaving varied. One left Hong Kong soon after World War II, repatriated to Britain with her family. Another was in the midst of a prosperous career as a partner in an American merchandising firm. He left in the late 1960s for the sake of his children’s education and because his mother wanted his family to follow her overseas. Another’s real estate career was in limbo because of the 1966 riots. Another left because he could see that the future for his banking career would not be bright due to the influx of tertiary educated Chinese who were recruited as managers over him. Another left as a result of a job transfer to the U.S.-based headquarters of the multi-national firm that he was working for in the Asia. Yet another went overseas for further studies and never returned. All of the interviewees left by choice, not out of necessity. Those that emigrated by choice indicated that the civil disturbances of 1966-1967 loomed large in their final decisions.

The spillage of the Cultural Revolution from China, with rioting and demonstrations in the streets, caused panic throughout the entire community. According to J.B. Correa:

By the time the 1967 riots were over, you were living with a siege complex. In the New Territories, some Hakka women were gunned down by Chinese troops from across the border. Primary school children were taught how to make bombs using firecracker powder. Home-made bombs were placed under the cars, and China cut off the water supply. Water was rationed for every fourth day. For those that lived on the upper floors, the water pressure was almost non-existent. Everybody decided to leave. Having lived through World War II, with all the hardship, suffering and anxiety, I did not want to go through that again.7_71

Mickey Sousa saw the riots from a different perspective. He was then the Commanding Officer of the Auxiliary Police Emergency Units, having been called out of retirement for temporary service due to his long experience. According to Sousa, the Cultural Revolution riots in Hong Kong were “nothing” compared to the Double Ten riots in October 1956:

The Double Ten riots were the greatest. In the end the police were really knocked out. We had not slept for weeks. The Gurkhas and the army were called in with rifles and bayonets. There were many casualties. The Cultural Revolution rioters (in Hong Kong) were all kids, not one of them over fifteen years of age. The kids were marching in the street, holding a red Mao Zedong book in their hands and shouting. You couldn’t touch them because they were all kids. They went to Government House, smashed the gates and threw stones at Government House.7_72

The former deputy Governor and Chief Secretary of Hong Kong, David Akers-Jones put it well when he said:

People forget what happened in the 1960s, but it was just one damn thing after another. We had immigration on a large scale, we had one of the worst typhoons in Hong Kong’s history, we had cholera, we had water shortages, we had bank collapses, we had the 1966 riots, and we had the 1967 disturbances.7_73

The Macaenses were not alone in pointing to the impact of the 1966-67 riots. Many ethnic Chinese also left for similar destinations. For Canada alone, immigrants from Hong Kong doubled from 3,710 in 1966 to 7,594 in 1968.7_74 Those that went to the United States and settled in New York had been credited with revitalising its Chinatown.7_75

Other reasons given for the Macaense emigration included family reunion, better job and career prospects, greater education opportunities for their children, the herd mentality and the general disenchantment with the colonial way of life manifested in its snobbery, demarcated along class and racial lines.7_76

When they arrived in their new countries, the Macaenses revealed a pattern characteristic of the past experience of their forebears. They keenly observed the social structure and set about forming alliances with local power groups to start new careers. For those Portuguese-speaking Macaenses that went to Brazil, they found that even with their limited knowledge of English, it was sufficient to gain employment with American enterprises. As Brazil prospered under American patronage, they achieved success. Their easygoing outlook and their cultural skills enabled them to integrate and assimilate into their new homelands. The smallness of their numbers might have helped but some believed, like one Macaense woman in London, that “my family’s Portuguese blood, leavened with Chinese, Japanese, German and Filipino has enabled us to assimilate and prosper in a foreign environment.” 7_77

The Macaense diaspora contained many success stories. Dr A.M. Braga, son of Jack Braga, mentioned some of the achievements in a speech delivered at the first international reunion (encontro) of the Macaense communities in Macau in 1993. He said, in part:

From humble clerks our forebears, our contemporaries and our children are represented in a multitude of professions; from traders, merchants and developers; doctors, dentist, and nurses; pharmacists and chemists; architects, and judges, magistrates, solicitors and barristers; teachers, university professors and scientists; priests; brothers and nuns; civil administrators, city mayor and cabinet minister; authors, artists and musicians and the list goes on and on…We, Macaenses, are highly respected as honest, hard-working law abiding people. Wherever we have settled we have contributed to the communities in which we live.7_78

