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This article analyzes, from a comparative perspective, the lives of the Poor Clares of Santa Clara in Macao and Coimbra during the 17th century, questioning whether religious profession can be understood as authentic devotion or as an "escape from female helplessness." The research articulates the documentary scarcity regarding Macao with a better-documented case in Coimbra, employing a historiographical approach grounded in common institutional frameworks: the rules and constitutions of the Order of Santa Clara (Second Franciscan Order), the vows of obedience, chastity, poverty, and enclosure, as well as the role of the dowry in conventual admission. As a starting point, the available archaeological evidence from the Convent of Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra is discussed, where 16th-century Chinese porcelain pieces were found, questioning their circulation and the possible links between the East and the Coimbra conventual space. The author proposes hypotheses regarding the origin of these objects—contacts with other houses of the Order (Macao, Goa), gifts brought by clergymen, or integration into family dowries—concluding that the interpretation of the conventual phenomenon requires intersecting spirituality, the dowry economy, and Atlantic-Asian networks, rather than reducing enclosure to an exclusively instrumental logic or, conversely, a merely devotional one.

The article analyzes Anna D’Almeida’s *A Lady’s Visit to Manilla and Japan*, interpreting nineteenth-century Western women’s writing as a device for intercultural representation. The author argues that the text should not be read as a mere tourist chronicle, but rather as a set of images produced from brief cultural encounters, in which Asian alterity is filtered through Western assumptions about “the Orient,” in accordance with Edward Said’s perspective. Methodologically, the study employs a critical reading of discourse and the construction of the “other,” articulating gender with social and cultural markers such as class, religion, ethnicity, and social position. The analysis identifies recurrent patterns in the way the narrator describes spaces, practices, and social agents of the Far East, revealing both the reproduction of stereotypes—associated with the idea of a static and invariable “Orient”—and internal tensions and contradictions in the very formulation of these images. The conclusion is that the narrative produces a common, yet multifaceted, image of the Far East, in which class prejudice and gender categories guide the attribution of meaning to the “non-Western,” transforming “other” women into representative figures of what the author (and her group) is not.

Doris Wastl-Walter argues that borders must be understood as dynamic, contested, and practice-based phenomena rather than fixed lines delimiting territorial states. Drawing on the evolution of border scholarship—from early efforts to demarcate and classify state borders in the context of imperialism and the world wars, to later approaches that conceptualized borders as artificial anthropogenic constructs, and ultimately to contemporary studies focusing on how borders shape everyday life—the article reframes border analysis through the lens of "good neighbourhood." Methodologically, it synthesizes interdisciplinary insights from geography, sociology, anthropology, and international relations, emphasizing the need to shift from macro-political demarcations to local interpretations and municipal "inner-urban" borderings. Key findings are that borders are Janus-faced: they can be simultaneously material and mental, stabilizing and transient, exclusionary and integrating, secured and open. Their effects are produced and reproduced through the narratives and everyday practices of political actors and local populations, which can either perpetuate segregation or transform the quality of border relations. The article concludes that managing borders productively requires attention to local meanings and lived experiences, for the promotion of well-being and peaceful coexistence.

The article argues that the recent transformation of Macau’s “border spaces” must be understood not merely as an effect of national policies or economic dynamics, but as a material and symbolic reconfiguration of the territory along the infrastructures and land reclamation processes that have shifted the border “from back to front” in everyday urban life. Drawing on the case of Macau—situated between the pressures of globalization and the need for identity construction—the author contends that the border has ceased to be a peripheral and marginal space (marked by gray legal zones and degraded port and waterfront areas) and has progressively become the main “portal” for access and valorization. Methodologically, the text combines historical-spatial analysis with a critical urban reading of changes in the coastline, the growing importance of the land border with Zhuhai, and the redesign of the coastline and Cotai, linking these mutations to political decisions and regional integration projects (including the logic of development through road infrastructure and the perspective of the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge). It concludes that, despite discourses of integration and modernization, these undertakings reactivate tensions and produce problematic impacts on the future of the border territory, reorienting flows, expectations, and ways of inhabiting and representing the city.

