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POLITECNICO DI MILANO

HEROTAGE PRESERVATION AND NEIGHBORHOOD IMPROVEMENTCONSTRUCTING MACAO AS A HETEROTOPIA

Supervisor: Prof. Colombo Maria Cristina

Zhang Ying

ANNO ACCADEMICO 2014 - 2016

Architettura Urbanistica Ingegneria delle Costruzioni

Architecture and Preservation

Introduction

Chapter 1: Split City: the opposite urban space and vague cultural identity1.1 Fragment of city image 1.2 Impact of cultural globalization and hybridization

Chapter 2: Constructing Macao World Heritage site as a Heterotopia2.1 Foucault’s heterotopias 2.2 Multiple dimensions of Macao heritage 2.2.1 National identity 2.2.2 Social relationship and local character 2.2.3 Economic development: cultural tourism 2.3 Preservation movement

Chapter 3: Walking in time: Viewing Macao from the Ground Level 3.1 Travelling experiences in Macao as a heritage tourism destination 3.1.1 Unbalance, fragmentation and shortage of guiding 3.2 Community involvement

Chapter 4: Conclusion

Appendix

References

Table of Content

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Introduction

Cultural heritage preservation is being threatened by the continually accelerating urbanization and economical-cultural globalization in modern China. The preserving problems caused by urban expansion, spatial distribution and the cultural invasion in heritage sites have gone beyond the binary opposites: preservation or development. Instead they have become cross-disciplinary issues. And it is noticed unavoidably that these problems has resulted in not only the spatial isolation of heritage sites in urban context, especially the historic areas in the modern cities, but also the loss of local cultural identity and the breakdown of social network.

Under such prerequisite, I chose Macao world heritage site as a study case to

examine the difficulties in Macao’s heritage preservation. Its complex history as a preservation project, its high-pressure urban development, and the dilemma being a post-colonial state in building its own cultural identity, the preservation practices and protocols, as well as various discourses together construct Macao world heritage site into a heterotopia. Through the studying of the Heterotopia space concept raised by Foucault as a theoretical framework, and the interpretation of the preservation movements in Macao as a heterotopia, chapter 2 engages how world heritage program’s international place-making transformed an every day life place into a world site and how local preserving practices responded to it as communities of living memory. Heritage preservation is not only the cultural tool of modern nation-states as building the national identity, as well the method for local societies and communities of rebuilding their sense of belonging, and also a strategy of developing local cultural tourism. From the ground level, I view the problems bottom-up in Macao’s heritage tourism and analyze the travel experiences from the first person point of viewin the chapter 3. Some problems are obvious: the lack of promotion as a heritage site, the unbalance of protection between different monuments, and the failure on building a continual experience along the lineal heritage sites. Yet the local place making and memory work offers a different understanding on how heritage is preserved and produced, and there is quite a chance to improve the preservation work by involving the local communities.

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Chapter 1 Split City: Fragmented Urban Space and Vague Cultural Identity Fragment of city image: high-density construction for gaming industry and tourism

The heritage management of modern China at present is facing great challenge. During the last forty years, China sustained a high-speed economic growth. The urbanization process accelerated continuously and the level of urbanization is also rising. According to one government statistics in 2010, the urban population is about 630 million by 2010, with an urbanization rate of 45%; while by the year of 2020, the rate would be over 60%, which means there would be 15 to 20 million people become urban population every year. Similar to the early age of western countries’ urban development, the conflict between cultural heritage preservation and city development intensified as the overwhelming urban expansion, and over but unbalanced population growth. The cultural heritage is always being sacrificed in the gaming of interests and the reasons are diverse: the interest pursuit of capitals, the higher living environment demands of residents, and the insufficiency of land or the fund resource, the misjudging of developing strategies and so on. If one could say that the cultural relics and archaeological sites are under relatively good protection, the current preservation of historic districts is far short. In the process of urban expansion and redevelopment, historic districts and the buffer zones are either being tearing down, or isolated by high-rise blocks. Unlike the developed countries that start the heritage preservation from the 1940s, the official concern on the cultural heritage preservation in China only started after mid 1960s. A sound heritage management system, namely the preservation legal system and the financial support, hasn’t been built up. Considering the fact that the heritage preservation techniques and awareness are more backwards, the issue of cultural heritage preservation in today’s China, especially the protection of the historic districts, is remarkably serious.

Located on the southeastern coast of China and west of the Pearl River Delta,

Macao is 28.2 km2 in size and has a total population of about 503,000. After 450 years as a Portuguese colony, Macao's administration was handed over to China on 20 December 1999. The settlement of Macao by Portuguese was so important to the Macao's economic and socio-cultural development that the basis for trade and cultural exchange between the East and the West was laid since then. Portuguese produced Macao from a small settlement village to a unique cultural heritage and international harbor. After four centuries’ cultural mixing, Macao has become a culture melting pot where people from different races neighboring peacefully and sharing various values. Macao’s historic center was enlisted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as part of World Heritage on 15 July 2005.

The above-mentioned preservation-development problems aroused by the over

urbanization can be observed also in Macao. Other than that, Macao has its own problems. On one hand, the rapid growth in the population and tourists has placed tremendous pressure on urban development. Large numbers of hotels, casinos, public facilities, residential blocks and infrastructures are needed, which are mostly building

Chapter 1 Split City: Fragmented Urban Space and Vague Cultural Identity

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into massive blocks or skyscrapers that share nothing in common with the characteristics in Macao historic center. So the challenge for Macao today is how to blend in the old with the new by managing and conserving its distinct cultures and heritages in coping with future urban development pressures. This chapter examines the challenges in the heritage management of Macao.

Figure 1.1 Reclamation areas in Macao since 1912

Since the Portuguese settlement in 16th century, Macao has been using as a port and

a fortress in the international sea trade, especially in the Fareast. Portuguese constructed their settlement at the northwest Macao following their western urban planning experiences, leaving Macao’s historic center a medieval Portuguese spatial organization. Plazas as the center, five districts were constructed and connected by a main road following the coast line. Later on, several fish-bone streets were built perpendicular to the main road, forming large number of local characteristic inner streets and courtyards. After the opium war, Macao’s position in Fareast sea trade changed, which caused a great pressure on its development. The government started to encircle the sea to make land and push the development of large scale industries and infrastructure constructions. During this constructing age, lots of buildings combining east-west building styles and techniques appeared, including the famous St Paul’s Church, St Antonio’s Church and so on, which still forms the cityscape. In general, two types of urban patterns exist in Macao. One is the European medieval urban organization left from sixteenth century, which is irregular and disorganized: The road net is shaped by local topography; the main roads follow the coastlines and the contour lines so that compare to the straight ones they are more economic reasonable. The other pattern is the Chinese traditional Lifang planning, which can be


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observed in most inner streets and courtyards: narrow winding roadways go deeper inside the blocks and forming small squares at the ends. Most buildings at both sides are two-three floors arcade houses in Chinese traditional style. This area is today’s Macao’ historic center and the original style from the Portuguese settlement still keep the same till today.

Macao luckily survived from twenty century’s war and any disasters, few of the

cultural heritages is damaged. Fire accidents, is the biggest threat to cultural relics. For instance, the famous St Paul’s Church suffered three heavy fires, only leaving the relics of St Paul. Since the administration’s handling back to China in 1999, the drastic variation in Macao’s urban structure and pattern has gone over all the changes in the past four hundred years.

Due to the limit of land resource and over population, Macao chooses the

developing strategies of land reclamation and rapid urbanization. These strategies are strongly reshaping the whole city, changing Macao from a small harbor into a international city filled with mega structures. Skyscrapers and huge blocks are being built in Macao’s new districts, urban renew and rail traffic projects also reshape the landscape. New blocks are over scaled, more than two hundreds meters between each; mansions even for residential purpose are over three hundreds miters high. Meantime, life pace rapidly speed up under the impact of gaming industry and tourism. The flourishing gaming and tourism requires more convenient transportation system, more tourist-target commercials and tourism infrastructures. Within the limited area of only 30.5 square meters and population of 647,700, Macao is already among the most densely populated cities; moreover, the driving density in Macao is up to 390 cars per kilometer, and the green area for each is only 1 square meter per person. Under this serious situation, the urban space in Macao is splitting and fragmented. In Historic center, people would find themselves in a historic period when foreign merchants and Chinese traders live near in one neighborhood, where both cultural customs are respected and building styles are observed; but in the sea reclamation areas, standing among the new-built mansions, only the pursuit of capitals is worshiped.