The Macaense diaspora

The 1990s were sunset years for colonial rule in Macau. General Vasco da Rocha Vieira, the Governor, had set his mind on ending the final chapter of Portugal’s colonial presence in China with as much pomp and dignity as possible. Above all, Portugal wanted to ensure that the vestiges of the colonial past remained after 1999. A key element of that past would be the Macaense diaspora and the mobilisation of the Macaenses through various encontros (reunions) was considered an important program during the transition to 1999. These encontros were promoted as a celebration of Macaense culture as well as providing an opportunity to appraise Macau’s progress, to journey down memory lane with old friends while making new ones.

In November 1993 about six hundred representatives of the Macaense communities from around the world met in Macau for their first encontro.7_79 It was officially opened by Maria Barroso Soares, the wife of the President of Portugal. The leaders discussed the common issues affecting them hoping to develop programs to preserve the Portuguese language and culture, especially amongst the younger generations. Representations were made regarding passport matters, the need for educational scholarships, funding of community centres and assistance for the elderly and the unemployed.7_80 They grappled with divisive elements and formulated a Macaense creed to embrace all the communities. In his speech, the Macau Governor, General Vieira, spoke of his intention to ensure a smooth transition towards 1999, taking into consideration the interests of all the people, especially those Macaenses who wished to remain in Macau beyond the handover. However, he was realistic enough to recognise that there would be those who, in spite of everything that had been done to encourage them to stay, would decide to leave anyway.7_81

Three years later, a second encontro was held again in Macau from 20 to 27 October 1996. According to the organising committee, the purpose was “to ensure that the Portuguese of the Orient keep their roots”. During this encontro, one thousand two hundred people gathered. A highlight was the launch of two significant books on the Macaenses communities: Jorge Forjaz‘s Famílias Macaenses Vols. I, II & III and Frederic A. Silva’s All Our Yesterdays.7_82

The third encontro was held between 20 and 27 March 1999. For many, it was an emotional occasion being only six months before the transfer of sovereignty on 19 December. Adding weight to the occasion, the President of Portugal J. Sampaio officiated at the opening ceremony. Besides meeting old friends again, many attendees considered the highlights of the week to be the solemn religious procession from the ruins of St Paul to the Macau Cathedral and the visit to the newly opened Macau Museum. The looming transfer of sovereignty hung like a heavy cloud over the entire occasion. Dr Jorge Rangel, Secretary for Public Administration, Education, and Youth Affairs and the highest ranking Macaense public servant described his own struggle concerning the decision he had to make regarding whether to renounce his Portuguese nationality in the hope of keeping his job.7_83 Nevertheless, he urged his audience to look to the future with hope.
For those who chose to remain in Macau, Carlos Marreiros predicted the eventual demise of their Macaense identity.7_84 Others see things in less fatalistic terms. An anonymous Macaense reportedly said that he would stay with his family in Macau provided that the lifestyle did not change too much. He added: “Macau is the fountain of our existence, if we all leave Macau after 1999, the Macaense diaspora would soon lose its roots and our identity would vanish for good. … Macau without the Macaense would be like a soup without salt”.7_85

In nearby Hong Kong, the Macaense community had lost its next generation as most of the younger members had already emigrated. Despite the advantage of modern transportation and telecommunications, the younger generation of Macaenses appeared unlikely to follow the example of many Hong Kong Chinese who opted to settle their families overseas but returned to work in Hong Kong. Known within the Hong Kong migrant communities as “astronauts”, these businessmen, professionals and bureaucrats struggled to juggle the demands of family and work through long inter-continental plane trips.7_86

While there are “astronauts” within the Macaense communities, most Macaenses who migrated generally severed their work and business links to settle in their new countries. Even with subsequent adverse economic conditions at the countries of their adoption, they hung on tenaciously with never any thought of giving up and returning to Hong Kong or Macau. This commitment to the lands of their adoption had been a key feature of the Macaense communities over the centuries and might be the reason why, of the several studies conducted of the Portuguese communities in North America where the largest group of Macaenses of the diaspora live, there had been no mention made of the Macaenses from the China region except for one small entry.7_87 This could be the result of the narrow definition applied or an indication of how successful the Macaenses had assimilated into their new environment.

