It’s a typical delimma for foreigners living in Macau: to learn Cantonese or Mandarin? But this decision will not be necessary in the year 2049. Why? Because by that time, Mandarin will dominate Macau, and authorities will even be empowered to kill anyone who does not speak it. This is the dire prediction made in a new local movie production ‘2049’.
The former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, stated that Macau would retain its high level of autonomy for at least 50 years after being handed back to China in 1999, hence the time setting for this movie and its title.
“But that is gradually changing” says 23-year-old Perry Fok, director of the film. “If people still remain silent, then everything will get worse and worse.”
This is the theme presented throughout the film which depicts a bleak image of ‘future Macau’:
A neighborhood “cha chaan teng” breakfast costs more than 1,000 patacas. Traffic from Macau to Taipa makes the trip several hours long. The price of housing is frighteningly high, and it takes three or more generations to pay off the mortgage.
A beggar is killed, in front of onlookers, by the inspectors of the “Language Control Office” – inspired by today’s “Tobacco Prevention and Control Office” – for her reluctance to speak in Mandrain. The rapid growth of population leads to the horendous “De-population Policy”, which sets up a concentration camp in Coloane, aimed at exterminating those with disabilities or citizens aged over 50, in order to maintain sufficient resources for the younger generation.
A father voluntarily sacrifices himself for a government subsidy, in order to pay for the mortgage on the family home. The worsening air pollution leads to fatal respiratory diseases.
Comfortable silence
“People nowadays do not worry about what is happening as long as they live a comfortable life. If we don’t care, this is what will happen in the future,” says Gavin Ao, the 20-year-old script writer for the film.
Only 13 years have passed since the handover but the young production team of the movie, all in their 20’s, feel that Macau has already changed a lot.
“People like us prefer the city the way it was before the handover,” says Ao, “a city with less tourists and more comfortable to live in.”
Over these past years, Macau has been built up at an unprecendented pace, but is it being built or destroyed?
“Since the handover the city has boomed in a “Chinese style”, with millions of tourists coming every year attracted by the casinos. The revenue of the casinos reaches historical highs every year. We are tired of this profit-oriented city,” Fok says.
Furthermore, government policies are often contradictory.
“They aim to improve air quality but they keep issuing new taxi licences every year, and they proclaim to protect freedom of speech but passed Article 23 of Basic Law. But people remain silent. As long as they live comfortably, what need do they have to fight against the government?” asks Fok.
Fok also points out that the distribution of cheques every year to all residents simply adds to inflationary pressures, the very problem it is supposed to be addressing.
“This is absolutely the impact of our fast food culture – when problems arise, just distribute subsidies as if they are the only solution.”
According to Fok, as Macau was once a Portuguese colony, the majority of people here are used to living in silence and just put up with things they don’t like.
“They have been cultivated in this way. And strategies like the wealth sharing scheme, the education and healthcare vouchers, all worsen the degree of silence,” the director emphasises.
Changing attitudes
However, while the young filmmakers are hopeful that people will become more vocal about things they don’t like, they are not advocating social unrest or instability, but simply encouraging people to start considering the direction that Macau may be heading in, and work to achieve a better future.
“We criticise the social problems but we do not violate social harmony, that is our purpose,” Fok explains.
“Our message is clear,” says Gavin Ao, “I think the audience will understand what we mean and forgive us for our lack of technical expertise.”
Fernando Wong, the cameraman on the movie, quotes the famous Chinese writer Lu Xun, “The saving of the mindset comes before the saving of the nation”.
He explains: “To save Macau, the first thing is to change people’s mindsets. As you may notice, the pace of the movie is slow and without any close-up shots or medium-shots. They move slowly like poison and represent the slow death.
“Macau people live their lives comfortably, too comfortably to make any changes, even though they know they are being poisoned, they will not take action to find a cure. This movie is just new medicine to cure the people, not bodily but mentally.”
“We want people to refresh their minds and start to think differently, staying with the theme ‘Feel with your heart, embark on a new start,” adds Jan Cheong, who acts in the movie. “We believe this movie is our way to change Macau”.
Gavin Ao agrees: “The movie appeals to our generation. It can be kept forever. People may have different feelings every time they watch it”.
Banning Cantonese
Ao explains that his inspiration for creating this dark film came from the protests in Guanzhou in 2010, which aimed at protecting the Cantonese language after the government proposed that only Mandrain could be broadcast on the major television channels.
Ao was shocked and began to contemplate the future of Macau, a Cantonese-speaking region, under the control of the Chinese government. He criticises people’s careless attitudes.
“It seems people do not care about problems until they are backed into a corner. When we wrote the script, we tried to choose what we thought were the most urgent topics to talk about. If we do not deal with them now, what we have predicted could happen in the future.”
When the team started to brainstorm, a lot of topics came up which they wanted to discuss in the film. Some senior colleagues gave them advice, which helped them to concentrate on issues that most suited their film.
“At first, we wanted to shoot a little story about people in Macau, but we were encouraged to be more creative, and we changed and wrote something about the future, and what it might be like,” the script writer recalls.
Pollution, population, subsidies, language, traffic, bureaucracy, and silence, are all discussed in the film. Perry Fok concludes, “We believe these problems are the greatest ones.”
The eviction of hawkers in the Red Market (To Fa Gong incident) in September last year also inspired the team.
“People did protest to fight against the developer for their rights. They also set up a Facebook page to ask for ‘likes’. But they did not succeed”, Fok recalls.
A controversial scene in the movie depicts a begger killed by inspectors due to her refusal to speak in Mandarin. A crowd of onlookers stands by, and only one young girl challenges the main character of the movie to question the status quo, symbolising a sense of conscience throughout the film.
“She serves as a symbol of the minority who begin to question the silence of others” Fok explains.
By the time the films ends, Macau has become an area plagued by an infectious disease. The protagonist becomes infected, but rather than stay in the concentration camp and die alone, he chooses to sacrifice himself by taking off his mask alongside a ‘time capsule’.
“The time capsule holds some secret documents, symbolising the art, humanity and love, which in our opinion only existed before 1999,” explains Fok.
The movie project is a traditional part of the course for third-year Journalism students at the Univeristy of Macau.
“Over the years, almost all works related to news, but as this was the final year the project would be held at the old campus [before moving to Hengqin Island], we want to go futher, with a different idea,” notes Jan Cheong.
The 50-minute film, was produced within two months and without any budget. It was presented at three screenings in mid April at the University of Macau auditorium, all to full houses. Some audience members even had to sit on the stairs due to a lack of seats.
The production team have received good feedback on the movie, despite its raw narration skills and techniques.
“Critiques are far more important than praise,” Fok says, “as they suggest valuable ways we can improve. The most important thing is to provide a channel to discuss the ideas talked about in the film with the audiences.”
And the group are not limiting themselves to university audiences. On the contrary, they continue to actively promote their movie.
“Not in a commercial sense,” says Fok. “We do not charge for tickets, we just want to share our opinions with more people.“
“Macau people are passive, so we have to be more active to provoke debate,” concludes Gavin Ao.