About us
No1lovesu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Portugal established a trading post in Macau in 1557 which grew and flourished to become a hub of international trade in East Asia. The Portuguese who settled there developed their own unique culture, calling themselves Macaense (in English Macanese). They survived many crises, including an invasion by the Dutch and extreme hardship during World War II. In time, Macau’s economy declined when it was overtaken in trade by nearby Hong Kong with its magnificent harbour. After World War II most Macanese dispersed to seek better opportunities elsewhere – in America, Canada, Brazil, Australia and Portugal. Their culture that evolved over four centuries is in danger of obliteration.
This website was created for the descendants of the Portuguese who had lived in Macau, in the hope that they might be stimulated to learn more about the history and culture of their forebears, to preserve some vestige of their heritage.
Recipes
Bulletin of Lusitano Club Hong Kong
Cooking is central to the culture of every ethnic group. Macau’s cuisine was enriched by the tastes, ingredients and influences of the many countries where Portuguese travelers and traders had settlements, spanning half the globe from South America to Japan. We find hot chillies from Brazil, curries from India, coconut, strong shrimp flavours from Malaysia, the wide variety of dishes from China and, from Mediterranean nations, bacalhau (salted cod), olive oil and bay leaves.
The traffic has been not been just one-way: the famous Chinese tahn taht (egg custard tartlets), available today in all Chinatowns, is derived from the Portuguese pasteis de nata and there is evidence that the Japanese tempura originated from the food eaten by Portuguese missionaries during Lenten fasts. The Macanese miço cristam, a paste made from soy beans, appears similar to the Japanese miso.
UNESCO has recognised Macanese cuisine as the world’s first “fusion food”, and in 2017 nominated Macau as a Creative City of Gastronomy.
Culture
Hong Kong Baptist University Library
Genealogy
The family trees of 60,000 Macanese and their spouses has been compiled and loaded to the Macanese Families website. It indices of surnames, given names and nicknames, and charts of some chosen ancestors. If you had a Portuguese ancestor born in Macau, there is a good chance that your family tree is also on that website. Access to it may be given to descendants of Macanese and their spouses. To register for that website, click HERE.
Here we present Macanese family trees: data on 64,000 people, with indices of surnames, given names and nicknames and charts of descendants of some chosen ancestors.
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History
William Heine, 1854, Hong Kong Museum of Art
The Portuguese explorer Jorge Alvares arrived in Macau, a small village on the mouth of the Pearl River in southern China around 1513, opening up maritime trade routes between Europe and Asia. In 1557, local Chinese authorities gave official Chinese approval for a trading post there, the first European settlement in East Asia. It grew and flourished and for a time Macau had a virtual monopoly on trade with China and became fabulously rich. Known as the “Pearl of the Orient” it was an attractive European haven in the Far East, a vital hub for international trade between China, Japan, India, and Europe. It was also an important Catholic missionary centre. However, by the 19th Century its economy declined when it was outmatched in trade by nearby Hong Kong with its magnificent harbour.
Biographies Books Honours Religion Patuá Cooking
Articles
Macau about 1640, a reconstruction by Vicente Pacia. J.M. Braga Pictures Collection, National Library of Australia. via Stuart Braga
Here we present articles on Macanese history and culture — some serious works, some humorous traditional anecdotes.
Anecdotes Culture History Religion Patuá