The last bastion

Generally speaking, the transition to Chinese sovereignty for Macau was free of major incident as the Macau government had adopted an accommodative stance towards China in keeping with Portugal’s past dealings with the Chinese authorities. The success of Hong Kong after 1997 allayed much of the earlier apprehension for the people of Macau. On handover night, 19 December 1999, four hundred and forty two years of official Portuguese presence was brought to an end in front of the assembled dignitaries from around the world. At a concert earlier in the evening, they were entertained by many singers and dancers, including a choir consisting of the symbolic number of four hundred and forty two children.7_88

Earlier in the day, at a lunch reception at the Governor’s residence, the last Portuguese governor of Macau, General Vasco da Rocha Vieira, paid tribute to all the Portuguese who had lived in Macau and to those who had contributed to strengthening ties between Portugal and China. At the evening concert, he delivered his final address in which he claimed that the Portuguese were first and foremost navigators and discoverers, not empire builders.7_89

According to some that attended, the concert was enjoyable and the handover ceremony dignified. Unlike Hong Kong’s Governor Patten, Governor Vieira did not shed any tears but was later embroiled in a controversy over the transfer of funds from the Macau-based Macau Development and Co-operation Foundation to the newly formed Lisbon-based Jorge Alvares Foundation.7_90 Jorge Alvares was acknowledged as the first Portuguese to reach China in 1513; it appeared ironical that an institution named in his honour should be the subject of controversy in the early days of Macau’s return to Chinese sovereignty.

CONCLUSION

Some Reflections

The history of the Macaenses in China was primarily a story of survival and a struggle for recognition and relevance. It described how they rose from a small band of traders engaged in illicit trade to become the sole European outpost in China for over three centuries. From shaky foundations they emerged as solid citizens who made significant contributions to the building up of Macau, Hong Kong, Shanghai and other treaty ports.

After the Opium War (1839-1842), many members of the community left Macau to join the stampede of the Western powers into China. Arriving at their destinations, the Macaenses had to work hard to support themselves and their families; they lived in close proximity to each other pursuing their simple pleasures in the confines of their clubs and their homes, maintaining a strong sense of their own identity in the process. Their cultural skills, honed from generations of living in a multi-cultural environment, enabled them to adapt to their new surroundings with relative ease. Where numbers permit, they fielded their own sporting teams and through their band of eager volunteers, they played their part in the defense of the settlements where they happened to be at the time. Whereever they went, the Macaenses formed alliances with the ruling elite, especially with the British under whose patronage they were able to prosper. Going to new destinations involved risks, although the Macaenses’ risks were minor compared to those undertaken by other groups. Like other foreigners, the Macaenses could gain much comfort in the solidity of the grand buildings along the various bunds and the building boom that underpinned the development of Shanghai and Hong Kong. However, like the soft muddy foundations of some of these settlements, the foreign presence in China was built on the fragility of the “unequal treaties”. As Chinese nationalism and Japanese imperialism combined to assault the foreign concessions, it became increasingly clear that the occupation of Chinese territories by the Western powers were becoming increasingly unwarranted and untenable. Even as World War II made a review of those treaties compelling, the Communist victory in 1949 sealed the fate of the foreign settlements in Mainland China with clear finality. The Communist takeover dispersed many Macaenses to different parts of the global village. Many retreated to Hong Kong and Macau where for the next few decades, they rode with the roller coaster fortunes of the twin colonies until the end of the twentieth century when the chapter on European colonisation in China was brought to an amicable end.

One country, two systems

Today, Hong Kong and Macau exist under China’s orbit as Special Administrative Regions. Administered by local Chinese under the principle of “one country, two systems”, K.C. Fok observed that the idea bore a striking resemblance to what he termed ‘The Macau Formula’ – the Chinese imperial policy that enabled Macau to exist under foreign administration for four and a half centuries.8_1

The relative success of post-handover Hong Kong had given encouragement to many, particularly those who had earlier feared a capital flight and loss of confidence. Lately, concerns had been expressed by sections of the Hong Kong public over which part of the principle should be emphasised: “one country” or “two systems”? Concerns had arisen as a result of two Hong Kong government initiatives. First, there was the surprise intervention in August 1998 to prop up its stock market purportedly to defend its currency. This was criticised as an abandonment of the free market principle that was considered an integral part of Hong Kong’s economic system. Secondly, on 27 June 1999, the Hong Kong government requested the National People’s Congress in Beijing to reinterpret the Basic Law so as to circumvent the decision of Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal in what was known as the “right of abode controversy”. The reinterpretation had the effect of depriving the estimated 1.67 million mainland residents of the right to reside in Hong Kong.8_2 This appeal to Beijing was criticised as weakening Hong Kong’s judicial processes significantly.8_3