Figure 1.2 Crowded night market and high-density residential


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Impact of cultural globalization and cultural hybridization: loss of cultural identity and breaking of traditional social relationship

Economic globalization brings universal values to every corner in this world. Meantime, the constant global materials’ flows created a high density time-space, in which the social and cultural barracks between different countries and races are breaking down. People are forced to re-consider themselves from a perspective of all mankind and a universal value. A World Heritage Site, officially recognized by UNESCO, is selected on the basis of having cultural, historical and scientific significance to the collective interests of humanity, regarded as having outstanding universal values cross all the time and cultural boundary. In other words, once a site is being identified to a world heritage site, it means the site has great value not only for the races or country who own it at ant time, but also for all humankind at all time. The preservation of the site will be under the supervision of UNESCO and supported by international funds. That is, sometimes, where the arguing starts. Under the wave of globalization, cities are becoming a melting pot of varied cultures competing, blending and eventually neighboring peacefully. However, the cultural globalization is gradually dissipating the soil of different races nurturing their unique characters. National identity is already one of the most urgent issues contemporary. More and more races realized that besides the opportunities brought by the globalization, the dilemma of inheritance, preservation and development of national culture follows too. Chinese traditional cultures have been impacted heavily by the western cultures. Tons of racial literatures and languages are lost, intangible cultural heritages are losing the inhabitants. Young generation is growing up under the universal culture and losing its own cultural identity, local social relations are breaking. Realizing that, local communities and social groups are taking positive actions to preserve their cultural identity; in most cases transforming the exotic cultures and reproducing the indigenous cultures. In the example of KFS in China, when KFS restaurants first appeared at Chinese main cities, they were looked as the meeting places for friends or party-game space for teenagers. They only served the fried chicken and KFC meals. After years of running, the restaurants were no longer they were any more. Now KFC sell costumers the traditional Chinese breakfasts, soya milk and fried crullers, and combed the fried chicken product with Beijing Duck Rolls. And they are nothing but a fast food for local Chinese and if they don’t localize, soon there will be other restaurants replaced them.

Cultural heritage, as a reproduction of history, tradition and memory, is used by

local communities to shape their space-time imaginary. These communities include countries, cities, districts and neighbors. The preserved objects are selected to enhance the consensus on their identities by telling the communities’ history visually. However, as the worldwide social interaction and economic dependence intensifies, the boundaries between different imaginational communities blurred gradually or even disappeared. On one side, the influence of global materials flow weakened the connection between the existing local cultural identities and social relation network; on the other hand, one could have multiple identities or belong to different


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO

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imaginational communities. When the existing social relations and values are threatened by cultural globalization, the local communities would also find their own ways as a respond to rebuild a meaningful identity, distinguish themselves from other time-spaces and social life, namely the localization of global economy and cultures. Therefore, wherever the globalization happens, the localization would make a way to resistant, transplant and misappropriate the global consuming culture. The result of this process of localization is the hybridization, or creolization of culture. Seeing the globalization from this point of view, it is clear that how communities could rebuild their cultural identities and social network.

In the era of globalization, no place-meaning making could get rid of the influence

of other places. The narrative of historic places, without exception, is one of the reactions to the globalization. By analysis the multiple and heterogeneous interactions of local communities to the global economic and cultural flows, the meaning of heritage preservation is redefined.

The unique position of Macao in history is mainly determined by three factors: its

geographical location, the cultures and the political effects. Macao locates at the south end of Chinese mainland, near in the developed Guangzhou city which is already a national trade center in 15 century. The geographical position made it an ideal portal to the vast inner land. Meanwhile, Macao locates on north of South China Sea, enjoying a superior condition for sea trade. The indigenous peoples in Macao come from Guangdong and Fujian provinces, bringing Lingnan culture, south Fujian culture and Chaoshan culture, which are know being hardworking, smart and tolerating. Different religions meet here, forming Macao’s unique and multiple local cultures. By the time of 15th to 16th century when Portuguese arrived Macao, Ming dynasty in China was at its peak of reign and nation power and Portuguese can not colonize Macao by force of arms like the other European colonists did in Asian countries and districts. At that time, the disparity of economy, techniques and military between eastern countries and western world was not as wide as it was in 19th century because of industry revolution. The slim advantage in armed force of Portuguese was not strong enough for them to make the rules in China. During the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, missionaries from different European religious orders such as the Jesuits, the Dominicans, the Augustinians and the Franciscans entered China through Macao, engaging in missionary work and bringing with them a certain cultural influence. They introduced western concepts of social welfare and founded the first western-style hospitals, dispensaries, orphanages and charitable organizations. They brought in the first movable-type printing press to be used on Chinese soil, and published the first paper in a foreign language. As Macao was the base for the Jesuit mission in China and other parts of East Asia, Jesuit priests entering into China service would always come first to Macao where, at St. Paul’s College, they would be trained in the Chinese language together with other areas of Chinese knowledge, including philosophy and comparative religion. Macao was thus the training ground for the Jesuit’s mission to China and other parts of Asia. St. Paul’s College was the


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largest seminary in the Far East at the time, acclaimed as the first western-style university in the region. Other, later, achievements of Christian missionaries in Macao include the production of the first English-Chinese Dictionary and the first Chinese translation of the Bible by Robert Morrison.

Figure 1.3 World map in 16th century

Figure 1.4 Silk Road and Sea Silk Road in 16th century


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The establishment of Macao as an international Freeport in 16th century was not the result of military conquest; instead it was out of the interest needs between Chinese and Portuguese. It was the middle point of maritime Silk Road, linking the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean and forming a massive maritime trade network. The building of this interest network was based on the gradually growing mutual acknowledge in the early age of 16th century. In fact, Macao functioned as a special autonomous region in south China until the opium war; foreign residents in Macao were under the administration of Chinese government, they were forced to pay taxes for their living and working; the commercial activities were limited too. Only after 1840, Portuguese seized the authority in Macao, yet the fact that Portuguese colonies government can not fully control the local society was never changed. Local society was under the real control of various Chinese communities. Chinese people, who occupied over 90% of Macao population was self-governing all the times. For all these reasons, the Portuguese colonists did not establish their colonial authority or a strong cultural discourse. After the return to mainland, the cultural influence of Portuguese receded gradually. But the history narrative of Macao was never fully in colonists’ hands, nor in Chinese government. Enduring through four hundreds years of autonomy and immigration, three main races formed the majority population in Macao’ society; European Portuguese, Macanese and Chinese, between which share few common sense with. Completely different with Chinese official cultural discourse which mostly shared one uniform national identity, Macao embraced multiple ethnic groups and mixed cultures. According to the demographics in 2008, Chinese occupied 97% in Macao residents; Portuguese including Macanese and other foreigners occupied 3%. Macanese would find difficulties for themselves in building up the belonging sense to Chinese mainstream culture. More Macanese are tying to have a different historic discourse and form their own identities. During the middle school students’ riot in 1988, one Macanese student avowed himself “not one Chinese, nor one Portuguese, we are our own race”.

The emergence of Macao with its dual function as a gateway into China, and as

Ming China’s window onto the world, reflected a relaxation of certain restrictions combined with a degree of open-mindedness that offered a creative way to supplement China’s vassal-state trading system and marked a turning point in the history of both China and Europe. Macao, as the West’s first established gateway into China, was remarkable in setting off a succession of connections and contacts that progressively enriched both civilizations across a huge range of human endeavor, both tangible and intangible, at a critical point in history. Macao inherited from traditional Chinese culture, Lingnan culture, European religious culture and the commercial culture, blending them in a tolerant society with its diverse customs, developed communities and highly freedom of worship. On one hand the blending of races and cultures nurtured the city temperament of open and generate; on the other hand, it cause identity crisis in local society. Two culture discourses of Portuguese and Chinese, both pictures Macao a masterpiece building by colonists and international culture melting pot are neither concerning the local social nature and native


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consciousness. As a post colony and a free port, Macanese cultural identity concerns the native awareness, national discourse and global consciousness. Global position of Macao has changed drastically since the Second World War, it is more known as the capital of gaming or an international entertainment city than a port; yet the official historic narratives has not fully involved in Macanese native awareness. The voice from local Macanese needs to be heard. The problems observed in Macao heritage preservation forced people to reconsider its culture discourses and social identity, and the space-society concept of heterotopia would help clarify the identity crisis.