The article problematizes how the "occluded geographies" of the Portuguese discoveries are continuously reorganized among narratives of primacy, media spectacularization, and symbolic disputes over power. Drawing on comparisons between two transnational landmarks—the Freedom Tower in the post-9/11 era in New York and the "discoverer" imaginary mobilized in Lisbon for Euro 2004 and EXPO '98—the authors argue that Portugal (and, by extension, Macao) is inserted into visual and discursive regimes that simultaneously celebrate maritime expansion and filter its conflicts, contingencies, and territorial effects. Methodologically, the text articulates a critical reading of media framings and curatorial devices of urban space, analyzing relations between buildings and "towers" (with a recurring focus on the Torre de Belém and its network of meanings) to highlight how imperial memory is produced and governed. As findings, it demonstrates that the construction of "traditions of discovery" operates by linking monuments to projects of national self-affirmation (EXPO '98) and by repeating images of mobility as a foundation of legitimacy. The conclusion argues that such symbolic geometries reinforce cultural and historical boundaries, rendering certain geographies—including the Portugal–Macao connections—intermittent, mediated, and partially silenced.

The article argues that the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge (HKZMB) must be understood as “Charged Infrastructure,” that is, an urban device that not only connects geographical points but simultaneously reconfigures border functions, territorial ordering, regulatory regimes, and economic possibilities. Rather than belonging to the “generic” of globalization or to nation-state identities, the HKZMB is analyzed as a space of political ambiguity and geographical certainty, capable of producing a contiguous yet heterogeneous metropolis. The methodology is predominantly theoretical-propositional, articulating scales (from the regional system to the building and the room) and discussing the analytical value of treating infrastructure and border as a single “fabric” capable of uniting and separating territories. The text mobilizes the notion of articulation between private development and sustainable public amenities, proposing that the management of competition and connection, as well as of sovereignty and public use, constitutes the basis of a new urbanism. As a result, the article proposes the formation of a “Pearl River City” structured by the HKZMB and by a set of new development parcels on elevated platforms and artificial islands, advocating dense development along infrastructures as a way to maximize integration and communication in the connected region.

The article argues that, in the second half of the eighteenth century, Macau functioned as a decisive infrastructure for the East India Company’s China Trade by providing an operational space in which the opium traffic—necessary to obtain silver destined for the purchase of tea—was articulated with the strategies and interests of the enclave’s authorities and merchants. The author analyses how the British presence and activity, initially mediated by private agents (country traders, interlopers, and supercargoes) operating “under” Portuguese permissions and networks, conditioned the local economy, generated competitive tensions, and shaped Anglo-Portuguese relations surrounding the control of trade. Methodologically, the study is based on the cross-referencing of English, Chinese, and Portuguese sources, making it possible to reconstruct negotiation practices, intermediation mechanisms, and the effects of Chinese imperial policies which, although prohibitive, proved ineffective in the face of the lucrative and persistent character of illegal trade. As results, the article demonstrates that the maintenance of the enclave—especially in contexts prior to the relocations and reconfigurations of British traffic—was essential for the interdependence between the Company and private traders, reinforcing Macau’s centrality in the clandestine circulation that sustained the acquisition of tea until the escalation of conflicts associated with the Opium War.

This article analyzes how Macau's identity has been produced over the long term through the construction, negotiation, and persistence of borders. Drawing on a macroscopic approach and supported by findings from a year of ethnographic fieldwork in the city, the author articulates observable social phenomena with historical events linked to Macau's physical and politico-administrative borders, arguing that the dynamics of interethnic and intercultural exchanges and interactions were structurally conditioned by such demarcations. The text contends that "borders" must be understood beyond their juridical or material sense: they also include cultural and imaginary borders, which operate as mechanisms of identification and the production of differences. The historicized analysis shows that, in Macau, administrative and physical borders tend to coexist with cultural borders, which, even when the former were later attenuated or abolished, continued to produce effects on the social organization of space. It concludes that cultural diversity, far from being merely a consequence of global and imperial processes, functions as a constitutive feature of the place, mediating lived experiences and ways of inhabiting and signifying the city. Thus, the article proposes to retrace Macanese identity "from within" the city, highlighting the organic relationship between different border regimes.

The article introduces the theme "Cities and Borders" in the specific context of Macau, arguing that the understanding of the border must articulate local and urban dimensions with national and political scales. Departing from the diagnosis that the literature on borders has recurrently privileged State-centered approaches focused on national territory, the author proposes to reposition the border as an element that is simultaneously separating and integrating at the level of urban everyday life. Methodologically, the reflection is constructed as a theoretical and analytical framework for a volume organized around an international conference (2007), engaging with interdisciplinary contributions and suggesting a dialectical model between "forces of circumscription" and "forces of connection." In Macau–Zhuhai, the border is interpreted both as a "wall" that sustains political, social, and economic differences, and as a "door" through which massive flows circulate. The text maintains that such flows do not result from the border itself, but from the asymmetries it perpetuates, exemplified by price differentials, regulatory frameworks, and cultural effects on tourism. It concludes that cities such as Macau reveal the need to integrate administrative, sociocultural, and spatial borders into a structural approach to cross-border urbanity.

