History | Author hopes Macau will be able to preserve Western heritage

Tang Kaijian

Tang Kaijian, a history professor at the University of Macau (UM), recently published his book “Macaology, A Touch of Alienation in the Celestial Empire: Western Civilization in Macau, 16th-19th Centuries.”
The book consists of two volumes and presents Tang’s conclusions from his multi-year research project and 20-year study of the region. According to a statement from UM, it is considered by the institution to be the “most pioneering work of Macaology ever published.” The work draws on a variety of sourced materials, including first-hand historical data in Chinese and Portuguese, as well as data in French, Spanish, German, Russian, Latin, Dutch, Japanese and English.
During a presentation held at UM last week, the author expressed the hope that his book can “become a business card for Macau.” Tang further emphasized that “the golden content of Macau’s history and culture cannot be matched by any ordinary city.”
He explained that “civilization in Macau is a product mainly of Western influence, whereas Chinese civilization [can be seen] everywhere across the mainland.” Moreover, he remarked that, with respect to China, Macau is the only region with Western civilization as the norm. The culture is therefore something special and can be used as a permanent, unbeatable visiting card.”
Tang stated that his goal is to somehow improve this card lobbying for local associations and the local government not to neglect Macau’s outstanding value. He questioned: “Isn’t it a good thing that Western civilization came to an Eastern country and is still being preserved?”
Published in Chinese, Tang’s book is a two-volume tome consisting of nearly two million words. According to the author, the book’s length is due to the diversity of its source material, which includes first-hand historical data. “Sixty percent of the references that I used were in Portuguese, mainly documents from the Macau government,” acknowledged Tang.
The history professor also noted that a group of around 20 people should be considered the book’s backbone. They are students of UM, majoring in Portuguese, who contributed to the translation work of the Portuguese references. Tang also noted that there should be a dedicated translation team in the city in order to perform deeper research into the history of Macau.
When referring to what makes his book special, Tang said that he covers Western literature, which has never before been mentioned in a Chinese book describing the history of Macau. When did the first Don Quixote novel come to Macau? When did the first work of Shakespeare come to Macau? And when was the telescope first brought to Macau? These are among the topics that had not been mentioned in other Chinese books discussing Macau. Staff reporter