THE PORTUGUESE CHROMOSOME : REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMATION OF MACAO’S IDENTITY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES
This article uses the metaphor of a “Portuguese chromosome” to rethink the formation of Macao’s identity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It argues that Macao cannot be read as a straightforward transplantation of Portuguese urban models but as a city produced at the crossroads of Western...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Articles |
| Published: |
Instituto Cultural de Macau
July 2002
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40003/2678 |
| _version_ | 1877196271485190144 |
|---|---|
| author | Jorge Manuel Flores |
| author_autocomplete | Jorge Manuel Flores |
| author_browse | Jorge Manuel Flores |
| author_facet | Jorge Manuel Flores Jorge Manuel Flores |
| author_sort | Jorge Manuel Flores |
| container_title | Review of Culture |
| container_title_str | Review of Culture |
| container_volume | 3 |
| container_volume_str | 3 |
| description | This article uses the metaphor of a “Portuguese chromosome” to rethink the formation of Macao’s identity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It argues that Macao cannot be read as a straightforward transplantation of Portuguese urban models but as a city produced at the crossroads of Western and Asian urban systems: a Portuguese city sited on the coast of the Chinese empire, continually shaped by contact with Far Eastern and Southeast Asian urban centers. Employing a historical-urban approach, the study analyzes plan, public spaces, architecture, and daily life to show how Macao fused Western institutions with Asian practices. The most visible traces of this hybridity appear in the city’s core institutions—the city hall, the Misericórdia, parish churches, the cathedral, and the prison—organized around squares and main streets, which functioned as the city’s nerve centers. Yet daily life also reveals Asian influence: an port-centered, informally expanded settlement with non-regular streets and walls whose towers housed cisterns for defense. Public life revolved around confrarias, patron saints, and processions; urban memory was tied to spaces identified by religious and communal activity rather than fixed to a European grid. The article situates Macao within broader East Asian urban trajectories (Nagasaki, Manila, Batavia) and highlights the port’s decisive role in political and social organization. Conclusion: Macao’s identity emerges from hybridity—a persistent synthesis of Portuguese urban tradition and Asian urban logic that renders Macao a distinctive heritage site. |
| first_indexed | 2026-09-11T02:56:51Z |
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| issn | 1682-1106 |
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| latest_content_date | 2026-09-11T02:56:51Z |
| publishDate | July 2002 |
| publishDateRange | 2002 |
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| publishPlace | Macau |
| publisher | Instituto Cultural de Macau |
| publisherStr | Instituto Cultural de Macau |
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| spelling | THE PORTUGUESE CHROMOSOME : REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMATION OF MACAO’S IDENTITY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES This article uses the metaphor of a “Portuguese chromosome” to rethink the formation of Macao’s identity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It argues that Macao cannot be read as a straightforward transplantation of Portuguese urban models but as a city produced at the crossroads of Western and Asian urban systems: a Portuguese city sited on the coast of the Chinese empire, continually shaped by contact with Far Eastern and Southeast Asian urban centers. Employing a historical-urban approach, the study analyzes plan, public spaces, architecture, and daily life to show how Macao fused Western institutions with Asian practices. The most visible traces of this hybridity appear in the city’s core institutions—the city hall, the Misericórdia, parish churches, the cathedral, and the prison—organized around squares and main streets, which functioned as the city’s nerve centers. Yet daily life also reveals Asian influence: an port-centered, informally expanded settlement with non-regular streets and walls whose towers housed cisterns for defense. Public life revolved around confrarias, patron saints, and processions; urban memory was tied to spaces identified by religious and communal activity rather than fixed to a European grid. The article situates Macao within broader East Asian urban trajectories (Nagasaki, Manila, Batavia) and highlights the port’s decisive role in political and social organization. Conclusion: Macao’s identity emerges from hybridity—a persistent synthesis of Portuguese urban tradition and Asian urban logic that renders Macao a distinctive heritage site. Instituto Cultural de Macau Macau Review of Culture Articles July 2002 Jorge Manuel Flores |
| spellingShingle | THE PORTUGUESE CHROMOSOME : REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMATION OF MACAO’S IDENTITY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES Jorge Manuel Flores |
| title | THE PORTUGUESE CHROMOSOME : REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMATION OF MACAO’S IDENTITY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES |
| title_autocomplete | THE PORTUGUESE CHROMOSOME : REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMATION OF MACAO’S IDENTITY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES |
| title_full | THE PORTUGUESE CHROMOSOME : REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMATION OF MACAO’S IDENTITY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES |
| title_fullStr | THE PORTUGUESE CHROMOSOME : REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMATION OF MACAO’S IDENTITY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES |
| title_full_unstemmed | THE PORTUGUESE CHROMOSOME : REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMATION OF MACAO’S IDENTITY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES |
| title_short | THE PORTUGUESE CHROMOSOME : REFLECTIONS ON THE FORMATION OF MACAO’S IDENTITY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES |
| title_sort | the portuguese chromosome : reflections on the formation of macao’s identity in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries |
| url | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40003/2678 |
| zotero_collection_key | 76L3BRGH |