Macau Monuments in Literature and Art

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DOI: 10.1177/1206331210392685

2011 14: 140 originally published online 7 January 2011Space and CultureCarol Archer and Christopher Kelen

Macao Monuments: In Art, in Poetry, and in Your Face

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Macao Monuments:In Art, in Poetry, and inYour Face

Carol Archer1 and Christopher Kelen2

Abstract

How are city and culturethe space of the city and the mind space of the cultural artifact

connected or disconnected? Contemporary Macao poetry and installation art demonstrate that

not only has local culture continued to thrive despite outside pressures on the citys regionalposition (a part of one China with a localized function) but that the need to produce a

critique of these pressures has itself been productive of a politically interested (and interesting)literary and visual culturea creative culture that demonstrates an opportunistic ambivalencetoward identity options. Macao (a city in southern China and, until 1999, sleepy Portuguese

possession) is today undergoing unprecedented development. Since the 2002 liberalization ofcasino licensing, the cityscape has taken a monumental turn, with the addition of a number ofremarkable landmarks. Today, Macao is promoted as a tourist destination that offers ultramodern

casinos and luxurious hotels as well as World Heritagelisted architecture. In recent years,the people of Macao have sometimes felt themselves the victims of contradictory forms ofrecolonizationby Beijing on one hand and by Vegas-style casino capitalism on the other.

Between these gigantic pincers, what chances of survival have local culture and custom had?This article takes a close look at some contemporary Macao poetry and installation art, dealingwith themes of monumentality and their meaning for the new Macao.

Keywords

monuments, space, Macao, poetry, visual art

How are city and culturethe space of the city and the mind space of the cultural artifact

connected or disconnected? Contemporary Macao poetry and visual art demonstrate that not

only has local culture continued to thrive despite outside pressures on the citys regional position(a part of one China with a localized function) but that the need to produce a critique of these

pressures has itself been productive of a politically interested (and interesting) literary and visual

culturea creative culture that demonstrates an opportunistic ambivalence toward identity

options.

Macao (also known as Macau, a city in southern China and, until 1999, sleepy Portuguese

possession) is today undergoing unprecedented development. Today, Macao is promoted as a

1 Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR2 University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, Peoples Republic of China

Corresponding Author:

Christopher Kelen, English Department, University of Macau, Taipa, Macau, Peoples Republic of China

Email: [email protected]

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Archer and Kelen 141

tourist destination that offers ultramodern casinos and luxurious hotels as well as World

Heritagelisted architecture. In recent years, the people of Macao have sometimes felt them-

selves the victims of contradictory forms of recolonizationby Beijing on one hand and by

Vegas-style casino capitalism on the other. Between these gigantic pincers, what chance of sur-

vival has local culture had?This article takes a close look at some contemporary Macao poetry and installation art that

deals with themes of monumentality and their meaning for the new Macao.

A Brief Note on the Method

Before proceeding further, it will be well to justify both the interdisciplinary cultural studies

approach adopted in this article and the fact that the material we deal with may be regarded as

high culture processes and artifacts. We shall deal with the latter fact first. Our decision to

focus on installation art and poetry does not rest on an assumption that these forms automatically

deserve the privileged attention of scholars. There are, however, good reasons why the kinds of

works considered will be relevant to an understanding of city and culture in the case of Macao.It is significant that the works considered in this article have no commercial motivation.

Along with cultural productions such as the annual Macao Music Festival and Cantonese opera,

Macao poetry and installation art participate in a public sector arts economy, which is operation-

ally independent of (while heavily subsidized by) Macaos casino-dominated economy and tax

base. In an economy now so dependent on gambling revenue, it is noteworthy that the cultural

artifacts dealt with here have not been influenced by the need to make money for anyone. Accord-

ing to Pierre Bourdieu (1993), such distance from economic considerations enhances the avant-

garde status of works of art. Bourdieus claim is that the art world resembles an inversion of the

ordinary economic worldit is a game of loser wins in which the accumulation of profits, the

achievement of honors, and the approval of cultural institutions are not necessarily consideredvirtues (p. 39). While poetry is for Bourdieu the disinterested activitypar excellence (p. 51), a

similar claim may be made for installation art. Both forms of art command relatively small audi-

ences, consisting largely of poets, artists, and intellectuals, and this is especially the case in tiny

Macao. In addition, there is little political interference in the arts in Macao. Poetry and (noncom-

mercial) installation art are, thus, relatively free to engage with issues of aesthetic, social, and

cultural importance, and to offer an unfettered critique of Macao society.

Because contemporary Macao poetry and installation art engage such a wide range of issues,

an interdisciplinary approach to their examination is warranted. A longer study would encom-

pass a comprehensive sociological and anthropological analysis of social change as witnessed

by cultural production in Macao.1

The more general cultural studies approaches to Macaospace and culture that are now also beginning to emerge are particularly useful as a backdrop to

the cultural practices described in this article. For instance, Tim Simpson (2008a) has written

about the pace of change in relation to Macao space:

The spaces of the city have been endlessly reclaimed, reproduced, engineered, and com-

modified. For example, the same year that the labyrinthine city centre of Macao composed

of old Portuguese government buildings, piazzas, and Catholic churches was declared a

UNESCO World Heritage site, investors broke ground nearby on a huge $154 million

Fishermans Wharf featuring themed reproductions of a Roman Coliseum, Tang Dynasty

Chinese architecture, buildings from Amsterdam, Lisbon, Cape Town, and Miami, and an

exploding volcano (pp. 1055-1056).

In The Commercialization of Macaus Cafes, Simpson (2008b) explores the pressures ofsuch changes on everyday life and employment:



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142 Space and Culture 14(2)

Everyday life in Macau increasingly centers around performance of lifestyle. The constel-lation of mobility, individuality, performance, visuality, and aesthetic reflexivity described

here helps capture the role of lifestyle in contemporary Macau and other similar urban

spaces. (p. 229)

In some of Macaus cafs one may witness not only the rationalization and standardization

of a business model and service routine, but also observe the complete transformation of

service work into performative emotional labor. (p. 221)

Suggested here is the possibility that rapid social change may engender alterations in daily life,

which, though massive, may well go unremarked. Scholars and artists share duties of witness insuch circumstances.

