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The article proposes a redefinition of "Macau literature" that transcends the canonical categories of fiction, poetry, and theater. It is argued that any attempt at delimitation must consider, in particular, the centrality of journalism and essayistic writing in the Portuguese language, whose institutionalization dates back to the early nineteenth century, with periodicals that, in addition to disseminating diverse political positions, consolidated discursive practices recurrent in local cultural production. Secondly, the text emphasizes the importance of genres marked by Macau's translocal condition: reportage and travel literature, as well as autobiographical accounts associated with the memory of the territory and the identitarian sensibility of the Macanese. Methodologically, the approach articulates theoretical framing and contextual reading of representative cases, mobilizing examples from Portuguese, Chinese, and transcultural authors, as well as debates on the language and origin of writers. Among the findings, it is noteworthy that Macanese literary identity is structured around a productive tension between singularity and plurality: on the one hand, the plurality of languages (Portuguese and Chinese) and of editorial circuits; on the other, the singularity of the "Macau backdrop" as a historical and cultural experience, including contemporary visions such as the dual heritage thematized on the eve of the 1999 transfer.
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This article analyzes the construction and circulation of Macanese identity within a diasporic context, arguing that it was shaped less as a fixed "essence" than as a cultural performance situated between colonial empires. Drawing on the case of Macau’s Eurasian community—often self-identified as Portuguese, yet marked by Cantonese linguistic and everyday influences as well as transregional commercial networks—the text frames the discussion within recent debates on the "characteristics" of Macanese identity. The investigation particularly reads Henrique de Senna Fernandes’s fiction as a literary device that stages this intermediary position: a loyalty to the colonial status quo accompanied by a selective absorption of Chinese repertoires and those from other Lusophone geographies (India and Southeast Asia). Methodologically, the article links interpretive analysis of literary discourse with a critical review of anthropological and historical-cultural contributions on Macanese identity, emphasizing the relationship between belonging, social class, and historical adaptation throughout the twentieth century. It concludes that "fiction" functions both as the elaboration of an identity myth and as an archive of the diaspora’s internal tensions, revealing how the group’s survival depended on ongoing negotiations between a "Portuguese" heritage, reconfigurations in the face of Chinese growing influence, and strategies of social acceptance.
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- Journal Article (2)