Figure 1.5 Old photos of Macao Port in 17th century


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Chapter 2 Constructing Macao World Heritage Site as a Heterotopia Foucault’s heterotopias: place making and social meaning

The heterotopias concept was originally put forward by Foucault in his speech “of other space” in 1976, which referred to “the place of otherness”, the temporal or environmental space alternative to daily normal life. Foucault considers heterotopias to be an environment which has an ambivalent relationship with the rest of space. He defines heterotopias as “counter-sites, a kind of effectively enacted utopia in which the real sites, all the other real sites that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested, and inverted.” “Places of this kind are outside of all places, even though it may be possible to indicate their location in reality”. Unlike the utopias, which are sites with no place. According to Foucault, utopias are sites that have a general relation of direct or inverted analogy with the real space of society; heterotopias, on the other hand, “present society itself in a perfected form but are fundamentally unreal spaces. But there exist some real places, that can be found within the culture, are simultaneously represented, contested and inverted the other sites.” They exist outside of all places and are absolutely different from the sites they reflect and speak about.

Foucault used several examples to interpret the concept of heterotopias. First

example he gave was the mirror, or to say, the space in and out of the mirror. In the mirror, one can see himself there where one is not, in an unreal, virtual space that opens up behind the surface, such is the utopia of the mirror, but it is also a heterotopia in so far as the mirror does exist in reality, where it exerts a sort of counteraction on the position that one occupy. It makes this place that one occupy at the moment when one look at oneself in the glass at once absolutely real, connected with all the space that surrounds it, and absolutely unreal, since in order to be perceived it has to pass through this virtual point which is over there.

In the following examples, Foucault explained several principles of heterotopias.

Heterotopias of deviation are generally replacing the crisis heterotopias, in which individuals whose behavior is deviant in relation to the required mean or norm are placed. Cases of this are rest homes, psychiatric hospitals, prisons and retirement homes. Then the cemetery is used as a case to illustrate another description of heterotopias that each heterotopia has one function or another according to the synchrony of the culture in which it occurs. Third principle is explained by theater, cinema and gardens, which the heterotopia is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place several spaces, several sites that are in them incompatible. Fourth principle is the most often linked to slices in time, which is to say that this space open onto what might be termed heterochronies. Museums and libraries, for example, are heterotopias indefinitely accumulating time, in which time never stops building up and topping its own summit. While opposite these heterotopias that oriented toward the eternal, where are those linked to time in its most flowing, transitory, precarious aspect, to time in the mode of the festival, such as fairgrounds. Vacation villages are combining

Chapter 2 Constructing Macao World Heritage Site as a Heterotopia

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two forms of heterotopias, the festival and the eternity of accumulating time. Heterotopias of fifth principle are not freely accessible like a public place, they presuppose a system of opening and closing that both isolates them and make them penetrable. In some cases, there are others that seem to be pure and simple openings but that generally hide curious exclusions. Anyone can enter into the heterotopic sites but in fact they are excluded. Examples can be found in American motel rooms. The last principle of heterotopias is that they have a function in relation to all the space that remains. Either their role is to create a space of illusion that exposes every real space or else, they create a space that is as perfect, as well arranged as ours is messy, like the colonies worldwide.

Foucault uses heterotopias strategically to explain and rethink the relationship

between space making and social meaning. Space is interpreted firstly as a field of power, and secondly as a mean of cultural criticism; in which the dialectical relations of power are discussed and the self-examination to the real places pushes the development of place making.

The concept of heterotopia carried a new way to think about space and many

academic scholars used it as a critical method of reifying space. Geographer Peter Johnson suggested in 2013 in his “heterotopian studies” that heterotopia might better serve as a method lens rather than as a means of reifying spaces as essentially heterotopic, offering a different means of reading world heritage sites. Many researches focus on heritage preservation using heterotopia concept tend to focus on the influences of preserving practices on local communities, with specific attention to the historic discourses and tourism commoditization.

The most meaningful inspiration of heterotopias concept to heritage preservation is

the linking between space and time, illustrating in the third and fourth principles. Examining the time-space relation in museum, library, festivals and vacation village, Foucault actually pointed out the intension of heritage preservation; a place where time is accumulating and never stops to build up, and where time is temporal. Contemporarily, heritage sometimes is preserved and exhibited as a particular historic discourse like museums, or even become a vacation village for tourists to experience the ancient life for a period of time like a theme parks. Under this circumstance, the meaning of heritage preservation needs to be re-examined in the view of heterotopias. In this point of view, the original relation between the historic sites and the surroundings has already so changed that it is impossible to retain the original meaning of the heritage. Any heritages can be seen as memory places where multiple meanings and identities coexist. In other words, we can see heritage as a heterotopia, within which we would find different temporality and spatiality blending. Besides, the global position of the memory place needs to be concerned too. No place meaning making can produce regardless of other places’ effect. Actually, as one link temporary place making, the heritage space is a natural response to the global materials and cultures flows. As the time goes by, positions of anywhere are changing. As Professor


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Xia Zhujiu said in 2003, “Through the preservation of heterotopias, which are the memory treasures, we can reconsider the society, building it more tolerant and mature.” Multiple dimensions of Macao heritage heterotopia

Macao was built up as a heterotopia. Colony as a heterotopia in Foucault’s theory is a perfect, marvelous place, compare to our messy reality, where human perfection is effectively achieved. But as it mentioned in chapter 1, during all the time when Portuguese controlled Macao, the actual authority was never fully seized by colonists. The Macao’s local society was in hand of Chinese communities mostly from 16th to 19th century. From this perspective, Macao can not be seen as a colony heterotopia. But on the other hand, Macao is a place where is capable of juxtaposing in a single real place of several spaces, several sites that are in them incompatible and also a place where time is accumulating. In Macao’s historic center, one can see Chinese style housings surround one Portuguese piazza; one can find temples of folk religion beside the Catholic Church; people live in a house building in Portuguese style but with Chinese techniques; Macanese celebrate both Matsu’s birthday and Christmas. People in Macao live in a place where accumulates several time and spaces. During the festivals, people dress up and celebrate a different culture. Today, when tourists are about to center into the historic center, they would find themselves lost: one side of the street are splendid skyscrapers and magnificent blocks, full of people from different races speaking different languages; on the other side, however, are high-density low-rise buildings with courtyards inside, Macanese by twos or threes sit leisurely next to trees of hundred years in piazza. The quiet and leisure space atmosphere in residential area is not welcoming the tourists as they expected in a tour site. In this sense Macao forms another heterotopia, where people seem to be welcome entering but find them excludes finally, as Foucault defined with bedroom in Brazil and American motel rooms.

The settlement of Macao by Portuguese navigators, in the mid-16th century laid the

basis for nearly five centuries of uninterrupted contact between East and West. The origins of Macao’s development into an international trading port make it the single most consistent example of cultural interchange between Europe and Asia. “The Historic Centre of Macao” coincides with the heart of the western settlement area, also known as the “Christian City” in history. “The Historic Centre of Macao” is a living representation of the city’s historic settlement, encompassing architectural legacies interwoven in the midst of the original urban fabric that includes streetscapes and piazzas, such as Barra Square, Lilau Square, St. Augustine’s Square, Senado Square, Cathedral Square, St. Dominic’s Square, Company of Jesus Square and Camoes Square. These major urban squares and streetscapes provide the linkage for a succession of over twenty monuments, including A-Ma Temple, Moorish Barracks, Mandarin’s House, St. Lawrence’s Church, St. Joseph’s Seminary and Church, Dom Pedro V Theatre, Sir Robert Ho Tung Library, St. Augustine’s Church, “Leal Senado” Building, Sam Kai Vui Kun Temple, Holy House of Mercy, Cathedral, Lou Kau


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Mansion, St. Dominic’s Church, Ruins of St. Paul’s, Na Tcha Temple, Section of the Old City Walls, Mount Fortress, St. Anthony’s Church, Casa Garden, the Protestant Cemetery and Guia Fortress (including Guia Chapel and Lighthouse) altogether known as “The Historic Centre of Macao”. Since the time the Portuguese first settled there, Macao has developed a visible dual culture which continues even now, and this cultural accommodation is seen in the city’s history, administrative structures, as well as in physical features like architecture, gardens and public spaces. The legacy of this culture is evident in both tangible and intangible forms, some to be seen in the blending of architectural styles of many of the monuments, in religious tolerance, or in the cuisine unique to this city, itself a fusion of culinary traditions, reflective of different historical and geographical influences. Of utmost importance, however, is the intangible legacy of Macao and this is understood not only as something inherent in the city itself but also in the long exchange between China and the rest of the world, and thus amounts to a wider cultural legacy with outstanding universal value.