Poetry in Casino Age Macao

One may say that Macao, until the dawn of the new casino age,2 was a city that conspicuously

lacked monumental architecture of the kind that other Chinese cities have, in recent decades,

employed to build themselves a kind of branding for modernity. Hong Kongs and Shanghais

skylines would be familiar examples. Macaos landmarks, in contrast, were until the 1999 Han-

dover mainly of an historical naturethe Ruins of St. Pauls church and A-Ma Temple probably

being the best known. These, along with old forts and sundry other notable churches and temples,

could hardly be considered spectacular in the postmodern sense.

Post Vegasization, Macaos landscape is dominated by (one might say littered with) attempts

at monumentality. Notable among these, on peninsula Macao are the Sands, the Wynn, Galaxy,

and MGM (all casinos, all names familiar from Las Vegas; Figures 1 and 2). On the Cotai Strip 3

Figure 1. MGM CasinoNote: Hilda Tam Hio Man (2009)MGM Casino. Digital photograph. Image courtesy of Hilda Tam Hio Man.



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is the Venetian and now, just opened at the time of writing, the City of Dreams. Since 2001,4

Macao has also boasted a 338-meter towera waterfront folly known to some cynical locals as

Stanley Hos erection. And since 2004, there has been a third picturesque bridge linking pen-

insula Macao with the island of Taipa.

In 2010, despite the global recession and its bubble bursting effects, more monuments are

expected daily. These imposing structures have, unsurprisingly, become a subject for local art-

ists and writers. In Athena Kongs poem,Armageddon in Cotai, we get a hint of the apocalyptic

pretensions of the temple to Mammon built on an unprecedented scale:

night, starless

sky, inky

against the dark curtain

the winged lion landed on the arch

under his feet

lies the Rome built in days

at the moons eclipse

the lion bowed to the audience

opening his eyes to his enemy

across the bitumen river

Figure 2.WynnNote: Kenry Lee (2007) Wynn. Digital photograph. Image courtesy of Kenry Lee.



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dust, sand

twelve beasts stand on the planted forest

dividing the battlefields

the wordless lion stands confident

guarding his palace in wildernesshis prosperity in the desert

(Kelen & Vong, 2008, p. 257)

The monument in question here is the Venetian (opened 2007; see Figure 3). And inside the

worlds second largest building, Lili Hans poem Gondola, an adult voice interpolates the childs

view of something new and strangely alien:

like the crowd beside the water

a child looks at the gondola

through the iron fence

it is the first timeto see boating indoors

gondola comes from a water city

used to toy with flowers and grass

singing everywhere

now it learns to be a fish

in this clear pool of two hundred meters

after all, people wait in line

for its voicesmany even throw amorous glances

from above

but why is there no fish in the water?

the child walks away

Liar! Liar!

the child thinks

but doesnt hear

the voice hoarsein the air-conditioned hall

doesnt see

the gondola

failing to be a fish

so uttering no bubbles

(Kelen and Vong, 254)

What is a gondola doing in Macao? It is a prop, of course, for the Venetian Hotel/Casino

complex, the second largest building in the world and an imitation of an American (Las Vegas)

imitation of various architectural features of the Italian city of Venice (Figure 4). The chain of

borrowings will of course be opaque to the child, whose sense of what belongs or does not

belong in a place is based on limited experience. What is alien to the adult is not necessarily

alien to the child, but we are reminded through this train of thought that there are bizarre things

going unnoticed in Macao.



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Macao is perhaps the worlds largest open-air museum of kitsch, a phenomenon for which the

casinos are largely responsible. Bizarre Vegas-style grandiosity is frequently combined with

tacky pseudo-Chinese add-on elements: The Emperor, The Pharaohs Palace, the Greek Mythol-

ogy Casino. There is no shortage of orientalizing (and self-orientalizing) in the concoctions

arrived at. Perhaps the most serviceable (and durable) example is in the bird cage of the old

Lisboa Hotel. This building, the early seventies landmark of Stanley Hos gambling empire, is

also thought to vaguely resemble an old-fashioned Chinese peasants hat. The smoke-filled5

desperation of the Lisboas large circular gaming rooms has been to Macaos cultural heart what

the Reading Room of the British Library is to Englandsapt setting for all kinds of intrigue,

material for fiction and for poetry.

Uniqueness Lost

In Macao, in the longue dure, a palpable entropy has been attributed to the difficulties of cul-

tural difference and distance, to EastWest mutual inscrutability, to the arduousness of crossing;

in short, to what could be described as the abstract idea of a border. Macao has been a laboratory

slide for hybridity. Some observers have been amazed at how the organisms on the slide have

tended to stick with their own kind over time, but in fact there have been all kinds of passage

across, all kinds of cultural, spiritual, and physical miscegenation. One recalls Audens famous

Macao sonnet,6 and the crossings implied in the juxtapositions he mentions.

Figure 3.Venetian under constructionNote: Adam Lampton (2007). Venetian under construction. C-print. Image courtesy of Adam Lampton.



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Rococo images of Saint and Saviour

Promise her gamblers fortunes when they die;

Churches beside the brothels testify

That faith can pardon natural behaviour.

(Auden, 1945, pp. 18-19)

The door of the church, of the brothel, the casinoeach presages a transformative passage. The

character coming out is not the one who went in. One might say of Audens Macao, it is the

metonymics make the place. The interesting thing about Macao is how things got to be next to

each other, how unexpected contiguities and conflations have generated meaning over time, and

how those meanings have differed according to point of view. Which things are of the past and

which are of the future?

Because of its small size, the uniqueness of particular landmarks has been a feature of local

self-consciousness of place in Macao. Just as before the second land crossing to the Mainland

(opened in 2000), there was only one border, so various other Macao features have lost unique-

ness through duplication arising from population pressures and development. Agnes Vongs

poem three provides a playful and colloquial take on one of the most visible of Macaos dupli-

cations, highlighting a practical side to the changes that have taken place in the most prominent

part of Macaos skylinethe outer harbour water between peninsula Macao and Taipa.

Figure 4.Venetian Casino Hotel #2Note: Kenry Lee (2009). Venetian Casino Hotel #2. Digital photograph. Image courtesy of Kenry Lee.