In the case of Macau, administrative embarrassment was not slow in coming. Less than one month after the handover, the Macau police refused entry to a Hong Kong political activist. This was criticised as reflecting badly on the application of the principle of “one country, two systems”. It elicited a call from certain quarters for a crash course for Macau officials on the political implications of the principle.8_4

In Hong Kong, Martin Lee, a prominent lawyer and political activist called for vigilance by all concerned when he wrote:

The shattering of such expectations by the decision to seek a reinterpretation perhaps provides the clearest example of failing to protect Hong Kong’s autonomy. How can the ‘one country, two systems’ policy succeed if we do not protect our system to the utmost? Each time Hong Kong surrenders a key aspect of its autonomy, it will slide more out of balance.8_5

However, there were those who considered the Hong Kong Government’s decisions to be highly desirable and necessary for the well-being of Hong Kong even though sceptics doubted that “two systems” can exist in the “one country”. Their scepticism would likely deepen if Mainland officials in Hong Kong continued to make inappropriate remarks deemed to be compromising the principle of “one country, two systems”, as occurred on 8 June 2000.8_6

The realities of history

What would the new millennium hold for the Macaense communities in Hong Kong, Macau and in the diaspora? What would happen to their culture, their language and the institutions they held dear – One could argue that the future would point to further dilution of the Macaense cultural traits. Those who remained within the Chinese orbit would likely become sinicised while those in the diaspora could become increasingly globalised. Some Macaenses viewed this prospect with a sense of alarm while others considered it as part of the reality of history – the nature of things. While most understood that culture is constantly evolving, nevertheless, if they could, they would like to delay the inevitable in time to preserve elements of the past. Accordingly the leaders of the diaspora saw the need to establish Macaense community centres in the various cities in order to nurture and preserve elements of their culture for future generations.8_7

In Hong Kong and Macau so far, the signs appeared encouraging, as the lifestyle had not altered to any significant extent. Although the Macau Macaenses experienced little discrimination since the handover, a senior representative of the community, Carlos Marreiros, said that they would very much appreciate “a clear gesture, or a new stimulus by the [Macau] Government that it wants us to stay here”.8_8 For the Macaenses, a gesture came with the news that the Macau government would host a fourth encontro in November 2001. This raised the hope that the uniqueness of the Macaense culture would be treated with a fair degree of graciosity by the new political elite.8_9

The Macaense communities are part of that uniqueness. At the first encontro in 1993, their representatives adopted a creed to define their unique heritage:

We are the descendants of successive generations of settlers in the wake of the early pioneers who ventured out of Portugal through uncharted seas and inhospitable lands to fulfil the dreams and aspirations of the intrepid people of ancient Lusitania [ancient Roman term for Portugal] in search of a better world. We stand here this week on the soil of the last bastion of the former vast Portuguese overseas presence. This has been the home of our ancestors for almost 450 years. But soon enough the realities of history and a world of new values will take over. In our hearts, the memory of a rich Christian culture nurtured here in Macau will not be forgotten. Macau will soon quietly enter a new age with our collective good wishes for its progress and the well-being of its residents. …”8_10

The Macaense creed emphasised the uniqueness of its people yet failed to mention the monumental impact that their ancestors had on China and the rest of the world. Few could argue with the observation made by historian Immanuel C.Y.Hsu that the Portuguese arrival on the China coast coupled with the Russian expansion eastward to the Manchurian border “were nothing less than epochal for China, for they broke her age-old isolation and initiated the beginning of direct East-West contact, which, though weak and faltering at first, was to grow to such force in the nineteenth century as to effect a head-on collision between China and the West.”8_11

Viewed from such a perspective, it seemed difficult to exaggerate the historical significance of that tiny band of Portuguese private traders – the forefathers of the Macaenses – who wandered to the Chinese coast at the beginning of the sixteenth century and clung on tenaciously, despite the various setbacks, to forge a European settlement at Macau. No subsequent political revolutions or economic booms and busts could obliterate the impact that Macau and the Macaenses had achieved for China and the history of humankind.

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