Three impetuses can be found in Macao’s heritage preservation. First is the

government, who uses history narrative as a cultural method to build the national identity through selected heritage sites. Second are the local communities who keep the sense of belonging to their homeland under the impact of globalization. The last driving force is the economic interest in developing cultural tourism. Political dimension: shape the national identity via historical narrative selectively

The institutionalization of heritage preservation worldwide associated with the rising of modern nation state. As historians points out, modern nation states are not naturally-born; instead, they are invented in 19th century as an imaginational community, and heritage preservation is one of the most important cultural strategies of build their identity. National institutions would collect and make up kinds of local cultures or traditions as the symbol of national culture. For the sake of building up national identity, government presuppose an imaginational citizen with no gender, race or class, and the history tell by him is the national history. The classification and promotion of heritage on national level, as a method of strengthen national identity; effectively consolidate the state’s unity. Most professional institutions of doing such are the museums and heritage preservation department. In these two fields, fractured time can be bonded, missing men in certain time can meet, and the nation state is stressed repetitively. In short, the very first meaning of heritage preservation is that it is a cultural tool for modern nation state of producing and reproducing the national history. Since heritage symbolic the national spirit, elegant old buildings or landscapes are often classified as cultural heritage and the meaning of them are always narrated beyond their region and represent a larger scale of culture discourse. When Macao historic center was declaring world cultural heritage, 22 historic buildings and 8 plazas are selected to represent Macao’s history, including western buildings, Chinese style buildings, common space, folk religion space, war relics and so on. The integratement of different cultures reflects the ambition of Macao’s government to shape it into one cultural melting pot. Over history Macao has been


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narrated in to an important gateway through which western civilization entered China; for hundreds of years this piece of land has nurtured a symbiosis of cultural exchange, shaping the unique identity of Macao. And “The Historic Centre of Macao” is living testimony to the assimilation and continued co-existence of eastern and western cultures over a unique chapter in history.

Preserve the social relationship and local character: intangible heritage

The second impetus behind heritage preservation is the local communities. They combine the preservation of heritage with the conserving of local environment and social relation. In this sense, the preserved objects are not only buildings and tangible space, but intangible heritage as well, such as social tradition, way of life and social network. Urban sociologist Gans reminded urban planners in 1970s, that what truly needs to be preserved is not the elegant building but more of the general houses; more of the social meaning of building environment rather than esthetics significance; more of the social network and relations rather than the actual space in historic center.

Preservation of local heritage was raised in 1960s. One feature worth of most

attention of it is that local preservation tries to build social identity in a scope of face to face. Foe instance, the great urban planner Lynch pointed out in 1972, that it is more efficient of preserving local communities’ historic district to build their sense of place rather than preserving national relics. The preserved objects need not to be long-history relics or grand buildings; as long as they are meaningful to local residents even short-history buildings worth the preserving. Old buildings or landscapes form the common memory in local communities and play a core role in retaining the communities’ identities. Architectural historian Frampton put forward the concept of critical regionalism and architecture of resistance in 1983, as the strategy of resisting the cultural homogenization. In a word, local preservation supposes that environment can be better only through local resist ants’ efforts. Therefore, local preservation emphasizes the process of local participant, constraint of architects’ power; repair of existing environment and authority the local communities. If the preservation can involve in local communities’ participant, it would help residents understand how a place is changed when time passing by and how is it influenced by other places.

Macao historic center’s value lies not only in the completeness of the architectural

and urban infrastructures, but also in the fact that these monuments have retained their original function and spirit to the present day. As an integral part of the city’s life, the conservation of “The Historic Centre of Macao” is crucial to the local community, due to its historic and cultural significance must be preserved. Macao historic center used to function as the core of urban commercial activities, tourism and entertainment. Contemporarily, it transferred into a new center for citizens’ common activities fusing tradition and modern. The regeneration of historic center need to involve the public participation, so that local people are empowered the authorization of their common heritage and further their sense of place. Especially for high living density district in


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Macao, the active participation of local communities is necessary: on one side, the preservation activities help intensify the social relationship and enhance the local sense if place; on the other hand, if the common identity of local communities is neglected during the preservation, it would put the common identity in danger. The main goal of local preservation is to confront the living environment changes from investment of developers and globalization of culture and ideology. When local interest pursuits discord the government’s pursuits, especially when government plans to develop the gaming industry, tourism and other economic goals in historic center, the local interest demands would tremendously conflict with the government’s plan. Through continued promotion and public education, locals have expanded their knowledge and deepened their understanding of Macao’s role in Chinese and world history. Their senses of ownership and pride in the city’s heritage reflect the recognition of Macao’s origins, its civilization and the context that has nurtured this development. As of the day of listing, the people of Macao are entrusted to ensure the protection of “The Historic Centre of Macao”.

Economic development: cultural tourism

The third impetus in Macao heritage preservation is the economic pursuit in global tourism market. The modernize of social relation and space not only liberates people from traditional social regulations so that people can embrace the free will, but also makes people lost themselves spiritually. Therefore, the modernization, on the contrary, makes people nostalgic. And the nostalgia forces them to pursuit a more beautiful, pre-social imaginary environment. Through carefully selected heritages it is possible to create a short but refined history in which people place their beautiful imagination of a past time and satisfy themselves with nostalgia. History theme parks are building world widely, with vacation villages for people to pursue their beautiful old times and get them lost in stories for a short time. Sadly, many cultural heritage sites are found to be like that.

Learning from the past preservation experiences, Macao heritage preservation

structurally connected with nationalism, localism and tourism. In the whole picture, these three figures build on the basis of the loyalty to particular places, and the nostalgia of the pre-industry times. They all gave the similar responses to the drastic changes of society and space from capitalism modernization. The heritage preservation, in the modernization, responded to the project of nation states building their imaginational communities, supported the local culture movements to fight the cultural globalization, and also supported the culture tourism that satisfied people their nostalgia. Since Macao historic center successfully decelerated in the world heritage list in 2005, the geo-relationship, the blood relationship and the social network all have changed dramatically, in which process, the modern living demands of local habitants collide with the authenticity principle of heritage preservation.

Under this circumstance, the basic prerequisite, that is the binary opposition of

development and preservation of heritage preservation between government,


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preservation circle and communities can be break via heterotopia concept. In other words, the urban expansion and construction seems to collide with the historic districts preservation. But the heterotopia concept reminds us that preservation is supported by multiple advocators and imagination, so that we can analyze the possibilities in the process. Although the analysis can not interfere the practical activities nor influence the social imagination of local communities, but through the analysis I hope it enriches the research on heritage preservation and inspires developers more strategies of heritage development.

Figure 2.1 Distinct cityscapes in Macao historic center

Figure 2.2 One place juxtaposing different time and spaces Preservation movement: the conflict and balance between different communities

Macao world heritage site is the historic district centered in the oldest Portuguese settlement in Macao, at the southwest of the main island. The historic centre has now been inscribed on the World Heritage List, further raised community awareness and fosters an appreciation of heritage values. The historic center covers an area of 161.678 square meters, includes twenty tow historic buildings and eight plazas, integrated by streets and common spaces. The historic buildings include both Chinese and Portuguese buildings, fork religion temples and christen churches. After return to China, the Macao’s economy especially gaming industry and tourism has been growing rapidly, which causes drastic changes on society. These changes bring about


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further conflicts between heritage preservation and social development. Lots of cultural heritage preservation movements have happened since 2004, a year before Macao inscribing on the world heritage list. Ten years’ preserving practices and movements not only remind Macanese the importance of heritage and local participation, but also require the Macao SAR government to concern local communities’ demands then adjust the governance mode and manage strategies. Macanese need to play more weighted role in policymaking for heritage preservation. In the following chapter, I will analyze one of the most important and influential preserving movement, Guia Lighthouse Protection. Firstly, I will put it into the global economic-cultural network and explained its different roles in various historic periods; secondly, I will clarify the trial of strengths of varied interest groups to identify the Guia Lighthouse from their points of view.