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there used to be only one bridge

it had a name

but people simply called it the bridge

a second bridge was built

it also had a name

and in order to distinguish them

people called them the new bridge and the old bridge

now another bridge has been built

it also needs a name

and people are puzzled by what to call it

taxi drivers are more puzzled still

when the customer asks

ging sankiu, via the new bridge, please.

it was the same with casinos

once dou cheung, casino meant the Lisboa, Pou Geng

but now you could point in any direction

with bridges even three is too many

nowwhether its bridges or casinos

we have to remember the names

with only one or two of anythingpeople can keep their minds clear

but three is a big number to count to

and so finally, people remember

the second bridge

is called yao yi, the friendship bridge

but friendship with whom?

thats even harder to remember

. . . but we can try

once there was a little country

in Europe

and there was a celestial kingdom

and a little ship set sail

(Kelen & Vong, 2008, pp. 267-268)

The TaipaMacao Bridge (Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge) was once a singular entity. 7 The

second bridge (the Friendship Bridge referred to in Vongs poem) was built in 1994 andassociated with the opening of Macaos International Airport (located on reclaimed land attached

to Taipa). The third bridge (the Sai Van Bridge, opened in 2004; Figure 5), constructed to ease

traffic congestion, seemed to also serve the aesthetic function of providing some visual balance

to the recently constructed Macao Tower, which until that time, felt by many to have an

uncomfortably tottering aspect.



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Bridges, like borders, provide a convenient metaphor for crossing and for distances and of

differences to be spanned. In the case of Vongs poem, the proliferation of the metaphoric bridges

offers a tongue-in-cheek glimpse at the gap between the symbolic intentions of governments and

the practical concerns of people getting on with their everyday lives. Friendship with whom? Is

there any bridge to connect the popular consciousness with the symbolic means chosen to repre-

sent the people and their place? The last lines of the poem cast all the recent confusion into the

light of Macaos 500-year history. Perhaps it is surprising how simple a picture is revealed by the

concerted effort to remember where we are from and what is connected in our history.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, there was for practical purposes only one casino in Macao, the

one in the Hotel Lisboa; since the boom of the early noughties casinos have sprung up like mush-rooms all over the city. Whatever metaphoric or symbolic reading could be placed on the casino

motif must now have greater weight. Or one might picture things this wayonce Macao might

have been considered Hong Kongs casino; Hong Kong and Macao both being tiny dots (useful

or annoying aberrations on the littoral skin of communist China). Now Macao is capitalist Chi-

nas casino, and while the central government may take steps to control the flow of its citizens

into Macao, clearly the casino town is seen to have some useful function as a release value. Here

is a clear case of the meaning of Macao having shifted in a fundamental way, and beyond any

specific intention of, for instance, tourism authorities.

Macaos Gondola and Si Monumentum Requiris, Circumspice:Monuments to the New Macao

The two works of contemporary art selected to represent Macao in the 2007 Venice Biennale

wereMacaos Gondola, by Lui Chak Keong (Andr) and Lui Chak Hong and Si Monumentum

Figure 5. Macao Tower with Sai Van BridgeNote: Adam Lampton (2007).Macao Tower with Sai Van Bridge. C-print. Image courtesy of Adam Lampton.



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Requiris, Circumspice by Konstantin Bessmertny. While Hong Kong has been included in the

prestigious international exhibition since 2001, this was Macaos inaugural appearance. The

works of art included in international survey exhibitions are always taken, to some degree, as

representative of their place of origin. The first Biennale exhibit from a relatively obscure loca-

tion such as Macao is especially important in this sense. As the press release accompanying the

exhibit stated, the Biennale provided an opportunity to introduce Macao art to the world.8 The

Venice Biennale is organized in a manner that underscores the relationship between works of artand national (and increasingly subnational categories) by presenting works in locality-themed

pavilions and sites.9 In addition, Macaos exhibition in the 2007 Venice Biennale was place-

related in a more concrete sensethe call for proposals issued by the Macao Museum of Art

specified that place was to be the theme of the submitted works.10 That document defined

place in broad terms. It explained that the meaning of place differs according to individual

circumstances and that the concept spans the concrete place where we locate ourselves and a

special region for our imaginations and memories.11 For our current purposes, two questions

are pertinent. To what extent are the two works that were exhibited in Venice,Macaos Gondola

and Si Monumentum Requiris, Circumspice, Macao specific? And should they be considered

monuments to todays Macao?

Bessmertnys Si Monumentum Requiris, Circumspice (Figure 6) is a sculpture that was

installed next to the water outside Macaos exhibition venue, the Infopoint Arte Communica-

tions.12 The work is clearly a vehicle, but a quirky and hybrid one. It has the wheels of a bicycle,

Figure 6.Si Monumentum Requiris , CircumspiceNote: Konstantin Bessmertny, 2007, Si Monumentum Requiris , Circumspice. Mixed media and recycled materials. Imagecourtesy of the artist and Amelia Johnson Contemporary.



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Figure 7.Si Monumentum Requiris , Circumspice (detail)Note: Konstantin Bessmertny (2007). Si Monumentum Requir is, Circumspice (detail). Mixed media and recycled materials.Image courtesy of the artist and Amelia Johnson Contemporary.

porthole-style windows, the boxy shape of a van, and the homely interior of a caravan. And, with

its plank-like wings, it also resembles an aeroplane. The words fly less underline this interpre-

tation, and it is reinforced by Bessmertny himself, who describes the piece as a construction thatloosely resembles a plane, made of recycled and found materials.13 Bessmertnys statement in

the catalog that accompanied the Place exhibition begins, Flying in the sky was a dream that

humankind long pursued and has now been fulfilled by the invention of the aeroplane, a symbol

of dreams that has created a new chapter in the history of communication and invention.14

Vehicular connotations aside, Si Monumentum has the characteristics of a number of architec-

tural forms. From the outside, this roughly constructed plywood, metal, and glass structure is

reminiscent of a temporary dwelling. It has doors, windows, and electricity. Details such as the

plastic strip covering the join between the walls and roof suggest that it would probably, despite

the hasty-looking construction style, provide adequate shelter (Figure 7). With its graffiti-

covered plywood walls, the piece mimics the worksite aesthetic so ubiquitous in construction-

boom Macao.

A look through the windows ofSi Monumentum reveals a very different kind of place. The

red textile-covered walls are



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covered with fake paintings from Zhuhai in Baroque-style frames. There are copies of

Canalettos Venice with inscriptions added by me saying: View of the Inner Harbour.

