MACAO HERITAGE : A SURVEY OF THE CITY’S TRADITIONS AND CULTURAL DNA澳門文化遺產：城市傳統與文化基因的探討
This article contends that Macao’s heritage should be understood as a cultural “genetic code”—that is, as the continuity of practices, traditions, and historical authorship that confer authenticity upon the urban legacy. The author argues that erroneous or oversimplified interpretations—often repeat...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
2015
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40050/2234 |
| Summary: | This article contends that Macao’s heritage should be understood as a cultural “genetic code”—that is, as the continuity of practices, traditions, and historical authorship that confer authenticity upon the urban legacy. The author argues that erroneous or oversimplified interpretations—often repeated in history books and on the internet—lead to factual distortion and the fabrication of “Disneyland-style” narratives, transforming buildings and places into mere products of the past, disconnected from the cultural dynamics that produced and continue to reproduce them. Methodologically, the text proposes a comparative and collaborative reading of history, articulating predominantly Chinese and Portuguese sources in order to reconstruct a “puzzle” of parallel and interconnected events. Based on this approach, it concludes that Macao’s uniqueness, as recognized by UNESCO, can only be fully explained by the Sino-Portuguese interweaving: not only in the construction of urban and architectural typologies, but also in the transfer of knowledge, technologies, and forms of social organization. Thus, heritage preservation depends on reinscribing living traditions into contemporary management and design, resisting the effects of globalization and accelerated urbanization. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |