The Macanese – A Legacy of Portugal in China
by Frederic A. (Jim) Silva
Edited talk given at the 2004 Encontro in Macau.
Whoever said “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet” East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet” had obviously never met a Macanese, for in the Macanese there has been the perfect blending of East and West.
What then is a Macanese?
A short answer is that a Macanese is someone from Macao or else a descendant of someone from Macao. Another accepted definition is that a Macanese is a Eurasian of Portuguese and Asian blood. Portuguese and, say Chinese, Goan, Malay or Japanese ancestry – perhaps more than one of these.
What do we look like? My wife tells me that my particular brand of good looks can come from anywhere East of Suez.
On the way to the last Encontro I travelled with a group of delegates to Macao via Seoul, Korea. We met up with a group of Casa de Macau members from Vancouver to make our joint way flying across the Pacific. We had a great re-union on board. On this same flight were a group of American service wives returning to their husbands in Korea. They were intrigued with our chatter and looks and finally asked: “Excuse me – but who are you?” We replied “Guess”. They consulted and pondered and finally decided: “You are a group of Hawaiians”.
Truly, our Macanese looks defy description. Some of us look absolutely European and some look 100% oriental, with most of us somewhere in between. Because of our tangled roots we are a cocktail mix. Even within the same family there are darker skinned children amidst lighter skinned brothers and sisters. Our European, Goan and Chinese background adds to the mix.
Over time there has been more interesting intermarrying with other non-Portuguese Europeans, especially in Hong Kong. In Hong Kong we had large Macanese clans bearing the names of Hyndman, Osmund, Brown, Gardner, Yvanovich, Demee and Danenberg.
In Shanghai there was a Macanese family with the name Lubeck. From Goa two family names – Alvarez and Figueiredo – came to Hong Kong. They are all said to be descendants of young Goan men who settled in Macao many years ago and intermarried with Macanese women.
We have Spanish blood too with Macanese families bearing names like Gutierrez, Alarcoun and Alonço. Then there is that large Castro clan; the story is that three Spanish brothers settled in Hong Kong and Shanghai and intermarried with Macanese women producing numerous offspring.
All this goes to show that the racial component for this mix was established earlier and this mixing of mixtures continued on and on.
There is a further complication which is peculiar to Macao only and not seen in Hong Kong or Shanghai. This has to do with a racially pure Chinese – say, Chan Kwok Hung – adopting the Catholic faith and then taking a Christian first name on baptism, such as Carlos Chan. He can then even adopt a Portuguese last name as well – perhaps the last name of his godfather – and become, say, Carlos Pereira. This was a common practice in other Portuguese colonial territories of Goa, Africa and Ceylon.
Changing name at baptism would indicate ready acceptance of the language, religion and culture of Portugal and may have provided some social and economic advantages – employment opportunities and quicker social integration. These converts would seamlessly integrate and intermarry with others of similar background or within the larger Macanese Eurasian community. Thus the mix continues.
When one considers that this and other mixes have continued for over 400 years one can appreciate the diversity.
Where did the Macanese live?
We lived in Macao, Hong Kong and Shanghai – but we always considered that our roots were in Macao. After 1841 when the British took over Hong Kong in the wake of the Opium War against China, the Macanese immediately followed. They sought jobs with the British Government, trading houses and banks. Employment was never plentiful in Macao and Macanese youth only aspired to clerical white collar jobs. Educated Macanese youths speaking some English and Chinese were among the pioneers of Hong Kong and readily found employment.
Later they moved further North to Shanghai as it opened up to trade and settlement. The flow from Macao never stopped. As recently as the 1960s there were vacancies for Portuguese bank clerks at the HSBC, which could not be readily filled as Hong Kong Macanese youth were then emigrating to the USA, Canada and Australia.
Bank officials had then to recruit Portuguese youth directly from Macao. More and more Macao Macanese men and women continued the pattern of leaving home for work in Hong Kong.
Where and how did we live?