Macau. China.15

The crystal chandelier that lights up the interior is too large for the tiny space, and the overalleffect calls to mind the decoration typical of casinos and the homes of the self-consciously

wealthy. Phrases such as Casino Republic and gamble, stenciled onto the outside of the

structure, support a reading of the interior as a casino. It is unsurprising that casino kitsch has

found its way into contemporary Macao art.16 What is remarkable about Si Monumentum,

however, is the ambiguity of its subject matter. It is at once an indeterminate vehicle and an

architectural structure. Its exterior is reminiscent of a low-cost dwelling or site shed while the

interior calls to mind an ostentatious domestic space or a casino. But the resemblance to Macao

is perhaps most apparent in the stylistic features of Si Monumentum. The contrast between the

gaudy richness of the interior space and its modest exterior is echoed across the contemporary

Macao cityscape. Showy buildings emerge from behind rough plywood walls. Walking around

Macao, one readily finds examples of similarly makeshift workmanship. This pragmatic style ofconstruction contrasts sharply with the over-worked interiors of the casinos with their heavy-

handed evocations of riches and power.

A parallel may also be drawn between the scale of Si Monumentums oversized chandelier,

and a curious aspect of the contemporary Macao skyline. With the completion of the Macao

Tower in 2004, a chapel at the top of Penha Hill which has been a landmark for sailors since

1622, suddenly appeared Lilliputian. A similar fate threatened the Guia Lighthouse when three

monster buildings were proposed for an adjacent site, provoking the formation of the League

of Guia Lighthouse Protectors.17 The scale of the new Venetian Macao casino and hotel resort is

an overwhelming presence. Bessmertnys piece echoes the disjunction between the scale of

Macaos older buildings and its new landmarks and casinos.Macaos Gondola by Lui Chak Keong (Andr) and Lui Chak Hong was positioned inside the

Infopoint Arte Communications Gallery (see Figure 8).18 At first glance, Macaos Gondola

appears to be a place-specific work in a more straightforward sense than Si Monumentum. The

installation consisted of a 4-m long gondola-like form that was accompanied by three columns,

the tallest of which was around 2 m in height. The four pieces, all rendered in solid concrete,

were installed on an incomplete screen of mirrors arranged to partially cover the tiled floor of the

gallery.

The subject matter ofMacaos Gondola is intriguingly indeterminate. The work incorporates

elements from Macaos two most prominent historical buildings. The gondola-like form repli-

cates a roofing element of Macaos oldest and best-known Chinese place of worship, the A-Matemple. The three columns are copied from the faade of Macaos trademark Portuguese icon, the

Ruins of St. Pauls church. While the Chinese and Western architectural traditions have existed

in Macao, for the most part, in parallel,Macaos Gondola incorporates an example of east-meets-

west architectural hybriditythe column that incorporates a Chinese lion is a genuine architec-

tural feature of St. Pauls church. InMacaos Gondola, however, this exception becomes the rule.

In terms of its stylistic qualities,Macaos Gondola references the local context. Rather than

marble or polished wood,Macaos Gondola is constructed from undisguised concrete, a material

that has more in common with the local construction boom environment than the world of high

art. The uniform color of the work, closer to the neutral tones of the Ruins of St. Pauls rather

than the bright hues of A-Ma temple, contributes to the seamless integration of visually and cul-

turally distinct architectures (see Figure 9).

However, Macaos Gondola does not simply reproduce key signifiers of Macaos dual cul-

tural heritage, it reconfigures them as a gondola, complete with mooring posts. The gondola

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imagery is an overt reference to both the site of the Biennale and Macaos Venetian casino. In

its evocation not only of Macaos Chinese and Western architectural heritage but of the recent

developments in contemporary casino Macao, the work mimics the official discourses of

Macao tourism. Conflating Chinese, Western, and contemporary subject matter,Macaos Gon-

dola unsettlesviewers illusions about the status of the work as a genuine cultural and historical

artifact. The technique of pastiche was consciously adopted with a critical intention in mind.The closing lines of the Lui brothers catalog statement read,

Through their work of art, Macaos Gondola, featuring the A-Ma Temple, the oldest

temple in Macao, and the Ruins of St Pauls, one of the territorys oldest churches, together

with a concrete gondola that cannot be used in waterthe Lui brothers are conveying the

message that our heritage is in fact sinking.19

What contribution do the titles ofMacaos Gondola and Si Monumentum make to our reading

of the two works? IfMacaos Gondola is a title that underlines the place specificity of the work,

it also implies that what we are viewing is a version of a gondola that might be found

elsewhereat the Las Vegas Venetian, for instance, or in Venice. Bessmertnys title, on the other

hand, takes the form of a quotation in the dead language of Latin. The meaning of the word

Figure 8. Lui Chak Keong (Andr) and Lui Chak Hong (2007).Macaos Gondola. Concrete and mirrorpanels. Image courtesy of Lui Chak Keong (Andr) and Lui Chak Hong.



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monumentum is self-evident, and Bessmertnys rough translation of the phrase is inscribed on

the outside of the work: Looking for monument? Look around. More precisely translated as

if you seek his monument, look around, the phrase is the epitaph of Sir Christopher Wren, who

is buried inside the building he most famously designed, Londons St. Pauls Cathedral (1710).

This title encourages us to read the piece as a monument as well as an ambiguous vehicle and

an architectural structure. It begs the question ofwho thisMonumentum commemoratesWren,

Bessmertny, God, or man? Either way, the title adds an additional place-specific reference tothe work, reminding us that London, like Macao, also has its own St. Pauls.

Representations of Macao?

BothMacaos Gondola and Si Monumentum refer to places other than Macao, and particularly to

Venice. The languages used on the sides ofSi Monumentum include Latin, as well as the Portu-

guese, Chinese, and English commonly used in Macao. The copy-paintings within the piece are

depictions of Venice, but some of them are named after Macaos Nam Van Lake and the Inner

Harbour. In a comparable fashion, Macaos Gondola refers to Venicethe home of the gon-

dolaas well as Macaos Venetian Casino. Although Macao and Venice have no particular his-

torical connection, both works draw a parallel between the two centers that have served as

emporia for maritime trade between the East and the West.

Figure 9. RuinsNote: Amy Wong (2009). Ruins. Digital photograph. Image courtesy of Amy Wong.



