HISTORY OF AND FOR MACAO : SOME OBSERVATIONS ON TEACHING LOCAL HISTORY AND IDENTITY IN MACAO’S MIDDLE SCHOOLS
This article uses a cultural-anthropological lens to examine how teaching local history in Macao’s middle schools might foster a sense of belonging and a coherent collective identity amid rapid political, economic, and demographic change in the 1990s. Grounded in two years of ethnographic fieldwork...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
April 2002
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40002/2673 |
| Summary: | This article uses a cultural-anthropological lens to examine how teaching local history in Macao’s middle schools might foster a sense of belonging and a coherent collective identity amid rapid political, economic, and demographic change in the 1990s. Grounded in two years of ethnographic fieldwork (1997–1999) in Macao, it analyzes how curriculum practices, classroom interactions, and school discourses negotiate questions of what constitutes “Macao history,” who is included in the category of “Macao people,” and how the tension between “one country, two systems” and local autonomy is reflected in education. Drawing on Richard Handler’s conceptualization of identity as a relational, context-dependent phenomenon, the study treats school history as a site where individual and collective identities are imagined, contested, and reconstituted through everyday pedagogical decisions. The author also engages with insights from American and British cultural studies to frame debates about history as pedagogy and identity formation in transitional societies. Findings presented are tentative observations from two schools, illustrating how local-history curricula can either reinforce a distinctive Macao identity or reproduce competing narratives that reflect broader political negotiations. The paper concludes that anthropology offers productive ways to understand social and cultural change in Macao and to forge ongoing dialogue about how history, education, and identity intersect during periods of transition, while inviting further research and policy discussion. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |