the-color-of-happiness

What colour is happiness?

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The desire had already been expressed, but it was only recently confirmed: the doors and windows of Rua da Felicidade or Happiness Street, one of the most popular streets in Macau, will be painted green. According to the Cultural Institute, this was the street’s colour before 1996, the year it was painted red, by the Portuguese administration. But is this a return to the original look of Rua da Felicidade?
 
“Different periods had different colours”, explains Francis Chan, president of the Institute for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Relics. At first the buildings were actually brick colour, a bluish grey. However, with the arrival of the plague in China in the 19th century, the Macau government ordered that all houses be painted white, for hygiene reasons. That is how the street was kept until the early 20th century, when blue became predominant, thanks to the influence of the Kuomintang. This “political influence” lasted until the 1950s. 
 
With the birth of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the chromatic trend in the country changed, with some impact in Macau too, Chan explains. That would have been when Rua da Felicidade turned green in the mid-1950s. 
 
“Since 1950, Macau has been affected by the impact of the new China. Green is often used by people in China, and it arrived in Macau”, the expert furthers. 
All these changes would have affected the image of Rua da Felicidade.
 
Officially, the colour red was assigned to the street as part of a project to restore the facades, commissioned by the Portuguese administration in 1996. 
Francis Chan explains that, “according to locals and historians”, red was chosen due to the activities that took place there: “They thought it represented sex, gambling and the opium industry”.
 
“A row of similar little houses made of black brick”
 
 
Despite not knowing the real intention behind the Portuguese administration’s changing of the street colour “when there was already evidence of the colour having been used hitherto in the frames of doors and windows” (some are still there today, as is the case of San Va guest house), journalist and author of the blog Macau Antigo (macauantigo.blogspot.com), João Botas, admits that there was a desire to establish a connection with the “colour of sin”. ‘Fok-Long San-Kai’, something like ‘street of abundant happiness’, “was for decades the symbol of fun and pleasure”. 
 
“For there, opium smoking dens abounded, the pei-pei-chais (musicians), the masseuses, the brothels, and prostitutes (Kei Noi)”, recounts Botas, remembering that in the 1940s the street even had cobblestones. 
 
Already in 1890 Wenceslau de Moraes was intrigued by the experiences on the street of happiness, dedicating part of his ‘Traços do Extremo Oriente’ (‘Traces of the Far East’) to it: 
 
“Long, tolerably narrow, somewhat tired of the sun. A row of small similar houses, alike on either side, low, of poor appearance, made of black brick. Here, there, some Chinese shops, with colao specialties, which are the restaurants of these people. Unknown delicacies steaming in pots, which the cooks, sordid and almost naked, cultivate with seasoning. Some chop vegetables, others pluck birds, others knead cakes; and in the broad they expose themselves, a prodigious promiscuity, roasted and stitched ducks, dried ducks, pigs, fish, legumes, vegetables, shellfish, frogs, sometimes rats, stinking up everything.
 
(…) But it is the female population, far more than the guys, than the blind, than the flower sellers, that make Rua da Felicidade move. (…) They wear gaudy cheongsams, bracelets and rings, silver shackles on their ankles, like the slaves do. Some wander hand in hand, laughing and chatting, loudly dragging their thick sandals, hanging from their bare feet. Others do their hair, paint their faces, checking their reflections in cheap mirrors. They smoke from pewter pipes. They drink tea. Squatting, they play cards.”
 
Which green?
 
 
The architectural alterations that the city has undergone over the years have led Francis Chan to express uncertainty in relation to what the “original colour” of Rua da Felicidade was after all. Not opposed to green, the president of the Institute for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Relics stresses the importance of conducting an in-depth investigation, referencing historical documents. 
 
“The motives behind the colour green need to be explained. There is no certainty that the original colour was green, it needs to be proved it to the public”, he notes.
 
Moreover, the correct hue needs to be recreated: “Which green? There are many. Some are darker, some brighter, cooler or warmer. Which one will they choose? It can’t be random”.
 
Above all, Chan argues that the restoration work on the street should not stop at the facades, but also ensure the longevity of the structures. “What is important is the security of the houses”, he points out.
 
João Botas also calls for an integrated plan for the area. Recalling that, according to the first colour photographs, the hue was “not a bright green”, the journalist hopes the government can keep the street as “a picture postcard of the territory, worthy of being replicated in other areas”.
 
For the architect Francisco Vizeu Pinheiro, the Cultural Institute is wrong to try to find a uniform solution. 
 
“I think every owner should choose his or her own colour”, he says. 
 
Removing the red that for nearly two decades has coloured the street, will generate “a certain degree of shock”, but it’s not an option to be rejected. 
 
“Undoubtedly [the street] will lose character, but changing the colour is part of the tradition. Accidental alteration is part of Macau’s tradition”, argues the architect, noting that the Portuguese authorities “painted one or two temples the wrong colour”, on occasion, which then later required repainting.
 
For restorer Cristina Mio, the choice is simple: green should come back. 
 
“I prefer red because it seems very appropriate to the area. But from the point of view of restoration, it is necessary to keep the original colour”, she argues. 
Yet the artist responsible for the restoration of the Guia Chapel highlights the importance of conducting thorough research before proceeding with any changes. 
 
“The story must be known, through photos, files, and talking to people”, she advises.
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