Macao is an immigration city ruled by Portuguese over four hundred years. It results

in the identity crisis of Macanese inevitably. Handover from Portuguese to Chinese government, Macanese subjective consciousness grows up gradually as the colonial influence subsides. In this historical process, taking part in the movements of heritage preservation, fighting for bigger citizen voice and seeking the community identity become three main methods for people to resolve the identity crisis.

Stated from the demolition of Yec Long Firework Factory in 2001, fourteen heritage

preserving events happed till 2013. The Guia Lighthouse protection from 2006 to 2008 is the height of the preserving movement. It not only draws all the social attention but international concern as well because of belonging to the world heritage sites. Most events in heritage preserving related to economic interest, as well as public infrastructures, land uses and people’s wellness, so that the preservation strategies are effected by various demands and political issues . And in all these events the Macao governments showed the incapability of dealing with multiple demands and the inconsideration of the potential interests. At present stage, Macao culture institution lacks enough power to solve the preserving events under existing legal framework because the functions of government departments overlapping. Although Macao government absorbed lessons form the past events and adjusted the manage mode in time, but only in preserving issues, public opinions and social conditions have not been taken fully into consideration.

Guia Lighthouse protection is one representative event in heritage preserving

movement; it caused the highly social concern and drew international attention. The heritage sites in Mount Guia area are Guia Fortress, Chapel of Our Lady of Guia and the lighthouse. The fortress’ construction started at 1622 and finished 1638 included a watch house, a powder magazine and housings. After the construction work it was used as a prohibited military zone until the retreat of Portuguese army in 1976, and then the fortress was developed into a tourist attraction and contained the original appearance. The lighthouse, finished construction as a watch house and defense post in 1864, is the oldest lighthouse along Chinese coast area. Because its high position,


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after 1910’s renew, the lighthouse transferred its function from military for civil use: to hang up storm warnings and typhoon signals, also navigated the coming ships. Meantime, the location of Guia Lighthouse makes it the end of the visual corridor from Macao Harbor to Mount Guia and the cultural landscape of the most importance. Multiple temporality and spatiality made Guia Lighthouse a heterotopia in Macao, holding a special position in Macanese. Some Macanese say that, “for Macanese, seeing the lighthouse far from the sea means coming home; for tourists, seeing the lighthouse means landing on Macao”.

Figure 2.3 Guia Lighthouse landscape and the visual corridor In October 2005, without any public consultation or legal procedure, Macao SAR

government approved the district No. 136 at harbor reclamation area, one area of 6296 square meters, for the Liaison Office of the Central Government in Macao Special Administrative Region to build the new office of 99 meters high. Because the district No.136 is not in the historic center nor the buffer zone of world heritage sites, buildings in this area is not under the height limitation of 90 meters for the heritage preservation purpose. In 2006 August, the height limitation in this district extended to 99.9 meters, higher than 90 meters of the Mount Guia, which sparked the controversy of destroying the visual landscape of Guia Lighthouse. Macao media first raised their query, pointing out that the constructing planning went out of control of urban planning and the new building would destroy the urban landscape. But Macao government, neglecting the public query, extended the height limitation further over 100 meters in the disputed area, which aggravated the crisis of Guia Lighthouse visual landscape. Since then the Macanese communities started to take part in this heritage protection event. Because the absence of urban planning law, there are flaws in the public projects and

land approvals. Collusions between officers and traders in relevant departments make it even worse. It was reported that one officer took bribes from business companies who asked the land approval. The exposure of this crime called more social concern to Guia Lighthouse protection, followed by a series of social actions. In December of 2006, various communities and groups started to organize a sequence of social


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movements, such as interrogatory to government departments, public outcry, holding meetings and forums, and demonstration. Protests came from various communities: senators, lawmakers, professionals, residents and Medias. People asked the SAR government to stop the disputed construction work and disabuse the public concerns. Under the circumstances, government insisted the legitimacy of approving the construction at disputed area, but agreed to resume the height limitation in disputed area to 90 meters for the sake of smoothing over the social conflicts. But the concession did not defuse the conflict. In the following half year, one building of 126 meters high had been constructing right next to the disputed area, district No. 134. In 2007, Macanese sent letters to UNESCO and asked for help in Guia Lighthouse protection, pushing it from a local event to an international issue. Under the supervision of UNESCO, Macao government still stick to previous strategies and neglected the problem of the constructing No.134 district. Social communities wrote to UNESCO and Chinese central government repeatedly, requested their assistance in the protection of Guia Lighthouse. Macao government’s ignorance of social opposition stirred up feelings of dissatisfaction among the protestors. Only after the heritage center and center government press the Macao government at the end of 2007 to officially defuse the public concern and solve the disputed constructing, the relevant departments started to face the problem and manage the issue urgently. Officers from China state administration of cultural heritage and members from UNESCO were sent to cooperate with Macao government and reconsider the projects and planning. Until April in 2008, the Macao promulgates No. 83/2008 administration, officially renew the height limit in disputed are down to 90 meters and right stop the constructing of 126 meters high building, the economic losses of developers would be undertook by the government. This administration can be seen as the concession of Macao government under the stress of international attention and the political pressure from the center government. The height limitation, after twice modifications is finally accepted by public. But unfortunately, the compensation fund to the developers of disputed area is not settling until 2012, the developers even placed an advertisement on newspapers to accuse the government of shirking the responsibility. Some communities further pointed out that the controversy in disputed area was the result of wrong buffer zone setting and the government should reconsider the protected areas. In the event, local communities and social groups showed highly concern about the landscape values and heritage awareness of Guia Lighthouse, and tried the best to make their voice hear by the Macao government. When they found the government untrustworthy, they turned to international institutions and central government for help. Heritage preservation can only be implemented when the communities aware of the importance of heritage to the local cultural identity and involved in the preserving practices. Although the space allocation and architectural form keeps the original form roughly,

the relation between Guia Lighthouse and surroundings has changed tremendously as the time passing by. The spatial imagination of it in Macanese’ mind has changed too. Today, Mount Guia has varied meanings to different communities: local residents,


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history professionals, media, government and tourists. The place meaning relates with the space practices of these communities; practices challenge or enhance the place meaning. Behind the mainstream urban imaginary are the powerful government and capital funds, who wish to take advantage of the landmark position and landscape of Mount Guia to promote the district economic development; in this process officer-trade collusion happened. In Macanese urban imaginary, the cultural landscape of Mount Guia is so important to shape the sense of belonging to local communities that the economic interest is just the second thought. From the architectural and historic professionals’ point of view, what are more importantly are the characteristics of the buildings and landscape of Mount Guia and the cultural and historic meaning of it. From the tourism economy view, what weighs is the sight view of city skyline and visual corridor from harbor to the Mount. Mount Guia, as a memory heterotopia, has the chance to be constructed to a place blending multiple urban imaginaries. While seeing from the current legal framework and management system, Macao has not build up an effective heritage preservation system. The government departments and officers defensively manage the preserving issues in urban constructions, insisting their prejudices regardless of the public concerns, which aroused continuous fighting of local communities and social preserving groups. In the process of constant preservation-development conflicts and concessions, more reasonable strategies are discussed and developed.

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Chapter 3 Walking in time: Viewing Macao from the Ground Level Travelling experience in Macao as a heritage tourism destination

In this chapter I will record my personal travelling experiences in Macao historic center from the first point of view and examine the urban imaginary of Macao cultural tourism on the ground level. The travelling experiences are analyzed from two sides: the different phases and the personal feelings in the travelling. Travelling behaviors can be divided into four phases. Firstly, collecting travelling information randomly; secondly, searching for travelling information actively; thirdly, carrying tourist behavior; and at last, recalling the tourist memory. Before tourists go to Macao, the travelling experiences already started; that is, the tourist attractions broadcast the travelling information via various transmission channels. When tourists got to Macao, the raveling experiences can be summarized to the engaging of some events and resources in particular environment so that tourists would gain a kind of new experience. After leaving the tourist attractions, tourists would recall the travelling and form an effect to the tourist destination based on the experiences for the next tour.