In Macao life was lived around the various parishes. Macanese lived in the Christian city along the rim of the outer harbor, leaving the Chinese along the Porto Interior. The Macanese then were a somewhat insular and socially stratified group – depending on economic circumstances and family connections.
The genealogist Dr Forjaz was commissioned by the Fundação Oriente to draw up a genealogy of Macanese everywhere. He arrived in Macao and informed an establishment matron of what he was trying to do and was told “Why bother: in Macao only six families are worth tracing; others do not matter.”
In Macao some 80% of the Macanese worked for the Government: the Police, fire brigade, treasury, public works, hospitals, post office, etc. There were only a few family commercial firms such as Rodrigues and H. Nolasco & Co. There were the utilities – the electric company and waterworks. There was only one foreign bank – the BNU. Employment opportunities were thus very limited and migrating to Hong Kong was the only other option. Macanese never considered working with their hands at trades such as cooks, bakers, carpenters and electricians: only white collar desk jobs were sought.
The steady flow of Macanese from Macao to Hong Kong never stopped. Initially all lived in a self imposed ghetto known as “Mata Moro” in the mid levels of Hong Kong island. This was an area around a Moslem Mosque on Mosque Junction, Mosque St, Caine Rd, Shelley St. It was a convenient area. Arrivals came from Macao by steamboat and moved right into this area.
Rents were reasonable. The working men could get to their central business offices easily. School children could get to St Joseph’s College and the Canossian School for their education and families considered the nearby Roman Catholic Cathedral their parish. It was a comfortable cosy area. Everyone knew everyone else and also their business. My mother was born in this district. She tells of a lady with a large family, always hard up as her husband was a habitual drunk who could not hold onto a job. To augment family income she had a small business making and selling a delicious curry to other Macanese households in the area. Her husband considered this demeaning and a slur on himself. To ruin her business he would, when drunk, run around the streets of Mata Moro and shout: “Nunca bom comprar caril de Bina – usar tudo galinha morto suh.“
The Macanese of Mata Moro considered themselves a cut above another group of Macanese living along the city’s waterfront in the lower rent area of Wanchai. These were Macanese of more modest means and were referred to as Wanchairada or Cachivachi de Wanchai. Macanese women in Wanchai often intermarried with Englishmen of a lower economic order, such as low-ranking soldiers or security guards. Mata Moro Macanese referred to these unions as “Casar com Inglês sujo“.
Somewhat later – say the 1910s and 1920s there was a movement away from Mata Moro to cross the harbor to Kowloon’s Tsim Sha Tsui. It was a quiet peaceful area and a homeowners purchase scheme there met with some success. Macanese now lived on the little avenues to the East of Nathan Road with two storied houses and little gardens. Granville Road, Austin Avenue, Humphrey’s Avenue, Cameron Road were all Macanese areas. Later Macanese moved further inland to form small communities in Ho Mun Tin and the Tung Cheong Buildings. Again there was a tendency to live around Catholic Church parishes and schools – Rosary Church and St. Theresa’s Church.
Where did Macanese work?
Perhaps as many as 60% were bank clerks with the rest working for big British “Hongs” (Trading conglomerates) such as Jardines, Dodwells, Shewan Tomes, Gibb Livingstone, Gilmans, etc. Employment opportunities were limited to the mid-level range as higher executive positions were reserved for the expatriate British. Some Macanese were a little better off working for American firms – Banks and the Oil companies. There were few Macanese businesses – some were Botelho Bros. (tung oil exporters) Cruz, Basto & Co. (rice and general merchants) and Colonial Trading Co., Best off were the few Macanese who were doctors and lawyers, most of whom did quite well.
There existed at the time a somewhat secretive and small British organisation called the “Employer’s Federation”. This was a a union of large employing firms that agreed among themselves on how to regulate and limit employment opportunities and salaries of local employees. Females were not much in the work force until the 1930s when young Macanese ladies entered the work force too with shorthand and typing.
In Shanghai life and working conditions were much like Hong Kong . If anything it was less restricted by British colonial stuffiness. Shanghai was more international in outlook as other national businesses – French, American, Japanese and Chinese were more prominent.