This article presents the author index for issues 25 to 28 of the *Revista de Cultura* (2008), bringing together contributions on history and culture with a focus on Macao and its Euro-Asian contexts. The selection highlights a plural editorial program, articulating historiographical studies, analyses of the circulation of people, knowledge, and artifacts, and interpretations of literary and cartographic representations. Based on the titles and authors listed, recurrent lines of research are identified: Luso-Chinese contacts and colonial dynamics among empires; cultural mediations in material practices, such as Sino-Portuguese textiles and armaments; documentary readings of chroniclers, travelers, and descriptions of the Far East; and approaches centered on health, epidemics, and medical networks in the nineteenth century. Methodologically, the diversity reflects the use of primary sources (chronicles, administrative documentation, travel accounts, cartography, and archaeological remains) and, in some cases, theoretical frameworks aimed at contextualizing texts and constructing hybrid identities in Sino-Portuguese negotiations. The conclusion is that the index functions as a thematic map and indexing instrument to consolidate, within a single space, fundamental debates on Macao as a historical-cultural node of global circulation.

The article analyzes, in the period 1850–1854, the construction of an "idea of Macau" through two nearly contemporary American perspectives: the letters of Benjamin Lincoln Ball (1850) and the narrative produced from the notes of Commodore Matthew C. Perry compiled by Francis L. Hawks (1852–1854). It is argued that, despite differences in status and objectives—Ball as a traveling physician and Perry as an agent of a naval mission—both authors interpret the city as a space of encounter between empires and civilizations, projecting onto Macau categories and expectations drawn from the political and economic universe of the United States and the commercial expansion of the nineteenth century. Methodologically, the text proceeds through a comparative reading of descriptions, framings, and modes of naming the territory, with particular attention to representations of urban and port geography, as well as observations on social practices and economic rhythms. Among the findings, the recurrence of analogies with Boston (Ball) and of "Western" topographical definitions (peninsula, relative position, nature of the harbor) stands out, stabilizing Macau as "knowable" for the American public. It is concluded that these narratives, although marked by editorial mediation, help consolidate an external view of Macau in the immediate post-Amaral period, simultaneously acknowledging formal autonomy vis-à-vis mandarin powers and underscoring the decisive role of Chinese elites.

Claire Williams examines Maria Ondina Braga’s travel- and memoir-based writing as a narrative space where physical displacement and psychic temporalization occur in tandem. Departing from the common bifurcation of Braga’s oeuvre into “Macao and other places” texts versus non-travel works, the article re-reads her journeys to Portuguese outposts—especially Macao—together with her formative memories. Drawing on travel-writing theory to address the difficulty of genre definition, Williams treats Braga’s autobiographical prose (including works labeled “romanceada autobiografia,” diary forms, crónicas, and memoir) as literary artifacts that mediate between fact and fiction, autobiography and a quasi-ethnographic gaze. Methodologically, the study foregrounds close reading of narrative strategies—fragmentation, shifts between impression and personal history, ambiguous subject placement, and the baroque-psychological style—to show how Braga simultaneously makes the strange familiar and the familiar strange. Williams argues that, despite the apparent freedom and wonder of her travels, Braga’s movements were driven by educational and economic necessity rather than tourism, positioning the author as both resident and observer at the empire’s margins. Ultimately, the article concludes that Braga’s concurrent “dislocations” narrate a persistent, though unsuccessful, search for identity, revealing parallels between lived history and literary construction.

The article analyzes how the American presence in Macao was perceived by the Chinese, articulating material encounters (ships, currencies, technologies), commercial activities, and religious missions as vectors for the production of images about the United States. It argues that, although the United States emerged late as an imperial power and exerted less direct influence on Sino-Western relations than European powers, the mediation of Macao allowed the everyday experience of Chinese merchants and observers to incorporate recurrent references to maritime power, technological modernity, and American national symbols—particularly the "motto of liberty" stamped on coins. Methodologically, the text mobilizes a chronological chain of contacts, drawing on historiographical sources and documentary evidence indicated in the study (ship arrivals, circulation of dollars, settlement of residents and Protestant missionaries, and printing initiatives), in order to reconstruct shifts between the early period and the more recent one, marked by new economic dynamics following the transfer of sovereignty from Portugal to China. It concludes that the image of the United States in Macao evolved from a figure associated with instruments of Atlantic trade and circulation into an economic and cultural actor of growing impact, reconfiguring Macao's role in Sino-American relations.

