Nostalgic for Old Macau?

Those nostalgic for an ‘old Macau’ are pining for a place that never existed


A tranquil, tropical haven, or ‘a material and moral rubbish heap’? In the former Portuguese settlement, sentimentality and reality collide


Despite massive new casino and hotel developments, and legions of regional tourist arrivals – especial­ly from the mainland – large tracts of Macau remain tranquil and little visited by day trippers. Pastel-painted tropical baroque churches; picturesque hillside forts; mossy public gardens; lazy, hot summer afternoons lavishly marinated in vinho verde; and the whole torpid effect served up with generous lashings of saudade (“nostalgic longing for times past”) encapsulates much of the former Portuguese territory’s wistful appeal.


With little effort, the temptation to sigh regret­fully over a heavily reimagined, now-vanished storybook “old Macao” – or cash in on those sightseers that do so – creates a marketable romanticised vision that magically appears from the mists of history.



So far, so nostalgic. But how was the tiny, impoverished, water-scarce Portuguese settle­ment actually seen in the past? In urban Hong Kong’s first rough-and-ready decades, Macau was a fondly familiar place; most early arrivals had spent time there, and the Portuguese settlement rapidly became a popular week­end holiday resort.


By the 1850s, Macau had been established for some three centuries, which meant life there was settled, stable and predictable. And the fact that virtually anything went there – as it still does – formed a large part of the city’s appeal.


https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/short-reads/article/3010483/those-nostalgic-old-macau-are-pining-place

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