Shanghai Macanese lived in the International Settlement and the French Town. They had their own Lusitano Club and had a somewhat broader general outlook.
Much has been said about our Macanese Patuá…
May I add my bit? If you were in downtown Lisbon today and said to a native “Azinha tomar Mezinha“, he would surely not understand you. Yet these two words azinha and mezinha are genuine Portuguese words. The only trouble is that they are three hundred years old and no longer used in modern Portugal – they can only be found in Macao’s patuá now. Some words of this archaic Portuguese can still be found, much as if one were to speak Elizabethan English today.
Other linguistic streams also come into our patuá. For instance there are words we use from the Malay of Malacca: choler 
; chipi ; chubi ; chuchu ; gungdoong ; booyão ; sayão ; balichão
English and Chinese words also have a tendency to creep in. It is a colorful language with no discernable grammar and no plurals. It is a great tongue for satire and slang – for making fun of others and ourselves.
If you spoke the patuá and came to this Encontro and met an old friend, this is what you must NOT say:
Ay José – nunca olhar voce vinte fora anos. Cusa já sosede? Já fica assim velho. Onde já vai tudo cabelo? Onde já vai tudo dente? Cara pindurado; andar vagar vagar – cote-cote. Costa bonco-bonco. Qui ramede.
Another bit of patuá. When someone says “Thank you”, the reply in English might be “Don’t mention it” or “you are welcome”, or in America perhaps “You bet”. In Portuguese the reply to “Obrigado” might be “De nada.” In Macanese the proper reply would be “Ay numseeza meh.“
Fortunately there have been persons who have studied and passed on our patuá. The late Dr. Graciete Batalha took a scholarly approach and methodically recorded pronunciation and etymology for so many words. The late Ade Fereira – a great humorist –– took a lighter approach with verses and plays . He was a great asset to preserve some of the old speech. Today’s Miguel Senna Fernandes also makes a study of the patuá as he fills the gaps of his predecessors. We owe them our thanks.
Is there such a thing as a Macanese accent when speaking English?
Well, Yes and No. When Macao people speak English they have their own Portuguese accent. When Shanghai Macanese speak hardly any is discernable. But when Hong Kong Macanese speak they can come up with a whining, sing-song accent which is so typical. When I first heard a recording of my own voice I could not believe it was really me: that accent was there.
Try saying this with a Hong Kong Macanese accent: “Wear boy-scout hat want to be Cowboy.”
In one short sentence use 3 languages: “Eat ramata the soong yuh.”
“All the American in the Bank say I speak with Breeteesh accent.”
Even names like “Julio Lima”; “Gussy Luz”; “Carlos Soares”; “Ange Vas”, said with the proper Macanese accent, can immediately identify a person.
Where and how did this accent come about? I say St. Mary’s School of Kowloon. My theory is that the accent came to be when shiploads of Italian nuns fresh off the boat from Italy arrived in Hong Kong to teach English to Macanese girls. This could lead to weird results.
Let me now say something about our food. Food is an integral part of our Macanese culture. Fortunately we have inherited this Far Eastern concept of eating “Rice and soong” like the Chinese, Japanese, Indians and Malays.
We eat our white rice and accompany it with a delicious array of dishes which have evolved from all over – Portugal, China, Goa, Malacca. We adapt, blend,and modify dishes from other parts and make it our own. For instance the Portuguese cozido has been added to with some trotters, pele , Chinese sausage, and balichão 
to become our own tacho
At the risk of making mouths water I list:
Diabo, chouriço vinho alho, chouriço sutate, porco balichão tamarinho, ade cabidela, capela, chau chau chili, misó Cristão, harmonicas … and to quote the illustrious bard “Nobody don’t like minchy
We have fabulous desserts. Many derived from Malacca Nhonya food: glutinous rice, eggs and coconut and brown palm sugar; aluar , baji
, moochy , ladu , bebinca de leite All rich and hearty and guaranteed to cure any cholesterol deficiencies we may have had.