TEXT BY ANDRE VINAGRE / TRANSLATION DAISY WONG
Jason Wordie is a journalist, historian and writer based in Hong Kong. With a degree in History from the University of Hong Kong, he has focused his work on the neighbouring region of Guangzhou and also on Macau. Eleven years ago, he published Macao, People and Places, Past and Present, a guide to the territory focused on its history. In December last year, Wordie was at the Portuguese Bookshop to present the second edition of the book, recalling his first visits to Macau at the end of the 1980s, discussing what he finds so special about the city and why he keeps coming back.
You first visited Macau in 1988 and have been back many times since. What is it about Macau that fascinates you so much?
What I’ve always found fascinating about Macau from the beginning was the richness, depth, breadth and extent of so many strands of history that can be found in such a very small place. Within just a few metres, you can find links to 16th century Japan, 17th century Goa and Malacca, various strands of China, from the Ming era to the Republican era and onwards. There’s so much and it’s so multi-layered. It can be built heritage, the people, the food, all sorts of things. So I’ve never stopped being interested and intrigued. And certainly when I first started visiting Macau, the general impression that people in Hong Kong had of Macau was that there was only gambling and associated things. So people found it impossible to believe that I could be going to Macau and not hanging out at casinos,
because that’s what everyone did. And when I talked about churches, forts and temples, people would look at me as if I was a bit mad and was talking about a different place. So I kept it to myself for a long time. And that was good because it meant it was a private pleasure. I’d go to Macau on my
own and read what I wanted, roam around and spend a night or two or, depending on availability, maybe longer. And I’d always go back to Hong Kong with something different.
Going back to 1988, what were your first impressions of Macau?
I was immediately entranced by it and I straight away recognised that there was much more to explore there and that it wasn’t like many people said in Hong Kong, that you could see everything in a day and didn’t need to come back again. I realised that this was completely false. So my first impression was that there was something much more to uncover. Like any worthwhile relationship, it took time to nuture, develop, explore and find your way around. The first night I ever stayed over in Macau was at the old Bela Vista Hotel. That always stuck in my mind as a magical experience, because the waterfront below hadn’t been reclaimed yet. There hadn’t even been talk of that project. It was still dark looking out and there were still fish splashing in the distance. The hotel itself was charmingly run down. It wasn’t anything special, but it was special because it just had a beguiling atmosphere, like so much of the rest of the city. It just spoke to me and it’s always spoken to me and it continues to do so.
Compared to Macau today, what are the main differences in the
city that you notice?
During the pandemic, I couldn’t come to Macau. Macau was effectively closed to me for three and a half years. When I came back, what I was struck by was that many of the changes were actually positive improvements. Some of the old buildings that had been getting decayed had been given a new lease of life. Hotel Central is one example. So there were positive improvements, and also many of the things I’ve always loved, like the quiet corners around the forts or the Old Protestant cemetery, were exactly the same. Nothing had changed. Three and a half years later there were the same colours, the same trees, everything the same. So I was really delighted by that continuity. Of
course in other areas there was all the burgeoning casino developments and other related things, but I ignore that. It’s a conscious choice because it doesn’t interest me. It’s never interested me.
Have you noticed any changes, socially, architecturally or in terms of the cultural heritage, for example?
There’s obviously a lot more awareness of heritage conservation now, and there’s also a lot more money to spend because awareness and resources are closely interlinked. It’s all very well that people are interested, but if there hasn’t been research and publications and improvements to buildings and the general accessibility of knowledge, then you can’t really find out more. So, in tandem with the increase in government revenue and general prosperity, there’s been more money
to spend on conservation and publications and all those sorts of things. So that’s been enhanced. And that, in turn, has led to a broader and deeper public awareness of the fact that there is something special about Macau. Because when I started coming to Macau, it did seem like
an awful lot of people here either didn’t know or didn’t care. And I think many didn’t care because they didn’t know. But now that they do know, they care.
In your book, Macau: People and Places, Past and Present, you focus on the city’s history and cultural heritage…
I focused on all those things. I bring in history, buildings, people, as the title of the book suggests, it’s people and places, past and present- the food, the cultural heritage, the buildings, the origins; its Macau as an international place, long before international places were called those things. Also the links to China, what China looked like then. It’s a multilayered social, cultural and, in some cases, political history. I go into economic history too. I don’t shy away from the fact for most of Macau’s
history, it’s done the jobs and businesses that other places didn’t want. There was drug trading, prostitution, human trafficking, child labour and all those other things. I don’t ignore that. I think it’s all too easy to look at these lovely old buildings and say: ‘Oh, how wonderful the past must have
been’. Well not really and not for a lot of people.
When it comes to cultural heritage, do you think this aspect has been well protected by the local authorities in recent years?
Absolutely. Clearly money has been spent and more money is being spent. And it’s clear that these are driven by other initiatives coming from outside Macau. When the Central Government mentioned that there needs to be diversification away from simply relying on the gambling industry, that’s taken seriously. There are some elements of lip service, but equally, it seems to me as an outsider, there’s an honest attempt to think: ‘Okay, what does this mean and how can this be implemented? And how can this be used for the general benefit and betterment of the place?’. So yes, the city seems to be heading in the right direction.
What do you think is the most important thing to preserve in Macau?
The most important thing to try to preserve, and this seems to be gaining traction, is a sense of distinctiveness, that Macau is different and that difference is its strength and its value, both for itself as a place and for the country of which it is a part. So its importance lies in that difference. And recognising that difference is a good thing and can be and should be a strength. That seems to be the main issue that is gaining attention and that’s very positive.
And how do you see the integration of Macau into projects like the Greater Bay Area and Hengqin, for example? Could this possibly cause the city to lose the essence of its character?
No. Absolutely not. As long as Macau can maintain its distinctiveness and at the same time be more integrated. What’s happening with Hengqin is that it actually makes Macau a bigger place. It increases Macau’s size. And likewise Macau’s position in the Portuguese-speaking world is considered very important by the mainland. Macau as a bridging point to Angola, Mozambique and Brazil. That’s a distinctiveness. So no, I don’t see it as a question of ‘we win and you lose’. Quite the contrary.
This past year marked the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the MSAR. How do you see the territory’s evolution over this time, in general?
Twenty-five years is not a short time and within that timeframe, there have been challenges and steps forward and steps backward. It seems to be a process of finding your way, because with a special administrative region – and it’s the same in Hong Kong – these are new experiments. So
of course, in any new experiments, some things work, others don’t. It’s like trying a recipe for the first time. Some things will taste good. Others will end up in the bin. It’s a process of trial and error and a steady process forward.
How do you envision Macau in 2049?
I can’t hardly begin to imagine what it might be like. Except that one could confidently predict that certain things that haven’t changed in the last 25 years, such as some of the historic sites and their conservation, those things won’t change significantly. In terms of the economy and the physical shape, I couldn’t even begin to guess, because it’s so different from what it was 25 years ago. For me, the idea of getting on a bus in the New Territories in Hong Kong and going to an artificial island and then getting on a bridge and crossing to the other side to go to Macau, would have been crazy 25 years ago, because Macau was a place that you went to by boat. And now I haven’t taken a ferry in a long time. It’s very hard to predict that kind of change.
