Macau: A Cultural Janus PDF
Preview Macau: A Cultural Janus
C h r i s t i na M iu B i n g C h e ng •*> an i i.q MACAU A Cultural Janus tfiilW'I Father Manuel Teixeira (1912-) in front of the Amaral Equestrian Monument August 1992 MACAU A Cultural Janus Christina Miu Bing Cheng *t # * * * a Ha *t HONG KONG UNIVERSITY PRESS Hong Kong University Press 14/F Hing Wai Centre 7 Tin Wan Praya Road Aberdeen Hong Kong © Hong Kong University Press 1999 First Published 1999 Reprinted 2009 ISBN-13 978-962-209-486-4 ISBN-10 962-209-486-4 All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Secure On-line Ordering http://www.hkupress.org Cover designed by Lea 5c Ink Design Printed and bound by The Green Pagoda Press Ltd., Hong Kong, China. Contents Frontispiece ii Plates vii Preface and Acknowledgements ix 1 Introduction 1 2 An Anomaly in Colonization and Decolonization 9 The Age of Discovery 9 The Encounter of Two Civilizations 17 Problematic Sovereignty and Colonial Ideology 22 The Assertion of 'Perpetual Occupation' 26 Opium-Trafficking and Slave Trade 30 A Poetic Desire for Decolonization 33 Anachronistic Decolonization and a 'Pre-Postcolonial' Era 35 A Resurgent Symbol: The Bank of China Building 38 An Unprecedented Nostalgia 39 A Punctum in History 41 3 'City of the Name of God of Macau in China, There is None More Loyal' 47 The Toponymy of Macau 47 The Propagation of Christianity 50 The Partition of the World 53 Rites Controversy 54 Ancestor Worship and Chinese Reactions to Christianity 62 Christianity, Gunboats and Cannons 66 vi CONTENTS Autonomization of the Chinese Church 73 An Oasis of Catholicism 74 4 The Rendezvous of a Virgin Trio 81 Religious Culture in Macau 81 The Facade of the Church of the Mother of God 83 Ma Zu Ge or the Temple of the Goddess of the Sea 100 Guan Yin Tang or the Temple of the Goddess of Mercy 116 Two 'Civilizing' Forces 121 5 Colonial Stereotypes, Transgressive Punishment and Cultural Anthropophagy 127 The Twain' Meet 127 Western Literary Stereotypes of Macau 129 The Evocation of the Child/Mistress Imagery 142 The Punishment of the Western Intruder 144 Cannibalism, Carnivalism and the Mastication of the Barbarian Other 146 The Intrigue of Miscegenation and the Manipulation of Chinese Myths 149 The Monkey King's Ordeal 152 The Ultimate Victor 155 Satiric Elements and a Return to the Centre 156 A Field of 'Wheat' and 'Weeds' 157 6 Midway Sojourners, Macanese Moments and Stoical Settlers 161 The River and the Sea 161 City of Threshold and Exile 163 Peninsular Affectivity 169 A Flaneur's Amor 173 A Macanese Dilemma 177 A Bohemian's Adventure 180 City of Anchorage and Endurance 182 A Return from Exile 190 Rootlessness and Rootedness 192 7 Conclusion 197 Bibliography 219 Index 233 Plates Plate 1 The Monument of Discoveries at Belem, Lisbon 11 Plate 2 The Tower of Belem 12 Plate 3 The Jeronimos Monastery 13 Plate 4 The Statue of Camoes, Lisbon 14 Plate 5 The Camoes Grotto, Macau 15 Plate 6 The Bust of Vasco da Gama, Macau 16 Plate 7 The Jorge Alvares Monument with the Padrao behind 19 Plate 8 The Lusitano Club, Hong Kong 20 Plate 9 The Amaral Monument 2% Plate 10 The Bank of China Building and the Empty Pedestal of the Amaral Statue 37 Plate 11 The Coat-of-Arms of Macau 48 Plate 12 The Leal Senado 49 Plate 13 Symbol of the Partition of the World 54 Plate 14 The Ruins of St Paul's 84 Plate 15 The Pediment (First Tier) 86 Plate 16 The Second Tier (the Fourth Storey) 88 Plate 17 The Third Tier (the Third Storey) — Left 90 Plate 18 The Third Tier (the Third Storey) — Right 91 Plate 19 The Fourth Tier (the Second Storey) 97 viii PLATES Plate 20 The Foundation Stone 99 Plate 21 The Back of the Facade of St Paul's 100 Plate 22 The Replica of the Facade in the 'Expo 98', Lisbon 101 Plate 23 Ma Zu Ge 101 Plate 24 The Fujianese Junk in Bas-Relief 105 Plate 25 The Shrine of Tu Di 108 Plate 26 Tian Hou at the Main Temple Chamber 109 Plate 27 The Laughing Maitreya 110 Plate 28 Guan Yin at Ma Ge Miao 111 Plate 29 Guan Gong at the Garret of Guan Yin 112 Plate 30 The Aniconic Representation of Shi Gan Dang and She JiZhiShen 114 Plate 31 Guan Yin Tang 117 Plate 32 The Gate of Understanding 208 Plate 33 The Inauguration of the Macau International Airport 211 Plate 34 The Co-Presence of Catholic and Buddhist Dignitaries 212 at the Opening of the Cultural Centre Preface and Acknowledgements The Ruins of St Paul's, Monte Fortress, Guan Yin Tang, Ma Ge Miao, the Amaral Equestrian Monument, Leal Senado Square, Camoes Garden: these were the places that I came to know when my mother took me around, and where I played with my cousins. I was baffled to see these fascinating landmarks as a child and even more puzzled when I came across some foreigners speaking impeccable Cantonese. Of course I did not understand that they were the specific cultural legacies of an East-West hybridity in a colonial context. Macau has a 442-year history which was influenced by both the Portuguese and Chinese authorities. It has a rich repertoire of cross- cultural traits that can hardly be found in other former Asian colonies. Macau leaves me with sweet memories and my childhood experiences inspired me to conduct research on its unique role that straddles two cultures. The more I have discovered the more I love this 'holy' but somewhat eccentric city. The research in this book traces Macau's syncretic cultural matrices, its crucial position in Sino-Luso history, its religious mission, its toleration of heterogeneous beliefs, its architectural artifacts, its literary depictions by Westerners, the seascape's influence in textual productions, its hybrid progeny, and above all, its ambiguity and liminality. During its colonial vicissitudes, Macau has staged itself as a Cultural Janus. It embraces conflictual structures generated by its imbalances of power relations which are consistently articulated through degrees of tension and forms of difference between the Chinese and Portuguese. But amid this cultural asymmetry the two peoples have coexisted with each other without destructive ethnic confrontations. This book is a revised doctoral thesis. I have made certain excisions and consolidations, as well as additions of updated sources, so as to present a more coherent and condensed version than the original work.
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