25 years after China handover, Macao fears losing unique heritage
25 years after China handover, Macao fears losing unique heritage
2024-02-02
Macao is known as "the Las Vegas of Asia," with a huge gaming industry in glitzy casinos. It is also home to a unique ethnic group the Macanese. Twenty-five years after the former Portuguese colony’s handover to China, however, there is worry among the Macanese and others that a part of Macao’s unique identity is fading away. Voice of America’s Cindy Sui explains.
Cozinha Aida is a restaurant with generations-old recipes, preserved and passed down. The eatery is a place to enjoy some home cooking of Macao’s Portuguese-Chinese mixed-race population, known as Macanese. And it is named after its founder, the grandmother of Ivone de Jesus.
Ivone de Jesus
Macanese restaurant operator
“The special thing about Macanese people is because Macanese people usually speak a few languages ... Portuguese, Macanese ... and like my grandma, she’s one of the 50 people who actually maintains the dying language called Patua.”
The Macanese say their identity is unique, from the languages they speak – a mixture of Cantonese, Portuguese and English – as the main ingredients, to the food and its fusion of Portuguese and Chinese cuisine.
But the Macanese and Portuguese populations in Macao are seeing a threat to their unique culture.
Although the latest census conducted in 2021 showed the number of people in Macao who are either full or mixed Portuguese has increased by nearly 5,000 compared to 2011 and 2001, shortly after the handover, it’s still just under 2 percent of Macao’s population of about 680,000, according to official statistics.
The Portuguese population, which also makes Macao unique, is also expected to decline.
The government has stopped giving preferential treatment to people from Portugal who want to live and work in Macao. They’re now treated like other foreigners, given a temporary work permit if they have a job.
Delfim Chacim
Macao resident
“This means our Portuguese culture will be weak for the next generation. All we’ll see will be the architecture built by the Portuguese people, such as the fortress, but they won’t know the real story. It will be no different from another province in China without such things.”
But while cultural heritage sites such as this fortress are being protected, and Portuguese is an official language here, along with Chinese, Macanese residents fear as time passes and with a decline in their population, they will lose their language and culture – something they say is crucial to keeping Macao’s uniqueness alive.
Cindy Sui, VOA News, Macao.
For more Taiwan news, tune in:
Sun to Fri at 9:30 pm on Channel 152
Tue to Sat at 1 am on Channel 53
澳門歸還中國25年 土生葡人擔心獨特性正在消失
2024-02-02
澳門被譽為「亞洲的拉斯維加斯」，擁有繁華的賭場與興盛的博弈產業，也是一個獨特的族群:澳門土生葡人的家園。然而，就在這個前葡萄牙殖民地歸還中國25年後，澳門土生葡人及其他人都擔心澳門的獨特性可能正在消失，來看美國之音的報導。
餐廳” Cozinha Aida”，擁有幾代人傳承下來的食譜，澳門土生葡人可以在這裡品嘗家常菜，餐廳名稱是以創辦人，也就是Ivone de Jesus的祖母名字所命名。
[[澳門餐廳經營者 Ivone de Jesus]]
“澳門人有一個特點，他們通常能說幾種語言，葡萄牙語、澳門語，像我祖母就是其中一位，她是僅存50個人中，仍持續在使用已經消失的澳門土生葡語之一”
澳門土生葡人認為自己的身份非常獨特，除了語言混合了粵語、葡萄牙語和英語，食物也融合了葡萄牙及中國菜。
但身在澳門的葡萄牙人和土生葡人，都意識到自己的獨特文化受到威脅。
根據2021官方最新的人口普查顯示，與2011年和2001年比較，在澳門的葡萄牙人及澳葡混血的人口增加近5000人，但在澳門約680000的人口中，這些人的比例還不到2%。
預期，同樣賦予澳門獨特性的葡萄牙人口也將下降。
政府不再給予希望在澳門居住及工作的葡萄牙人優惠待遇，他們現在像其他外國人一樣，如果有工作將獲得臨時工作許可。
[[澳門居民 Delfim Chacim]]
“這意味著葡萄牙文化對下一代的影響會逐漸減弱。我們所看到的只會是葡萄牙人建造的建築，如堡壘，但他們不會知道真正的故事。這將與中國其他省份毫無區別”
儘管文化遺產保護區依舊受到保護，葡萄牙語與中文仍然是官方語言，土生葡人擔心在人口持續減少，且一段時間後，終究將失去他們獨特的語言和文化，他們認為這對維持澳門的獨特性至關重要。
更多新聞內容，請鎖定：
民視台灣台（152頻道）週日至週五晚上9:30
民視新聞台（53頻道）週二至週六凌晨1:00
Related News