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Might Marc Augs (1995) distinction between anthropological place and nonplace pro-

vide an insight into the ambiguous geographic and sociohistorical references ofSi Monumen-

tum andMacaos Gondola? Aug associates nonplaces with airports, supermarkets, highways

and tourist routesplaces defined in part by the words and texts they offer us: their [prescrip-

tive, prohibitive, or informative] instructions for use (p. 96). Anthropological place is distin-guished from nonplace as follows:

Anthropological place is formed by individual identities, through complicities of language,

local references, the unformulated rules of living know-how; nonplace creates the shared

identity of passengers, customers or Sunday drivers. No doubt, the relative anonymity that

goes with this temporary identity can even be felt as a liberation, by people who, for a time,

have only to keep in line, go where they are told, check their appearance. (p. 101)

Aug (1995) describes nonplaces as spaces formed in relation to certain ends (transport,

transit, commerce, leisure), claiming that they create solitary contractuality as opposed to the

organically social quality associated with anthropological places (p. 94). According to Aug,the categories of place and nonplace are not mutually exclusive. Rather, in contemporary

societies, they are usually intertwined:

The possibility of non-place is never absent from any place. Place becomes a refuge to the

habitu of non-places (who may dream, for example, of owning a second home rooted in

the depths of the countryside). (p. 107)

Macaos Gondola and Si Monumentum represent anthropological place to the extent that they

refer, through their complex subject matter and their stylistic features, to present-day Macao and

its history. But the places implied by Si Monumentum and Macaos Gondola exceed Macaosborders: There are references to Venice, for instance, and to what we might call casino

aesthetics. Arguably, the places implied by the two works have been formed in relation to

certain endstourism, gambling, and class-conscious display come readily to mind. But these

works are too densely referential to meet Augs definition of the nonplace.

Aug (1995) links vehicles to the increasing speed of supermodernity, but here again his

description is a bad fit for the two Macao works. The vehicles indicated by Si Monumentum and

Macaos Gondola are patently dysfunctional. The wheels on Si Monumentum are too flimsy

even to bear its weight. Read as a dwelling, it is also inadequate, the apparently luxurious inte-

rior is too cramped to allow occupancy. Si Monumentum suggests that Macaos supposed prog-

ress, and pretensions of habitability, are seriously flawed. A reading of the work as visualizationof a double failure is reinforced by the artists catalog statement:

Anchored in the sea adjacent to Giardini in Venice is an aeroplane that is ready to reveal

what life in a maze looks like . . . It is not a plane for flying, nor is it a place for living in. 20

Can the interior decoration of the structure be read as a criticism of Macaos development?

The furnishings and paintings amount to a certain kind of cultural capital, to borrow

Bourdieus term. The gilt-framed copy-paintings, the red walls, and the chandelier exemplify the

tastes of the aspiring rich and cultured, rather than those of the avant-garde or the intelligentsia.

The marked contrast between this interior and the exterior walls, with their recycling symbols

and the injunction to fly less, serves to underline the decadence of the former space. The

implication is that this low-brow version of culture is, to use Bessmertnys phrase, the culture of

the casino republic. The artists statement suggests that the work was intended to be read in

this way:



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Through this piece of art, the artist wants to satirise the vanity of the new-rich in Macao

and other parts of the world. Yet, isnt it the noble life that people aspire to? 21

Macaos Gondola is also a construction that does not live up to its promise as a vehicle. The

narrow gondola form is solid rather than hollow, and no provision has been made for theimagined passengers or a gondolier. Given its solid concrete construction, if this gondola were

ever tested, there is no doubt that it would sink like a stone. Does Macaos Gondola imply that

Macao is losing its liveability along with its cultural heritage?

Quirky and atavistic, Si Monumentum andMacaos Gondola are invented vehicles that bear

little relationship to Augs (1995) notions of anthropological place and nonplace. They

evoke the specificity of Macao but resist essentialist representations of the local, which could be

achieved, for instance, through a juxtaposition of authentic signifiers of Macao with those of

globally recognizable nonplaces. Instead, the two works demonstrate the complexity of Macao

space by showing the manner in which local culture and aesthetics are interpenetrated by, and

continuous with, those ofspecific extra-Macao places.

Macao Monuments, Border Consciousness

Conventional monuments may take the form of sculptures, buildings, or other structures

designed to commemorate notable persons or events. Historically, monuments have often

entailed messages related to civic virtues, functioning to bolster a political status quo. The

word monumentaldraws attention to the physical presence and symbolic weight associated

with the conventional monument. In recent years, the term countermonumenthas been coined

to refer to monuments that register protest or disagreement with an untenable prime object22

or that, as is increasingly the case, carry critical messages that are more diffuse and open to

personal interpretation.23A good example of a countermonument of the former type is Jimmie Durhams Arche de

Triumphe for Personal Use (1996), described by Nikos Papastergiardis (2005) as follows:

Durham has constructed a mini-archway. It is made of cheap wood and found objects. The

imperial function of the archway is ridiculed by its domestication and diminution in value

. . . By reducing the monumental and public display of power into a personal item Durham

is also referencing the countless strategies of inverting and displacing political authority

through indigenous acts of cultural incorporation and mimicry. (p. 42)

Interestingly, Macaocountry-in-little as we may consider itcomes with its own miniatureportal, the now preserved border gate,,portas do cercoa key site in the poetic imagina-

tion of the city (see Figure 10). Over the gate of this 1870 structure, the legend: A Ptria Honrai

Que APatria Vos Contempla. In Leung Ping-Kwans poem the border, we glimpse the 1970s

incarnation of this site of passage:

the border

bus stops for a rest

and goes again

tourists lazily pass through

the narrow gate

stop for a while and gaze at

young girls sat laughing by the stone wall

soft drink bottle



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by antique store

a foreigner comes by

picks up a Buddha statue

would you like to buy jade?

the old lady peddles enthusiasticallyalthough this is fake jade,

there are others . . .

can nobody see

a purer jade

behind these things?

the tricycle drivers finger

points at the row of green trees

eyes gaze

on the empty vehicle

coming from the border

runs over the mudlines in brown

then turns into another road

on this cloudy day, wind blows

tears the map in the tourists hands

August, 1973

revised in January, 1975

Song Zijiang, Debby Sou Vai Keng, & Kit Kelen, trans.

(Leung, 2009, pp. 22-25)

The crossing with which the poem deals has been rebuilt several times since this poem was

written (most recently in 2004), and it is difficult to imagine a stronger contrast than between

the sleepy picture painted above and the present state of frenetic activity around Macaos old

border.24 Those passing the border today seem driven, impatient in queues, anxious to get past

this line, which represents paradoxically both an impediment and an opportunity for business.