I went to Macao by ferry on 22nd October 2016, from Shenzhen Shekou Port to the

New Macao ferry terminal, which locates on the northeast of Macao Main Island. According to the understanding, people can enter Macao mainly through three ways: sea route, land route and air travel. Great majority of people coming from sea route and land route are tourists from mainland China, small part of them from Hong Kong; tourists coming via air are mostly from Taiwan, Korea, Japan and India. Individual tourists occupy over 90 percent and only few join the tour group. Among the tourists from mainland China, a large number of them come to Macao for vacation and entertainment, especially for gaming; tourist aware of Macao world heritage sites are a few, hardly any tourists come specifically for the heritage sites. According to one random sampling questionnaire survey conducted in Macao historic center in 2008, about the awareness, way of acknowledgement, tourist experience and degree of satisfaction of cultural tourism, only 36.3% of the tourists have a basic understanding of Macao world heritage sites, 54.9% only heard about it and 7.9% know nothing about it at all. Different cultural tourist attractions have distinct recognition: most of the tourists recognize the famous Ruins of St Paul, A-Ma Temple and the Mount Fortress but 40% of them never heard of other heritage sites or monuments other than that. In the survey of the way to acquire the heritage tourism information, most of the tourists collect the information via newspapers and magazines (43.3%) and televisions and broadcasting (42.3%), only 33.9% of people get information through internet. What is surprising is that there are 14.9% of tourists only get to know Macao heritage tourism after their arrivals. From which we can tell that the marketing and promotion of Macao heritage tourism still has yet to be improved.

Since I went to Macao with purpose of experience its heritage tourism, a lot of

travelling information has been collected before the journey. Macao Cultural Institution built a specialized website for the heritage tourism, introducing the stories

Chapter 3 Walking in Time: Viewing Macao from the Ground Level

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in Macao historic center, sharing the travelling information of the destinations and providing the online maps and tour APP for downloading. On the major travelling websites such as lonely planet, trip advisor and qyer, and more new Medias, travelling APP, tourists can find all the information and guidance about Macao world heritage sites, but the main attractions in Macao are still the gaming industry and entertainment. For Macao tourism marketing, more promotion focus on the gaming, folk customs, international food and extreme sports, heritage tourism is secondary attraction and simply introduced. From my point of view, the Macao heritage tourism information is relatively accessible and complete if the tourist intentionally collected the information before travelling via internet and new media. But for tourists mainly get information from traditional media such as television and newspapers, the heritage tourism is less recognized. This fact causes the division of tourists groups: people who well planed their journey before leaving and people who travel without destinations. The marketing of Macao heritage tourism is general for the former and barely for the latter.

Two days were spent on heritage experiences in Macao. First day I went to St

Lawrence Parish and Cathedral Parish and visited three heritage areas including 20 monuments; the second day I went to St Anthony Parish and St Lazarus Parish, visited two heritage areas and 10 monuments. The following section briefly introduces the monuments and travelling experiences.

“The Historic Centre of Macao” is a living representation of the city’s historic

settlement, encompassing architectural legacies interwoven in the midst of the original urban fabric that includes streetscapes and piazzas, such as Barra Square, Lilau Square, St. Augustine’s Square, Senado Square, Cathedral Square, St. Dominic’s Square, Company of Jesus Square and Camoes Square. These major urban squares and streetscapes provide the linkage for a succession of over twenty monuments, including A-Ma Temple, Moorish Barracks, Mandarin’s House, St. Lawrence’s Church, St. Joseph’s Seminary and Church, Dom Pedro V Theatre, Sir Robert Ho Tung Library, St. Augustine’s Church, “Leal Senado” Building, Sam Kai Vui Kun Temple, Holy House of Mercy, Cathedral, Lou Kau Mansion, St. Dominic’s Church, Ruins of St. Paul’s, Na Tcha Temple, Section of the Old City Walls, Mount Fortress, St. Anthony’s Church, Casa Garden, the Protestant Cemetery and Guia Fortress (including Guia Chapel and Lighthouse) altogether known as the historic center.

First day I visited the monuments in St Lawrence Parish and Cathedral Parish. The

travelling experience started in Cathedral, where on the hill nearby Cathedral Square located. Heading to St. Dominic’s Square, I passed a typical Chinese courtyard house compound – the Lou Kau Mansion. St. Dominic’s Church is located at the junction of Senado Square and Dominic’s Square. Moving up to Almeida Ribeiro Avenue, which is a well paved business street, the narrow streetscape opens onto the main city square -Senado Square. Situated at the opposite of main street, the “Leal Senado” Building has a commanding view overlooking the entire square, flanked on both sides


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by South European-style buildings with the glimmering white façade of the Holy House of Mercy standing in its midst. Tucked behind the commercial shop fronts to the left of the Leal Senado Building is the Sam Kai Vui Kun Temple. All the heritage monuments signed by the Cultural Institution at obvious positions with brief introduction and surveyed maps. These monuments are linked by well-patterned pavement streets and plazas, distinguished heritage sites from the ordinary houses. Linking to the main business street are small alleys full of tiny shops, including local snacks, traditional handicrafts and creative products shops. Around the main city square Senado Square, brand businesses and famous restaurants attracted thousands of people gathering every day. Senado Square is also the most important public space for civil rally and common activities, which made it the most popular and liveliest heritage site.

Went across the main street and climbed up the hill from there, the path leads to St.

Augustine’s Square enclosed by a cluster of monuments - St. Augustine’s Church, Sir Robert Ho Tung Library and Dom Pedro V Theatre. Behind the church, Prata Street leads to the junction of São José Street where the grand entrance to St. Joseph’s Seminary and Church is located. Further down the road, Barra Street connects into the Padre António Street and the Lourenço Street right where the St. Lawrence’s Church stands. Further down the road, the narrow street suddenly opens onto Lilau Square, the first residential district of the Portuguese settlers in history where the Mandarin’s House is just tucked behind the pastel façades across the street. A-Ma Temple is located on the south-western tip of the Macao Peninsula overlooking Barra Square and the seashore. Around the corner of A-Ma Temple is the Moorish Barracks situated on Barra Street. These monuments locate in the quiet residential area, sharing the completely different space atmosphere with the northern part of heritage area. The streets are narrow and twisty, buildings around are low-floor and high-density. Getting to the monuments needs a little walking and climbing which makes the heritages quite inaccessible for disabled or physically challenged tourists. The narrow streets and high-density residents makes it inconvenient for people to arrive via modern transportation, along with the fact that the monuments and heritage sites are not only far away but less attractive as well, it is not surprised that I observed less guide board, travelling facilities or tourists in this area.

Figure 3.1 World heritage sites: plazas in commercial area and residential area


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The visiting in the second day centered in Ruins of St Paul. Ascending from the base of Mount Hill from the urban piazza along Palha Street, the bluestone cobbled road leads me to the grand façade of the Ruins of St. Paul’s, with Mount Fortress sit on the side of it. Behind the majestic church front facade, is the miniature Na Tcha Temple and Section of the Old City Walls. Further down the hill, the linear route through one residential area ends at St. Anthony’s Church, the Casa Garden and the Protestant Cemetery. Monuments around Ruins of St Paul are well-facilitied with guide borads and elevators as the connection to Mount Fortress. The route to St Anthony Church, about fifteen minutes’ walking, pass through a peaceful residential area without any tour signs or guide broads, nor any shops for tourists, is less attractive to tourists. The people here are mainly the local residents other than tourists.

Figure 3.2 Pathways in hostoric center with distinct atmospheres Unbalance, fragmentation and shortage of guiding

From my ground level experiences, several figures of Macao heritage tourism are observed. Firstly, travelling hotspots are over heating while the others are too cold. Historic center as a tourist area didn’t well connected and the preserving of monuments are unbalanced. For nearly 30 million tourists coming to Macao in a year, the gaming and entertainment are the hotspots, heritage tourism is the cold spot; few tourists come for Macao world heritage sites intentionally. Then among the heritage sites, Ruins of St Paul, A-Ma Temple and Senado Square are worldwide famous, crowded all the year around, while the other monuments such as Lilau Square or Mandarin’s House are the cold spots where few people would visit. As an integrated historic area, the heritage sites are under promoting and uneven developed.

Secondly, the spatial experiences in historic center are fragmented and collaged.

