At the end of last year, Macao celebrated the 20th anniversary of its return to the motherland. After resuming the exercise of sovereignty, the central government of China delegated to the special administrative region the mission of being a platform for the strategic interaction with Portuguese-speaking countries.

In this sense, the idea behind the multiple and regular events with a Lusophone theme in Macao, such as the Lusofonia Festival, the Festival of Chinese and Lusophone films and the Festival of Arts and Culture between China and Portuguese-Speaking Countries, is to expand pragmatic cooperation between China and all Portuguese-speaking countries, which is now being done, taking into account the potential of the plan to develop the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative.

In fact, it is perhaps worth noting that there were already communities from other Portuguese-speaking territories besides Portugal in Macao before 1999, with associations representing them, and that many of the Portuguese-speakers who arrived before then also originate from the former Portuguese colonies in Africa.

Although Macao itself is not a country, China has wisely made Macao a platform for strengthening relations with the Lusophone countries, because it fits its nature as a place that has a long tradition of interaction between Chinese and Portuguese-speaking communities.

The Lusophone World comprises the eight Portuguese-speaking countries: Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal, Guinea, Angola, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde and the sole Asian representative Timor. There are historical reasons for this, of course, since although Asia was the cradle for the Portuguese seaborne empire (with its center in Goa, radiating into other Portuguese settlements such as Malacca), its center moved to Brazil in the 18th century, because of the gold rush in Minas Gerais, and later, after Brazil's independence in 1822, to Africa. For this reason, the participation of Goa, Daman and Diu (former Portuguese colonies in India until 1961) in the latest edition of the Lusofonia Festival, held on the island of Taipa every year, was both surprising and extremely positive, because it is only the tip of the iceberg of an oft-ignored Asian Lusofonia waiting to be rediscovered and brought to light.

As a matter of fact, one aspect of this that has not yet been sufficiently explored is making Macao not only a platform for interactions with the Portuguese-speaking countries, but also a global mobilizer for the Asian Lusofonia.

The first step in this regard is to seek cultural interactions with the Portuguese-based Creole communities spread throughout Asia: India (Goa, Diu, Daman, Dadra, Nagar Aveli, Mumbai, Corlai and Nagapatanam), Sri Lanka (Baticalloa, Putanam, Trincomalee), Indonesia (Tugu), Malaysia (Malacca) and Singapore. These connections are not new or unusual as Macao has its own creole community, the Macanese, that was created not only through Chinese-Portuguese marriages, but also with clear Malaccan and Goan blood and cultural influences.

Another possible bridge between Macao and the Asian Lusosphere could be facilitating contacts with communities that are not exactly creole but who culturally identify themselves in a perhaps more vague and distant way with a Portuguese origin or with a distant Portuguese matrix. This is the case in Indonesia (Ambon, Flores, Ternate and The Moluccas), Malaysia (Georgetown, Pinang), Thailand (Bangkok) and maybe Cambodia. Goa itself, although having a massive intellectual, cultural and even literary legacy in Portuguese has fully migrated to English as a public language and therefore might also fit this second type of connection. Finally, a more complicated but no less thrilling case would be interaction with the Asian communities of African Lusophone ancestry.

The Macao government, inspired by the Belt and Road Initiative, with its vast Asian sphere of action, could contemplate forms of interaction with this fragile eastern Lusofonias, fragile because these communities are not at the center of their countries as regards political agenda

These possible connections are already embedded in Macao's history, but they have not been sufficiently explored, and have even been forgotten. For instance, some visual or material elements in the history of Macao amply refer to other parts of Asia, such as the shell windows, a characteristic element of Indo-Portuguese architecture found in St. Lazarus or in São Lourenço neighborhoods, not to mention the totally unexplored, as regards tourism, such as the Moorish Barracks near A Ma Temple. These heritage elements, part of Macao's architectural heritage, have not been sufficiently explored. One could easily imagine a Luso-Asian festival in St. Lazarus or a heritage walk, where they could be put into the light, explained and interpreted.

Macao occupies a unique position in the Asian context, which enables it to be a meeting place between and with these Asian Lusophone communities. This could be translated into concrete measures, such as bringing their members to participate in the already structured Lusophone festivals, and other types of cultural exchanges, which would certainly give Macao the role of a hub for Portuguese-speaking Asia, a role that it is yet to play.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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