When on the train from Sintra to Lisbon, clinical laboratory scientist Dr José Carlos Pereira bumped into an old colleague who told him she’d moved with her husband to Macau. Their conversation piqued his interest. Would he like to go to Macau she asked. “Yes!” “Well, send me your CV”. That was back in mid-1994 when at the time there were only two pathologists in our public hospital Conde de Sao Januario.
Excited and full of anticipation, José confesses that he was underwhelmed when he first arrived.
“Macau’s weather in September can be very cloudy and I’m used to the sunshine and cobalt blue skies of Portugal. Everywhere was grey, the water was brown, and the caged balconies … it was a culture shock. I knew no one; my friend who’d initially invited me over was traveling, so for the first 15 days I found it lonely.”
Gradually José began meeting friends of friends from back home and people he’d meet at musical evenings and art exhibitions. He would join them for dinner afterwards and soon became part of a good social group and started planning early on to join others on his first Asian adventure out of Macau – to Burma!
For his first four weeks in Macau, José stayed in the Beverly Hotel, which is just a 15-minute walk to the hospital so he could be on call for any emergencies. Eventually he was convinced by a landscape architect friend to move to up-and-coming Taipa where he secured an apartment in Hoi Yi Fa Yuen.
“At the time it had wonderful sea views of the outer harbour, the cityscape, the night time neon lights of the Macau skyline.”
And then, to the side, Nova City began emerging.
After two years, José returned to Portugal where he stayed for the next six years, working in Faro, Caldas da Rainha and Lisbon.
Then in 2002 he was invited again to help cover staff shortages in the laboratories of Sao Januario and he found himself on his way back to Macau; a year at most he was told, during which time he could also explore a little bit more of Asia. So he packed up and headed back.
“I arrived on the 3 January 2003”.
Thus began José’s next Macau chapter. Like many from overseas who come to Macau for work, this short-term mission turned into two years – and eventually into a series of “20 one-year contracts!” he laughs.
Both sets of Jose’s grandparents moved from Portugal to Angola, Africa in the early 1900’s “looking for a better life in the Colonies.” His father was born and raised in Africa where he became an industrial designer for the CFB railway company and met his mother who was an accountant. They went on to have José and his younger siblings all born in Lobito, Angola.
Tragedy struck in 1971 when at 11 years old, José’s father died. For his mother, personally, emotionally and financially it was a very traumatic situation for the young widow, with three sons and a fourth on the way, and with no immediate family support system nearby. As the 1975 civil war in the area caused further hardship, she moved to the capital, Luanda, and spent 15 more years working to continue earning money to support the family and to see José through his university medical studies where he specialized in clinical pathology. The family eventually settled back in Portugal, in the charming resort town of Sintra.
From a young age José had collected stamps and coins; as a boy visiting his grandparents he recalls discovering some coins in an old sewing machine drawer – some 60 to 80 years old by then, some from the late monarchy and from the first Republic of Portugal, others from the Belgian Congo coming from his grandfather’s job as he had traveled the train line through all Angola to the Belgium Congo borders. They inspired José’s imagination of stories from magical far-flung places.
Now based in Asia his interest in collecting began in earnest. Days off were spent rummaging through the little dusty ‘hole in the wall’ shops of old Macau and Hong Kong, hunting down treasures.
“I’ve always been a collector at heart – when I travel, I like going to the markets. In the beginning I started with little knowledge and I didn’t have any particular objective for collecting, I would just buy what I liked or what grabbed my attention.”
One day, some 13 or 14 years ago, José was strolling around the narrow lanes of old Macau with a German friend who could speak Cantonese. He spotted a porcelain duck – chipped and with legs broken and glued back on, but with a seal on its underneath. The seller wanted MOP1,000 and José’s friend thought he was mad to even consider buying such a chipped, cracked piece. He left the duck, but over the next three or four years he’d often pass the shop and look in to see it still sitting on the top shelf gathering dust.
“As time passed the duck remained on my mind. I pursued my interest in antiques and occasionally would buy a book or two from the Museum gift shop each time I visited an exhibition at the Cultural Centre. Browsing one day, I turned the page and there was my duck, exactly, and described as a Ming incense burner. I rushed over to buy the duck but the shop owner wasn’t selling – others had been asking about it too.”
It took José another two years to convince the owner to sell – and in the end he bought it for MOP2,000! The duck became his mascot and marked the start of a more systematic and knowledgeable approach to collecting and to negotiating. He started studying, reading up voraciously on Chinese history, ceramics, symbolism, styles – “it’s all related to art, religion and culture, all linked with history” – and making conscious purchases to add to his collection.
As his knowledge increased and his tastes refined, José started visiting the antique shops that line the streets by the Ruins of St. Paul’s and the whole Chinese bazaar, learning and buying from the antique dealers, several of whom have become close friends over the years.
“They helped educate my eyes”, he explains, “it was an epiphany, something new started in my life, a real passion and appreciation for the beauties of Asian art.”
“My collecting now is driven by intuition – a combination of educated eyes, experience, knowledge, and luck! I’ve reached the level where I can follow my intuition. The reality, genuineness, and honesty is in the piece. Quality has a voice and doesn’t cheat you. I’ve learned how to separate the wheat from the chaff.”
While José’s primary focus is on Chinese ceramics, terracotta, porcelain, stoneware – “all arts of fire” – he also owns a fine collection of classical Chinese paintings, rugs from China, Khotan from Xinjiang, northwest China and Ningxia, northcentral China, Tibet, Beijing and central Asia, as well as Southeast Asian textiles and carvings, many from Ubud, Bali.
“I’m not very knowledgeable about Indonesian crafts; when I’m on my travels I buy what I like, what I can afford, and what I can carry! The furniture that I’ve bought, the various Chinese cabinets for example, were due to circumstances and opportunity; I happened to be somewhere, I liked what I saw so I bought them. Lately I’ve been buying jade accessories and amulets from several periods of Chinese history.”
“It’s all very much related to the people I meet. I don’t buy from auctions – it’s too sterile for me, sitting at my desk, pouring over my computer.”
José enjoys the social interaction with dealers, yet he buys alone, savoring the buzz and excitement of unearthing treasures.
“I won’t have people tagging along with me. A tiger hunts alone!” he laughs.
“I look for the unique, things with bizarre singularity,” he says, holding up a large decorative jade chop. “And for the Chinese, items tend not to be simply decorative but have more of a metaphysical, mystical or mythical element – made to help the dead in their afterlife or as auspicious gifts, for example.”
“Over the years I’ve self-educated through catalogues, blogs, books, exhibitions and through friends like Mae Ho whose shop is near St. Antonio’s church. Through my friendship with her I’ve learned so much, especially about pieces from the Classic era of China. I’ve learned about the famous kilns around different parts of China, about the different materials used by the craftsmen. The chemistry and physics of how ceramics ingredients are mixed and fired and their final reactions are familiar to me due to my line of work,” he explains.
Does he keep an inventory?
“Yes, and this is divided into months and years. I’ve never counted my pieces but certainly I’m now into the thousands. Much of my collection is now in Portugal; I’ve made several shipments back to Portugal over the years.”
And what about sharing his collection with others? Should some of the pieces perhaps be in a museum to be enjoyed by many? A while ago José bought a shop in Sintra originally for his younger brother to have an office there, but as that didn’t happen he now plans to use it to display some of his treasures and to set up a club of friends and other like-minded people interested in Asian arts and antiques to gather over coffee or drinks and to share in his wonderful finds.
“An atmosphere much like Macau Soul here in Macau – relaxed, friendly”, he smiles.
