IC launches platform to collect public information on heritage problems

Leung Hio Ming

The Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) has announced the launch of a new platform aiming to collect information from the public regarding the condition of Macau’s heritage sites, particularly the protected buildings. The announcement was made by the president of the IC, Leung Hio Ming, during the ordinary plenary meeting of the Cultural Heritage Council held yesterday morning at the Macau Cultural Centre.

Leung stated this new platform aims to create a “more efficient way to protect cultural heritage as well as to incentivize the population to participate in the safeguarding of such cultural heritage.”
He said that the purpose is to have a more convenient and effective way for people to be able to report problems they find regarding the buildings, “thus contributing to a timely response [from the IC] in order to tackle the problem.”

Leung mentioned that Macau has a total of around 600 constructions that are listed as cultural heritage, and most of them are privately owned.

The new platform includes several ways to contact IC services, such as through a dedicated website (www.culturalheritage.mo/en/report) and also from social network platforms such as Facebook (IC Art) and IC’s WeChat account.

“Once the notifications from people in general are received, we will do a screening and assign staff teams that can check on the issue reported,” the IC head noted, clarifying that such reports “can be done by anyone, even tourists.”
During the discussion of the new initiative, several members of the council questioned the “capacity of the IC to deal with all these reports from people.”

In reply, Leung noted, “staff from the IC will be in charge of doing a preliminary analysis from the notifications received and gather this data to decide what should be done or not or what are the priorities.”

The methods of inspection of the classified buildings was the other topic discussed during yesterday’s meeting. Leong Wai Man, head of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the IC, said that the two major issues likely to affect the classified building are “the monitoring of the Particulate Matter (PM2.5) on air pollution that can be very harmful and also the circulation and high influx of tourists.”

“We have done over 1,000 inspections throughout the year and found about 170 flaws in the maintenance of the buildings. We have notified the owners promptly and many of them already replied saying they will initiate repair works,” she said.

The Mount Fortress wall

On this topic, council member Keang Kok Cheong addressed concerns over the buildings around Senado Square and the Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro area. “We see now that the shops on [the] ground floor are tidier and well-kept but I’m concerned with the upper floors, that in most cases are abandoned or not in use and where we can see many problems happening. This was clear also during Typhoon [Hato].”

In reply, the IC said that it is already aware of such situations and that it has notified the owners.

The IC also informed that two sites that will undergo major renovation works will be the Ruins of Saint Paul’s and the Monte Fort, as previous inspections have detected severe problems that need to be addressed.

Ruins of St Paul’s

The Monte Fort will see three of its four main walls targeted with a renovation plan that aims to tackle “mistakes committed in the past and that have contributed to added damages,” said Choi Kin Long, acting chief of the Division for Cultural Heritage Conservation of the IC. Choi also stated the Ruins of Saint Paul’s will see its bronze statues removed for repairing.

In both cases, the IC explained that the works would be done in several phases, and presented a draft scheduling of the tasks.

Regarding Monte Fort, one wall will be addressed each year; the East Wall during 2018, the South Wall in 2019 and the West Wall in 2020. According to Choi, the works to be performed aim to repair cracks and bring back the original look of the walls that over the years “had been fixed with unsuitable cement, motivating new cracks and the growth of plants and fungus.”

Choi mentioned that tests had already been made in cooperation with a university on the mainland to find the right compound (closer to the originally used materials) to fix the walls. Questioned on the expected cost for such works, Leung replied that for now there is only a budget for the first wall, equal to about MOP300,000. For the others, the IC does not have yet a budget as it depends on many factors and will be done on a “case-by-case” basis.

Another concern from several of the Council members was the final outlook of the walls after repair works, with Ip Tat and Leong Chong In noting that the solution will give the walls a “new look” and that “is not what we want.” Leong Chong was insistent in saying, “we need to maintain the old look.”

Choi once more explained that the “look of new” would be only temporary and that “in a short period they will gain a look close to the other ones [original ones].”

New list of classified heritage sites will include 13 buildings

A new list of classified heritage buildings in the region has been prepared and is “ready to be announced,” said the IC president, Leung Hio Ming. The list will be composed of 13 buildings, and will be announced at the last meeting of the year of the Cultural Heritage Council (to be held in December). Leung noted once more that it was not the right time to announce the new 13 buildings that will be included on the classified heritage list. Nevertheless, he confirmed “Lai Chi Vun shipyards is not one of them as we are addressing this as a separate and individual topic.” At the same time, the president of the Bureau also confirmed that the new list of classified buildings will be the topic of a public consultation period at the start of 2018.

MOP900,000 budgeted to repair two St. Paul’s Ruins statues

The government is expecting to spend MOP900,000 on the removal and repair works for the first two of the seven statues included in the façade of the most popular tourist landmark of Macau. The head of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the IC, Leong Wai Man, disclosed the budget on the sidelines of the plenary meeting of the Cultural Heritage Council, when questioned on the topic by the media. Previously, the president of the IC, Leung Hio Ming had clarified that the works on the statues will initially start with just the first two.  “In December we will initiate the first phase in which we will repair the first two statues, as for the other five they will be all [repaired] in 2018.” Leung also stated that the repair works will be done in a specially designed workshop located at the back of the façade. In the original place of the statues will be a large “banner,” printed with the image of the statues.