In Leungs work, we can regard the border as representing a radical indeterminacy. What does

it mean to be on one side or the other? How does that meaning shift with point of view, with the

passage of time? From the point of view of nature (cloudy day, wind blowing), we see the

irrelevance of this arbitrary political line. From the point of view of small business, the border

in Leungs poem is an opportunity for sales. It is the Buddha statue that interests the tourist, butthe stall keeper wants the tourist to buy jade. Between the tourist and vendor a disarming

honesty, highlightingin an implied motion from concrete to abstractthe question of what is

real and what is fake. Which, for instance, is the real China? The land where antiques are still

valued or the place where the four olds have been outlawed? The engine of the piecethe bus

with which we beganneeds to take a rest. This anthropomorphism sets the tone; it is not that

passage is impossible, one merely wonders whether the effort is justified. The overall impression

is of the mundane place invested with a symbolic importance it cannot live up to. The weather

and humanity, in its less self-important guise, get on with and get around the great geopolitical

facts as imposed.

There is an interesting contrast between the carefully wrought flatness of Leungs long lost

border and the symbolic dimensions of the portal played out in Joey Hos Gate of Memory:



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Gate of Memory

What is hidden?

Rays of the afternoon sun on roofs . . .

What lies hidden among them?

Golden dust flying . . .

Whats hidden in air?

A baby plunged in sleep, in dreams . . .And what is hidden there?

The heat of her mother, her fan . . .

Hides what?

Kisses . . .

Whats hidden in them?

Gate of Memory

What is hidden?

(Kelen & Vong, 2008, p. 238)

The emphasis on the gate reminds us of a time when the Macao/mainland portal was a much

humbler and narrower affair, though in its own (Portuguese) way grand. The maternal

Figure 10. Border GateNote: Song Zijiang (2009). Border Gate. Digital photograph. Image courtesy of the artist.



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relationship and its mysteries suggest both the necessity of dependence and the contrast between

vast China and tiny Macao. Although the poem need not be taken as having any specific

connection with any political border, still it reminds us that there are things to be remembered.

One thinks of how borders entail other bordersfor example, between generations, between the

future and the past. The repeated question, What is hidden, suggests both the necessity ofinterpretation and the possibility of a sinister intention. Again, one asks which would be the

innocent and which the experienced party in this relationship. Is the obvious answer the right

one? Things may be hidden in the dreams of infants. Though tiny Macao can itself be thought

of as a borderan airlockbetween east and west, yet it takes an effort of memory to assert

what the meaning of a place might have been, might yet be. Interestingly, for the thematics of

this article, one notes the paradox of the border having grown monumental with need, of the

authentic monument (the border gate of 1870) appearing now in the guise of a miniature passed

en route. The past is a small and sparse place; an everyday site/sight fallen, for the most part,

below the threshold of interest.

Following Augs distinction between anthropological and nonplace, we may claim a dichot-

omy in the local culture of Macao between Macao space and nonplace. Macao space is uniquelyof an historical moment and place, something culturally positioned. In nonplaces, such as the inside

of a casino or an airport, subjects are hailed by consumption-oriented reifications of putative uni-

versal value. In the terms Umberto Eco elaborates in The Role of the Reader, we recognize in

nonplace a closed text, that is, a text in which the addressee is not invited to participate actively

but is rather offered a predetermined role, open neither to interpretation nor negotiation. Macao

space, being particular, is contingent. Having a history, it can have a future. The contemporary

Macao poetry typically values Macao space and sees it as under threat from the non-negotiable

space of culture that could be anywhere. The three-dimensional artworks described in this article

are vehicles paradoxically frozen in space that is ambiguous, makeshift, allusive of elsewhere.

In Loi Chi Pangs poem, to Coloane, we get a picture of nonplaces being added to Macao:

little city too cramped

so cramped that there is only space left for muttering

the many roads not taken knit into a helpless net

skims from my eyes

under the net there is such a stunning hope

a naming for all kinds of new things

simply

a word

cold

the autumn of September here is a book of sorrow more than sadness

so sad that the egret cant stand any longer under the mangroves

holding up an oilpaper umbrella to Coloane

I cant see rain

but only

ashes and stones of the cement trucks

flying past

and

the Cotai Strip

still under construction

Hilda Tam & Kit Kelen, trans.

(kelen & Vong, 2008, p. 290)



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Here, witnessing the process of reclamation shows us that liminal space cannot become a part

of the known place. The egret will be deprived of its mangrove; instead the new things are

worthy only of the word cold. This is nonplace in the making; and it is made of ashes and

cement, of anything.

Monumentality and the Meaning of Place

ShouldMacaos Gondola and Si Monumentumbe understood as monuments, or perhaps, coun-

termonuments? Large-scale and patently solid,Macaos Gondola differs from Jimmie Durhams

Arche de Triumphe for Personal Use, in that it actually appears monumental. Indeed, it borrows

the canonic ambiance of its World Heritagelisted source material. But in blending signifiers of

A-Ma temple, the Ruins of St. Pauls and a Venetian gondola, the work undermines the authen-

ticity the viewer would likely associate with each considered in isolation from the others. Despite

its apparent monumentality,Macaos Gondola is a simulated cultural artifacta concoction that

mimics the reified image of Macao used to sell the small territory to potential visitors and inves-

tors. Given this critical dimension, the work is more aptly termed a counter-monument.The rather grandly titled Si Monumentum Requiris, Circumspice claims the status of a monu-

ment from the outset. Yet the small-scale, quirky, and unassuming structure is decidedly unmon-

umental. Although the conventional monument tends to promote a sense of unified national

identity, the linguistically diverse graffiti and the Chinese-produced western paintings of Si

Monumentum do just the opposite, pointing up the culturally hybridity of Macao. The diverse

worlds evoked by the exterior of Bessmertnys cobbled-together structure are at odds with the

standardized version of culture it contains. Yet, likeMacaos Gondola, the work is open to per-

sonal interpretation, and this was the artists intention:

The idea was to juxtapose inside and outside, the place you are in and the place ofyour dreams, what you have and what you wish to have, the fake and the real and

so on . . . Its more the work of an art critic, really. These are some reflections on what is

going on in Macau, of course, and could be interpreted in many ways.25

Nikos Papastergiadis (2005) claims that the recent acceleration of cross-cultural flows and

processes of cultural mixture have produced new forms of identity (p. 54). Antimonuments to

the new Macao, Macaos Gondola and Si Monumentum Requiris, Circumspice both express

ambivalence toward the complex dynamics of development in Macao. Not without humor, the

two works appear to celebrate cultural diversity and hybridity. Closer examination, however,

reveals a less sanguine picture of contemporary Macao culture. The interior ofSi Monumentumsurely presents a critique of reified populist notions of culture while the Lui Brothers all-

purpose monument registers the loss of Macao heritage.Macaos Gondola and Si Monumentum

Requiris, Circumspice reflect the concern of a cultural community galvanized by the threats

posed by recent development.