Monuments as the points, plazas as the surfaces, streets need function as the links between them to integrate the whole area. But in Macao’s case, the monuments and plazas are well preserved and maintained as the cores of historic center while streets’ preservation was left behind somehow. The streets in historic are could not form a functioning system to guide people and linking attractions, instead they are dividing the area. Roads in St Lawrence Parish and Cathedral Parish are kept as they were, deep, narrow and uneven, from the first settling periods of Portuguese so that they can


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not satisfy the modern transportation or the large numbers of tourists. The road system must be renewed in order to prominent the local characteristics. Take the A-Ma road from Moorish Barracks to St Lawrence Church as an example, the poor condition of it stands a shape contrast to the well maintained monuments, one can hardly imagine the road is one part of the heritage sites.

Last, the guiding information and tourist facilities are inefficient. Every monument

has a brief introduction sign with historic stories and surveyed plans, together with the heritage tourism APP and QR code. But in the whole picture, the heritage tourism lacks of spatial and narrative continuity. Except the famous attractions, few guide broads or signs were placed at the heritage sites hidden in residential housings, which caused lots of troubles in locating and finding them for tourists. Further more, unlike the crowds and bustle in hotspots, the peaceful and leisure atmosphere in less welcoming heritages makes a barrier to tourists, and created a sense of boundary to local residents at the same time. These factors stopped tourists gaining the complete travelling experiences in Macao historic center.

Fortunately, I found Macao some great values and figures that other world heritage

sites don’t have. The historic center doesn’t loss its characteristics because of the heritage tourism, or become a history theme park for tourists’ nostalgia or curiosity. Instead, the historic center still plays a coral part in local residents’ daily life and cultural life. The city didn’t turn itself into a grand museum where values from different historic periods are convened and exhibited; local heritages are vividly joining in contemporary life. Folk religion places like A-Ma Temple and Na Tcha Temple, although some parts of the buildings are disrepair, are the most important and often visited places among the local residents all year. During the traditional festivals, these places become the busiest common space for citizens meeting friends, socializing and celebrating. Squares like Lilau Square and Camoes Square are mostly used by locals for chatting, meeting and relaxation, full of elders in the evenings. Tourists might find pity that some heritage sites are not exhibited as a museum and sometimes not welcoming; but for local communities, what is more valuable is that they live closely with these heritage sites and through these living memory, the cultural identity and social network are preserved.

Community involvement

Since its return to mainland China, Macao government has invested more than 150 millions MOP in over 100 cultural heritage preservation programs. These programs included the maintenance of important monuments, renewal of heritage sites and improvement on heritage environment. In order to be inscribed in world heritage list, Macao SAR government set up a fund specifically for heritage preservation. For example, the chief executive of Macao government once decided to exchange a site worthy over hundreds millions MOP with the developers just for the sake of the maintenance of Mandarin’s House, then invested large amount of funds to conserve it old as before. Enough funds investments make sure the well preserving of most


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Heritage sits and monuments in Macao. But the divide of the heritage sites’ management caused other problems. In the historic center of Macao, twenty five monuments and eight plazas are under administration from different departments, social groups or private entitles. There is no one powerful supervision and preservation mechanism of heritage management: some monuments are directly managed by the cultural institution of Macao; some are by social communities like parish or temple councils. The vague of management has caused several preserving events before. In 29th October 2007, the disputes over the property rights of A-Ma Temple were brought into the public, the manager at that time suddenly closed A-Ma Temple without informing the cultural institution of neither Macao nor the local tourism communities. Being the most popular tour attraction in Macao, thousands of tourists come to A-Ma Temple, and the sudden closure of it was immediately reported by local media and drew the national attention. It is hardly for heritage sites to get effective protections when the disputes of property rights remain unsolved. Under this circumstance, increasing the heritage preserving awareness of locals, arousing them taking part in the protection and produce practices become the most vital section in preservation movement. After 2005, the Macao government and the cultural institution actively organized a series of promoting and educational programs of cultural heritages, which direct at Macao citizens, especially the young generations to raise their heritage awareness. Two features in the promotion programs can be observed: one is to mobilize the citizens’ participation and “everyone involvement”. The other is to encourage the young people, specifically the students to concern local culture, tangible and intangible, and motive their senses of belonging. To popularize the education of heritage preservation, the cultural institution successively held the project of Macao Heritage Promotion and the program of “Year of Culture Protection” to all the Macao citizens, the relative activities aimed at students and young teachers, focused on communities and schools are very much educational and welcomed. One of the above mentioned programs, the “Macao Heritage Ambassadors Training Project”, has trained groups of young students enthusiastic in promoting the heritage preservation as the cultural ambassadors. These ambassadors led tourists in turns visiting around the historic monuments and heritage sites, introducing them the history of Macao urban development and historic changes, building up the cultural identities among young generations. Macao Foundation organized one project, named “Our Home, World’s Heritage”, as one part of the series activities in the promotion project of Macao historic center. It was so popular in the primary and middle schools that thousands of students sent their reports to organizers afterwards. On the second Macao cultural heritage forum, when discussing the issues of better preservation and rapid economic development, the deputy director of the cultural institution, Zecheng Chen set he theme of the heritage day in 2016 as “everyone involves, everyone shares”. And the president of history education institute, Faqin Lin further indicated that only by educating the young generation the importance of heritage preserving, the goal of preserving the cultural identity and social network can be achieved eventually.


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Figure 3.2 Macao cultural heritage promotion projects

Figure 3.3 Cultural creative industry: heritage stamps and food map Local communities are a vital force in heritage preservation. At the beginning of inscription, Macao government proposed that the meaning of being world heritage is to realize Macanese the unique cultural values of Macao, and building up the Macanese cultural identity. But for the historic reasons of being post-colony, in the urban blueprint of developing cultural tourism, the communities’ involvement is quite inadequate also the ethnic identity or cultural awareness is deficient. As the Law on the protection of cultural heritage being effective in 1st March 2014, the cultural institution of Macao organized the activities of “Wandering in Streets and Alleys” to further promote the Macanese cultures. The cultural ambassadors will guide tourists and residents going through the small alleys and courtyards, walking into the history and telling detailed stories about Macao and local communities. The route of “Wandering in Streets and Alleys” covered a few world heritage sites like the Ruins of St Paul, Na Tcha Temple, Section of the Old Wall, and several important historic buildings like Travessa da Paixao, Patio da Eterna Felicidade and Dumortier Chongyi Association Hall. During the visiting except introducing the history and characteristics of the monuments, the ambassadors would also explain the legal


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provisions of the law on the protection of cultural heritage, calling people concern the local heritage and taking part in the preservation. Sadly, project of “Wandering in Streets and Alleys” only covered the several most famous world heritage sites, considering the limited visiting time of one half hours, the affection of local heritage and cultures to tourists is very limited. Through ten years’ efforts, the local communities have been an indispensable part in heritage preservation. But new challenges come along the public involvement. More and more people join in the yearly parade for the Birth of Na Tcha, among which most are not local residents any more as before. New participants share nothing with the Na Tcha belief, they come more for tourism and economy reasons. More famous one heritage site become, more chances it has to promote itself by holding events or performances. Some performances digress from the original place senses and inevitably commercialized and heterizationalized for the sake of attracting tourists and capitals. Some cases happened also in intangible heritage preservation. Many intangible heritage inheritors admirably hold to their beliefs decades with perseverance and consistency. While some of them lack the knowledge and confidence of preserving their beliefs, so they ask for help from the government and academic communities. When the heritage preservation is driven by the academic circle or the government, with the absence of inherit subjects, it is quite possible that the preservation projects commercialized or heterizationalized. Because once over participating in, the academic communities tend to control in detail the cultural discourses and preserving proposals, which would not only weaken the inheritors’ subject consciousness, but also cause cultural misunderstandings. No mater how deep the academic researches go, scholars could never replace the native inheritors to preserve and produce their own cultural identities. After all, in the complex processes of heritage preservation, the involving communities, from the government, academic communities, local residents to the inheritors, should keep their dispassion and reflection constantly when developing the strategies of heritage preserving.

