Heritage restoration to reshape city’s cultural space

The Cultural Heritage Committee took a look back at the major cultural heritage preservation projects that were carried out by the Cultural Bureau (IC) during this year, including the restoration of several historic buildings, and a heritage survey that aims to add neglected relics to the current 128-item heritage list.
At a plenary meeting held yesterday, the recent incident of the theft of a God of Land statue became a focus of discussion. Furthermore, Committee members exchanged some concerns that were highlighted in the recently concluded public consultation held for the future management plan of the city’s historic center.
“Most of the renovation projects have entered the final stage and are expected to complete by the end of this year, and the first batch of newly listed relicts will be announced next year,” the Committee’s secretary-general Cheong Cheok Kio told the media.
Most of the historic houses being renovated this year will be transformed into exhibition venues and creative spaces. The public will see pavilions exhibiting woodwork, traditional wedding customs, and both Chinese and Western medicine pharmacies. The deserted old dockyard in Barra will also become a creative and visual art museum.
The Committee also discussed the restoration of the destroyed God of Land altar, and proposed to build a visible system for the traditional Earth God beliefs. The Committee spokesperson Lam Fat Iam stressed that it’s a question of “how to reshape the city’s cultural space.”
“The folk belief in Earth God and Earth Grandmother are preserved well in Macau. Currently there are overall more than 170 altars distributed in the city,” he said. “Based on three major God of Land temples, we plan to demonstrate a network of the altars, and declare this folk belief as a regional, even national intangible cultural heritage.”
The IC official also said that the opinions collected during the public consultation would be analyzed within three months, so as to launch another more comprehensive consultation next year.
“The concerns raised in the earlier consultation were mainly over the issues of transportation, greenery, environment protection, as well as crowd control in the Historic Centre,” he said.
Since the Cultural Heritage Protection Law took effect, the IC has inspected 117 cases and issued 26 injunctions against construction, with most of the cases affected reported by residents of the neighborhoods.