Who are the Macanese?

• Mostly Eurasians, they can usually trace their background to at least one Portuguese ancestor. Many have been educated in Europe, retain a close affinity to Portuguese culture and practice the Roman Catholic religion.

• A mixture of Portuguese and Chinese ethnicity tends to dominate within the community, although the Macanese also include descendants of people from the former Portuguese settlements of Goa (India) and Malacca (Malaysia), as well as from other areas of Asia where Portugal had an influence, especially Japan and the Philippines. Often a Macanese person is a mixture of several ethnic backgrounds. Attitudinally, however, they tend to retain an affinity with the Portuguese.

• Some are the result of intermarriages with Portuguese army officers who were stationed in Macau before the 1970s. Many are the offspring of people who were attracted to Macau because of the territory's environment of cultural and religious tolerance, and Portugal's neutrality during the Second World War, making it a safe haven for refugees.

• Some long-term residents of Macau who are 100 percent ethnically Portuguese and some who are 100 percent Chinese also consider themselves to be Macanese. They contend that to be Macanese is a matter of attitude and cultural identity. Macau is their home and they have assimilated the territory's unique cultural and attitudinal blend of East and West.

Unique Culture - Patois and Cuisine

• Over generations the Macanese developed a unique culture. One of its characteristics was the Macanese' "secret dialect", the patois.

• Macanese patois, unfortunately, is rarely heard today, although efforts have been made in Macau to revive it through theatre. It originated as a sort of pidgin Portuguese and grew in Portuguese outposts and settlements as Portuguese seamen and traders moved down the West African coast, across the Indian Ocean to India, and what was then Ceylon and Malacca, and beyond to Macau. The language traveled and developed and was enriched along the way. It found its richest home in Macau. Words like "sampan", "typhoon", "bamboo", "catty", "amah", "coolie" and "garoupa" are among many that came from patois. An indigenous music, theater, and literature grew out of patois.

• Another distinguishing feature of the culture is Macanese cuisine, which is still very much alive in restaurants in Macau and among the homes of Macanese at home and abroad.

• There is an aspect in the food that shows the blending of both Portuguese and Chinese cultures, so that rice might be fried with olive oil and contain olives and Portuguese sausage within it.

• Some of the traditional dishes include minchee, the staple, pan-fried mince meat with potato; diabo, 'the stew' made from meats and spices, and Catholic Christmas confectionary such as cuscaao, which represents the coverlet over the infant Christ; farte, which represents the tiny pillow; and aluar, representing the Christ child's mattress.

• Traditionally, the Macanese have been middle men between the Portuguese and Chinese communities. Generally literate in Portuguese and able to communicate verbally in Cantonese, many Macanese have held jobs as lawyers and, very often, civil servants. The Macanese have been able to translate Portuguese legal and administrative rules and regulations to the larger Chinese community, therefore playing a crucial role in the fabric of Macau's society.

The Diaspora

• While Macau is the home of the Macanese, there are undoubtedly more Macanese living outside Macau today than are resident in the tiny territory. Numbers at home and abroad are unclear, though it is known that there are today less than 20,000 Macanese now left in Macau (among a total population in the territory of around 450,000).

• Many Macanese emigrated after the Second World War and another large wave left during the Cultural Revolution across the border. Most have settled in Portugal, Brazil, the United States of America, Canada and Australia. Each of these countries have large Macanese communities supported by associations or "Casas de Macau".

• In an effort to keep alive the unique Macanese culture and to assert Macau's unique identity, the Macau government has to date supported three large international reunions of the Macanese diaspora. The most recent, held in Macau in April 1999, attracted about 1,400 members of the community from around the world. A fourth reunion is scheduled for 2002.