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Chapter 4 Conclusion

China has 50 world heritage sites, ranking the second only to Italy in the world. However in the process of high-speed modernization, the heritage preservation in China is faced with both spatial and cultural difficulties, with a long history of 5 thousands years, our predecessors left us a rich historic heritages. But under the heavy pressure of population and irreversible urbanization, the preservation of cultural heritage has been long neglected. After decades of economic backwards and political isolation, as the economy rapidly growing, Chinese people finally have the opportunity to catch up and live a convenient and comfortable life as their neighbors in the developed countries. But the reality is that such life may consume large mount of resources and bring along the gradual deviation of traditional characteristics. In Beijing, shanghai and other mega cities, urban renewal demolished hundreds of old buildings, streets and alleys with high historic values. The traditional urban textures are replacing by new urban designs, leaving only a few of pieces of historic areas struggling. What is more dangerous is that these historic areas could survive in urban renewal only because they rely on the development of business and tourism. The historic characteristics and traditional cultures are transforming into cultural products, producing to comport people who own rich material life but find the spiritual world empty.

The disappearance of cultural heritage spatially also reflected in the disappearance

of traditions. With the deterioration of the material cultural heritage, intangible cultural heritage is also facing the danger of extinction. Young generations in China lived an American life, having little knowledge of traditional Chinese folklore and customs. Many traditional ways of celebration to festivals are forgotten, only traditional foods are remembered, the only linkage between people and traditions. Some festivals even become the consumption day. When history id not involved in people’s daily lives, when history only exists in the textbooks, in museums and commercial streets, the preservation of cultural heritage is lost. Behind it are the different values. On one hand, from the point of politicians and public, the preservation of culture is contradictory to the improvement of economic development and living environment. If not commercialized or translated into economic goods, the significance of heritages preservation is not in consideration; and people in the pursuit of convenience and comfort are cultural short-sighted, often they choose to sacrifice cultures and make way for a easier life.

On the other hand, China and western countries share different definitions and

philosophies of heritage preserving. The principles of authenticity, completeness and identifiably are still under discussion in Chinese academic communities. In the Chinese preserving history, descendants are constantly involved in the restoration of the cultural relics, in which process they reproduce the relics with temporary characteristics and make their new interpretations. Ming and Qing Dynasties built the capital on the basis of former dynasty followed the same urban textures and building


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elements. Many of the materials in new buildings were the demolished components from the old ones, and after simple repairs and painting, the old buildings in good condition were put into reuse soon. It is after the introduction of modern western cultural heritage preservation to China in 1930s, the principles of authenticity and completely are gradually popularized. Kinds of historic reasons resulted in the spatial problems and cultural issues in preserving the cultural heritages in contemporary China. Choosing Macao world heritage site as my study case, analyzing the difficulties in its heritage preservation, and interpret the preserving strategies in theory frame of heterotopias, this research helps understand the complexity of contemporary heritage preservation and provide a new perspective.

Macao, with four hundred years of autonomy an immigration, has an unique history

and culture. Macao also inherited various cultural experiences and regional influences, further developing these in conjunction with the local Chinese culture and blending them to produce the rich texture seen in the city’s exceptional heritage. Exposure to diverse cultures in this lasting encounter between the eastern and western worlds has therefore benefited Macao in assimilating a rich array of cultural heritage. Under the high pressure of developing gaming industry and tourism, the urban textures and patterns which kept same over hundred years changed gradually. In the process of economic and cultural globalization, Macao developed its own cultural discourses and history narrative. However, the discourses were dominated by the colonists and the central/SAR government, for local Macanese, the cultural identity is ambiguous. With multiple forces’ affecting, the historic center of Macao was constructed in to a heterotopia. In Foucault’s definition of heterotopias, he described it as a real existing space, but absolutely different from the sites they reflect and speak about. Multiple heterotopias can be seen in Macao historic center. The new districts formed from urban expansion and sea reclamation, and the old historic center which shares the same characteristics with four hundred years ago, have a completely different urban scale and texture. Visitors can clearly feel the different cityscape and atmosphere when they walk through the whole city. More than that, as a post0colonial immigrant city, Macao carries a diverse cultures and ethnic groups, who share the common spaces and also keep their cultural and architectural characteristics. Tourists feel from time to time the sense of time warp and the sense of city collage. Macao juxtaposed different time and space, forming its own unique city image. When re-examining the preservation of Macao cultural heritage from the perspective of heterotopias, researchers can understand the multiple impetus behind the preserving practices and various urban imaginaries from communities, so as to provide new possibilities for the heritage preserving strategies developing.

Macao’s heritage preserving work started early in the Portuguese occupation

periods, when the government approval the relevant laws and regulations to assess the value and assure the protection of selected historic buildings. When inscribing the world heritage list, Macao selected 12 representative monuments telling the Macao story. After the site visit and value research by officers from world heritage center, it


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extended the scope to 22 historic monuments and 8 squares connecting by streets, known as the historic center of Macao. After the adoption of the Law on the protection of cultural heritage, Macao world heritage preserving practices has been further identified and popularized. The SAR government has set up a special administrative department to provide financial support and supervise the management of heritage sites. The institution of culture organized a series of promoting and educational activities on preservation to local Macanese and tourists. Despite all this, due to the vague of the management rights of heritage ownership, the lack of managing system and the different pursuits from communities, there was a long period of controversy and conflicts, when preservation events emerged one after another. The role of community involvement in heritage conservation is vital, especially in Macau. In the four hundred years of Portuguese colonial history, the actual administrative authority of Macao society is not in the hands of the Portuguese colonial government, not in the distant Chinese central government, but in the hands of local Chinese self-organizing communities. The Macanese organized all kinds of associations, trade unions and communities to deal with all kinds of social affairs, which still are important political and economic forces in society today. In a series of preservation events, social communities have played the key role. In the research of heterotopias theory, it was mentioned that the cultural heritage preservation movement is one of the most significant method for local communities to rebuild their cultural identity, local sense of belonging and to resist the cultural invasion of globalization. Unlike the museum-style display or the commercial street-style operation in other historic districts, Macao's cultural heritage is closely linked with the folk life together: the historic center is still the oldest and most densely populated area in the city. Heritage monuments such as churches, temples and squares are important places in the daily life of the local residents. With the changes of the times, these monuments have developed new functions to serve the local people. By actively participating in the preservation and restoration of heritage, disseminating the knowledge of heritage conservation, and educating the younger generations of local history and traditions, the communities are actively involved in the heritage preservation projects and form the key driving force and most solid foundation for Macao's heritage preservation.

Throughout this research project, due to the limited time, there is no more thorough

study on the colonial history of Macao and its urban development, nor a longer time to live in Macao to gain a more in-depth understanding of local life. A few questions are still unsolved: Who select the heritage sites? What is the value and position of the selector? What kind of story the selected heritage site is telling? And is that the stories which local Macanese are telling? More work need to be done for a bigger-pictured Macao heritage preservation study. As a female visitor from mainland China, my observation and travelling experience in Macau has its own limitations. Heritage tourism, even with the same visiting route, may differ for different travelers, telling historical stories from a different angle and revealing another face of Macao. At the same time, due to language and cultural barriers, it is impossible for me to examine


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the heritage preserving practices from a native Macanese. Interpretation only from the perspective of outsiders is inevitable being subjective at some points, which left the questions for the latter researchers to work on. But through the heterotopias space concept studying, the interpretation of the process and difficulties in Macao cultural heritage preservation work can provide a new direction to other heritage development researchers in the mainland, also pointing out another possibility on preserving activities. I hope that in mainland China, broader and deeper education and promotion of the heritage preservation will raise people's awareness of cultural heritage and deepen their understanding of heritage preservation so that more social groups and communities can participate in the preserving practices..

Foucault in his speech “of other space” said, “The boat is a floating piece of space,

a place without a place that exists by itself, that is closed in on itself and at the same time is given over to the infinity of the sea”. From port to port, from tack to tack, the boat has not only been the great instrument of economic development, but has been simultaneously the greatest reserve of the imagination. The ship is the heterotopia par excellence. In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure, and the police take the place of pirates. Cultural heritage, in a sense, also exists in people's imaginary. It provides a space for historical imagination, also provides a reference for people to define their own identity. The preservation of cultural heritage deeply rooted in the national or ethnic history imaginary, closely related with the establishment of national self-confidence, cultural identity. I hope that my research project will contribute to China's heritage conservation research work.

Appendix

Figure 1 Locations of Macao world heritage sites

Figure 2 Macao world heritage sites and the management rights

Figure 3 Macao world heritage preservation events since 2001

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