Are the meanings of Macaoand the identifications of its citizenrytied up with the monu-

mental or with some popular or aesthetic commitment to monumentality? Not at all; this is

merely convenient and indeed pressing subject matter for those artists committed to bearing wit-

ness to their place (or incapable of ignoring what is going on around them). Everything monu-

mental in Macao is redolent of powerstate or casino capitalistimposed on a local population

with a tourist economy in mind and with a view to awe, if not shock. Note that the plonking down

of grandiloquent structures has in Macao typically required the creation of nonplaces, in the form

of land reclaimed from the Pearl River. And so the city physically grows, but perhaps Macao

does not?



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Much of Macaos literary and visual culture continues to refer to the historicized city and its

now dwarfed landmarks. Apart from borders and bridges and casinos, there are many places in

this tiny city iconic to its residents and regular visitors. Arguably, the main street, San Ma Lou is

a case in point. It is a physical focus (and convenient place mnemonic) in Part III of Ng Kuok

Cheongs a young married womans worries.

San Ma LouAvenida de Almeida Ribeiro

at crossroads tower two giants east and west

one is called the remote vast

great Atlantic Ocean

he faces the other whos even higher

comes from the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers

the two obviously stand independent

the divine rule of change is the interplay of yin and yang

some people say they see in the morning

some shadow stretching from the big oceanhappens to knock on this side of the door

then the shadow on the same side recoils

swallows the whole ocean

shadow is the suns

distant unreachable play

but every day taking the purse

and carrying the basket what I step

on is always the road

not the shadow

(Kelen & Vong, 2008, p. 118)

China and the Westyin and yangsun and shadow: The contrasts here provide a daunting

field of play for the persona, a character ultimately concerned with something as mundane and

as fundamental as shopping. Faced with a grand metaphorics demanding interpretation (and

obeisance), the persona decides in favour of the tangible real. What the young married woman

steps on is the road: She goes the way she has to go. Both the symbolism and the politics are

highly personal: We see in the next section of the poem that issues as to what Macao is or could

be directly affect the personas life choices. In Part IV,

to have a baby or not?to have one more little spoon or not?

to share this big bowl of sweet

glistening yellow papaya soup?

to have ten-month pregnancy or not?

five-months of big belly

three-months throwing up

and one week in the delivery room

waiting to sweat contractions

and the baby struggles to come out

that terrible tearing

if Id like to create a baby

you must create for me

a considerate husband



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a father who loves his family

healthy lively kindergartens

schools that develop balanced lives

and meet the needs of our next generation

an all functioning societya fair world

I am not willing

to take bloody pains

in exchange for a baby

trodden or

treading

Song Zijiang & Kit Kelen, trans.

(Kelen & Vong, 2008, p. 119)

Ngs implied demand in the poem is that the social contract be renegotiated at a fundamental level.Why should the young married woman bring a baby into a predatory society (trodden and/or

treading)? Again, the method in bringing such a question to the readers attention is to cut through

the symbolic machinery with which the good citizen is meant to conform. Instead, we are offered

concrete imagerybloody pains, throwing up, terrible tearing and yes, also the tenderness of the big

bowl of sweet glistening yellow papaya soup. The idyllic and the desperate images are connected in

the idea of exchange; whats under interrogation here is value. At what price a baby? For whose

benefit? The ultimate taken-for-granted good of motherhood is thrown into question; and with it the

future of a place and the possibility of identification with that place. Because Macao is the putative

subnational entity for which sacrifices would be made and by which benefits would be bestowed, the

questions asked are relevant everywhere in Macao. It is the mention of many familiar places remindsMacao residents of the problematic connection between place and identity.

To conclude, we hope it will not be construed as a defense of the various juggernauts riding

over local culture when we say that the current healthy state of Macao poetry and visual culture

is both product of a perceived need to defend Macao culture from attack and proof that Macao

culture is today alive and kicking. Macao has become a place with landmarks of postmoder-

nitya tower and casinos with notable names and shapesthe Sands, the Wynn, the Crown, the

Venetian. What magical names and what fairytale hype surround them! Macao was once a sleepy

little town on the edge of the map. It is interesting that the process of making nowhere some-

where has entailed the colonization of that particular places space with things that could be

anywhere, with phallic monumentalism.The best thing to do with all of this? The scholar and the artist have this capacity in com-

monto bear witness to what is happening in and to their place. That process of bearing witness

might entail the ironizing of the monumental or the pointing up of cracks to threaten a great

edifice. Witnessing environmental degradation and the sense of heritage lost is the flipside of

development aesthetics in casino-age Macao. Things gone are witnessed along with the new

things that have come. Macao as dot-on-the-map is conceived as a site for all kinds of portal

semiotics, as paradigm for cultural crossings and cultural shifts. Symbolic of the moral inertia

that the hype cannot quite cover over, the Lui Brothers and Bessmertnys vehicles going nowhere

point to the essential contradiction: between the long shadows of the Chinese state and those of

casino capitalism, Macao culture is really going somewhere.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication

of this article.

http://sac.sagepub.com/http://sac.sagepub.com/http://sac.sagepub.com/


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Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.

Notes

1. Important to such an account would be the literature on the social and cultural impacts of the Macaosrapid development, including scholarly articles such as Liu Shih-Dings Casino Colony (2008),

Tim Simpsons Macao, Capital of the 21st Century? (2008a) and The Commercialisation of

Macaos Cafes (2008b). There are many articles on these topics in the popular press. See, for instance,

Casino layoffs give teachers chance to push education (Fox, 2008); Macaus casinos promise perpetual

profit (Gough, 2008) and Fashion Group Expands to Tap Big Spenders in Macau (Spiro, 2007). Also

available are studies addressing the changing political landscape in the post-Handover period, such as Bill

K. P. Chous Interest Group Politics in Macau after Handover (2005).

2. The liberalization of the casino industry in 2002 entailed the breaking of the former monopoly of

local tycoon Stanley Ho, and allowing a number of Las Vegas operators into the city.

