Sitting in his university office in Macau, professor Lei Heong Iok (李向玉) opens what he calls his “treasure” — a dog-eared Portuguese-language dictionary, its velvet cover worn and frayed.
Lei’s decades-long love for the language has turned him into a campaigner for its survival in the former Portuguese colony.
Learning Portuguese fell out of fashion in Macau after it was handed back to China in 1999, becoming a semi-autonomous territory loyal to Beijing and growing into the world’s biggest gambling destination.
Although Portuguese remained an official language and street signage is still bilingual, many in the predominantly Cantonese-speaking territory switched their study focus to Mandarin.
However, Portuguese is back in vogue as China forges business ties with lusophone nations such as Brazil, Angola and Mozambique, and casts Macau as a key link because of its cultural ties and history.
Students in the territory see studying Portuguese as a shrewd career move.
Lei — who was born in China, learned Portuguese in Macau in the 1970s and has been president of the Macau Polytechnic Institute (MPI) for nearly 20 years — says the resurgence in interest vindicates the years he spent in the post-handover wilderness, traveling all over China trying to attract students to study the language and insisting Macau should value its unique past.
“I said we should keep Macau as a different flower, with different characteristics from other flowers in the Chinese garden,” he said. “Today it’s a reality.”
China’s interest in Portuguese-speaking nations is part of a wider push for global influence, as well as a search for new export markets and energy reserves.
Macau hosts a conference every three years where ministers from China and Portuguese-speaking nations gather to discuss business and trade ties.
The territory’s government has also pledged to make it a hub for Portuguese learning — the University of Macau last year opened a new teaching center aimed at nurturing bilingual professionals.
Numbers on MPI’s Chinese-Portuguese translation course fell as low as 10 following the handover.
There are now more than 270 students from Macau and China taking the four-year degree, with graduates going on to work in government, banks and businesses at home, as well as finding jobs in Portuguese-speaking countries.
“Portuguese is a very pretty language,” said student Ana Tu, 21, from Beijing. “There are also a lot of companies doing business with Portuguese-speaking countries, so if I learn Portuguese, I can help them to communicate with each other.”
Classmate Marcelino Luis do Rosario Sousa, 22, said he is going back to his roots. Born in Macau, his father is Portuguese, but Sousa grew up speaking only Cantonese.
After discovering a passion for the language in secondary school, he said he hopes to work as an interpreter for the Macau government when he graduates.
“[Studying Portuguese] definitely will improve my career prospects. The salary is good, but the major reason is I have curiosity in studying Portuguese. I’d love to work in a job I’m interested in,” he said.
Many visitors spend their trip to Macau holed up at a gaming table, but its colonial heritage is also a tourist draw.
Historic ruins, churches, cozy tavernas and cobbled streets are an echo of its history, and the ubiquitous bakeries selling Portuguese-style custard tarts do roaring trade.
Chef Santos Pinto runs one of the best-known Portuguese restaurants in town, O Santos.
Its walls are covered in Portuguese soccer memorabilia and photographs of famous guests, including Mick Jagger.
On a weekday lunchtime, the restaurant buzzes with regulars and tourists, welcomed by Pinto, wearing a white apron and operating the cash register.
Before the handover, the vast majority of the clientele were Portuguese, but with an exodus after 1999, they are now mainly Chinese, South Korean and Japanese, he said.
Despite the changes he has seen, Pinto believes Portuguese culture will always be a fundamental element of Macau and that residents value the territory’s unique history.
“They like the fact that Macau is different — it’s Chinese with Portuguese culture,” he said.
He is pleased that a growing number of Macanese and Chinese are learning Portuguese and believes they see the enclave as a door to the lusophone world.
For his part, he aims to preserve a slice of Portugal in Macau.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to