The history keepers
Can you truly understand a place without knowing its past? Meet the people keeping Macao’s fascinating history alive.
Can you truly understand a place without knowing its past? Meet the people keeping Macao’s fascinating history alive.
Throughout these sometimes rocky centuries, Macao has provided a base for the two countries’ diplomatic and trade relations.
19th-century Macao was a heady destination for the international elite; a place where Chinese silks met French Champagne, Cantonese opera met Mozart, exotic creatures could be purchased as pets, and the vibrant sim-sungs offered daily music and opium-infused relaxation.
Historian Ivo Carneiro de Sousa recalls the Dutch East India Company’s attempts to conquer Macao and control trade routes in Southeast Asia, how the battle took place and how the event was recalled by the Dutch, the Jesuits and the Dominican Friars.
Five simple 100-year-old houses in Taipa tell a hugely important part of the Macao story. The daily way of life of previous generations is kept alive to enrich the knowledge of locals and visitors alike.
Zheng Guanying was a remarkable entrepreneur, Chinese patriot, moderniser, writer – and his ancestral home, the Mandarin’s House, is one of Macao’s architectural jewels.
In 1987, Sagres completed the first aerial journey from Lisbon to Macao. Today, the plane is stationed in a park in Coloane.
Question: how influential was Jesuit priest, traveller, trader, linguist and diplomat João Rodrigues ‘Tçuzu’ in the late 16th and early 17th centuries? Answer: extremely.
Did you know pirates once roamed the high seas around Macao? The organisers of a new piracy exhibition in the city did – and they answer buccaneering questions in this Q&A.
One of the most important people in Macao’s recent history, Stanley Ho, died this year. We look back at his colourful, inspirational and financially successful life.