3. Land reclaimed, between the islands of Taipa and Coloane, and with the specific intention of building

a casino strip.

4. Up until the opening of the Macao Tower, the tallest structure in Macao had been the (1991 built) Bank

of China building (38 floors, 163 meters), a symbol at the time of the enclaves impending return to the

motherland.

5. Smoking has recently been banned on the lower floor.6. Although the poem underwent revision, the stanza cited remained unchanged.7. The original (Governor Nobre de Carvalho Bridge) was built in 1974. Access to the previously sparsely

populated islands of Taipa and outlying Coloane had formerly been by ferry.

8. Macaos debut appearance in this prestigious exhibition had a key role, as the Macao Museum of ArtPress Release states, in introducing the contemporary art of Macao to the world. It was also seen as a

stimulus to the local creation of art. Macao Museum of Art: Place http://www.artecommunications.

com/upload/MACAO_PRESS%20RELEASE_si.pdf

9. A Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China, Macao is a subnational entity.10. The jury comprised Yin Shuangxi (Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing), Gao Shim-

ing (art critic and curator at the China Academy of Art) and Ung Vai Meng (Director of Macao Museum

of Art).

11. The call for proposals for inclusion in the 52nd International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia:Macao, China was posted on the Macao Museum of Arts website. http://www.artmuseum.gov.mo/

showacts_detail.asp?id=123&language=3&type=0

12. The venue for the Macao exhibition was Infopoint Arte CommunicationsRiva S. Biagio, Castello2145, 30122, Venice. The duration of the exhibition was from 10 June until 21 November, 2007.

13. Konstantin Bessmertny in interview with Carol Archer, Edictus Ridiculum: Konstantin Bessmertny[interview].Macau Closer, July/August, 2007, p. 111.

14. Konstantin Bessmertny: Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice. InPlaces: A Collection of Worksfrom Macao for the Venice Biennale [exh. cat.]. Macao: Museu de Arte de Macau; Assuntos Civicos eMunicipais, 2007. p. 26.

15. Konstantin Bessmertny in interview with Carol Archer, Edictus Ridiculum: Konstantin Bessmertny[interview].Macau Closer, July/August, 2007, p. 112.

16. For instance, one of the nine works short-listed for the Macaos 2009 Venice Biennale exhibition (thetitle of which is Divergence) was Wu Chong Wais sculpture Sky City. The work features a roulette

wheel adorned with gaudily dressed Barbie dolls, a juxtaposition that reminds viewers of the links

between Macaos gambling and sex industries. In an interesting parallel to Bessmertnys piece, Sky

City takes the form of a hot air balloonone that, given the size and apparent weight of the wooden

basket relative to the small balloon, could clearly never function. SeeDivergence: Macaos Proposed

Artworks for the 53rd Venice Biennale: 25/03-21/06/2009. [exh. cat.]. Macao: Macao Museum of Art,2009.



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17. Xavier Leroy notes in his brief article Guia Light thatthis was the first western-style lighthouse built on the China coast . . . In July 2007, an organization

called the League of Guia Lighthouse Protectors filed a complaint to the UNESCO World Heritage

Centre about the Macau governments wavering stance on the protection of the lighthouse and the

construction of high-rise buildings in front of Guia Hill.

Lighthouse Depot (website) http://www.lighthousedepot.com/lite_explorer.asp?action=display_details

&LighthouseID=8262&bhcd2=1243934594 [Accessed 2 June, 2009]. See also Suki Leong (2007).

18. In an unpublished interview with Carol Archer on February 15, 2009, Lui Chak Keong (Andr)explained that the artists original intention had been to exhibit the work outside. However, municipal

council restrictions on the size of works exhibited outside led to the change of site.

19. Lui Chak Keong; Lui Chak Hong: Macaos Gondola. InPlaces: A Collection of Works from Macaofor the Venice Biennale [exh. cat.]. Macao: Museu de Arte de Macau; Assuntos Civicos e Municipais,

2007, p. 23. Lui Chak Keong (Andr) is an architect with academic qualifications in the area of heritage

preservation. During my interview with him, Andr discussed his participation on a committee set up

to advise the Macao government on heritage matters. He questions the continual use of the Ruins of

St. Pauls and A-Ma temple to promote Macao when so many other buildings and districts could serve

this purpose. While a limited number of sites and buildings have been preserved, he says, less promi-

nent but nevertheless important ones, have been destroyed. In some cases, the apparent preservation of

buildings and districts amounts to the kind of facadism and constructed heritage that the artist notes

is in evidence in some supposedly old districts of Beijing. Lui is also critical of the recent practice

whereby Chinese cities each have a theme park style attraction, such as Shenzhens Windows on the

World, a practice that he notes has recently been adopted by Macao.

20. Konstantin Bessmertny: Si Monumentum, Requiris In Places: A Collection of Works from Macaofor the Venice Biennale [exh. cat.]. Macao: Museu de Arte de Macau; Assuntos Civicos e Municipais,2007, p. 26.

21.Macao Museum of Art: Place. http://www.artecommunications.com/upload/MACAO_PRESS%20RE-LEASE_si.pdf

22. Michalski (1998, p. 201).23. Michalski (1998, p. 202).24. The border is with the Gongbei district of Zhuhai.25. Konstantin Bessmertny (interview with Carol Archer),Macau Closer, p. 112.References

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Bios

Carol Archer () is an assistant professor in the Visual Studies Department at Lingnan University in

Hong Kong. She publishes essays on contemporary art. Her current research, on modes of collaborative

painting and drawing, is informed by her ongoing engagement in collaborative art projects.

Christopher (Kit) Kelen () is an associate professor in the Department of English, University of

Macau. His most recent volumes of poetry are God Preserve Me From Those Who Want Whats Best for Me

(2009) andIn Conversation With the River(2010). Last year, he published a critical study of Macao poetry,

titled City of Poets. For the past 10 years, he has taught Literature and Creative Writing at the University of

Macau in south China.

Documents

Macau Monuments in Literature and Art