Macao, from the Ocean to the Archives: Maritime Routes, Emigration and Heritage in the Mascarenes

This article presents the synthesis of a larger research on the presence of migrants from Macao in the Mascarenes archipelago, in the Western Indian Ocean, and the contemporary Chinese heritages that are part of the local Creole cultures. The methodology moves between archival research and ethnography, crossing historical research with heritage and cultural studies, opening dialogues between history and cultural landscapes, the past and the present, the archives and contemporary society. Besides, this text is not only about historical traces of Macao in the Mascarenes, but also interrogates how today’s Chinese cultural heritages are seen, debated, and narrated in the archipelago, and how they integrate contemporary diasporic senses of belonging. This article is from the research paper for the project ‘Macau, from the Ocean to the Archives: Maritime Routes, Emigration and Heritage in the Mascarenes’, funded by the Academic Research Grant 2020 of the Macao SAR Government.