The article analyzes the representation of “static Macao” and “Macao in transition” in the short story collection **Cheong-Sam – A Cabaia**, by **Deolinda da Conceição**, the first Macanese female journalist and an author whose writing bears witness, across decades, to the political-cultural instability of the “Near East”: from the Sino-Japanese turbulence to the experience of exile. Proceeding from the premise that no culture is immutable—rather, it evolves through slow processes—the author redefines “static” as **background** and **scenery** (photography, landscape, and tradition), while “transition” operates as the **narrative engine** of action. Methodologically, the study focuses on a **localized corpus**: stories in which Macao is explicitly the setting (“O Calvário de Lin Fong”, “Os Sapatinhos Bordados da Anui”, and “Fome”), while also mobilizing narratives with a likelihood of local framing. The reading emphasizes how pictorial descriptions and cultural practices produce a sense of permanence, even as war, social displacement, and historical changes reconfigure characters, memories, and ways of life. The conclusion is that, in Deolinda’s stories, the city appears less as a “fixed place” than as a **palimpsest**: the static image sustains the contrast with transformation, revealing a Macanese identity constructed between familial continuity and historical rupture.

The article proposes "The Birth Certificate of the Name of Macau" by confronting traditional historiography on the origins and etymology of the toponym with a new primary document: an autograph letter by Fernão Mendes Pinto, written from Macau on November 20, 1555, and addressed to the rector of the College of Goa, Father Baltazar Dias. The research argues that, by revealing the earliest and most stable spelling of the term, the missive serves as key evidence to overcome competing variants regarding the original form of the name. Methodologically, the authors combine paleographic and comparative analysis of preserved copies (notably two held at the Biblioteca da Ajuda, Lisbon), verifying internal writing discrepancies ("ama quão," "ama cuao," "amaquã," "amaquan") and concluding that the signature and handwriting are attributable to Fernão Mendes Pinto himself, qualifying the text as an original document. Additionally, a reconstruction of archaic spellings and the phonetic evolution of the toponym is undertaken within the Lusitanian context—with attention to the transition from Amacao/Macão/Macao—integrating later testimonies (letters and reports) and prior discussions. As a result, the letter reveals the form "amaquão," related to Amagang/Yamagang, offering a documentary basis for reassessing the etymology and chronology of the name's transformation.

The article analyzes Macau between the 18th and 19th centuries as a “mercantile emporium”, exploring its structural potentialities and its political and economic limitations. Starting from the city’s geographical position at the confluence of maritime routes of the South China Sea, the author discusses how the natural shelter of the bays and the intermediation in the intercontinental circuit — linked to the trans-Asian route as far as Canton — favoured Luso-European and Asian trade. Methodologically, the investigation articulates historiographical reading with historical-institutional contextualization, mobilizing documented episodes concerning imperial policies, navigation constraints, and reorganizations of the Canton system. The main conclusions indicate that, despite the relevance of Macau in the outflow of Chinese exports (silk, porcelain, and tea) and in articulating regional networks (including Bantam/Java), the viability of trade was often conditioned by capital scarcity and Luso-Chinese tensions. The first half of the 18th century is characterized by severe restrictions on the number of ships (such as the limitation imposed by Yongzheng in 1725), generating impoverishment and conflict, although diplomatic and commercial measures produced partial effects. Finally, the text argues that the definitive reorganization of the Canton guild (co-hong) in 1757 and the consequent formalization of the Canton Trade System created a more stable framework, expanding Macau’s possibilities without completely eliminating its vulnerabilities.

The article examines the missionary strategy of the Society of Jesus in Japan (16th–early 17th centuries), arguing that the success and durability of the Jesuit presence in the southern archipelago depended less on an immediate "general conversion" and more on the gradual conquering of the warrior nobility (buke). Building on Ignatius of Loyola's directives, which envisaged the establishment of close relations with political-social elites without the Jesuits seeking benefits for themselves, the author maintains that the missionaries adapted this model to the context of the sengoku period and the exclusivist nature of the Christian message. The methodology consists of a critical reading of Jesuit documentation, articulated with an analysis of local social and military dynamics, with special attention to kinship networks among warrior lineages. It concludes that family ties between Christian and non-Christian lineages could produce divergent effects: in some cases, they facilitated the expansion of Christianity into new domains; in others, they allowed only individual Christianization or the broadening of conversions without territorial consolidation. The comparison of episodes such as Hirado (Hizen province) and the frustration/decline observed in Yamaguchi and Kagoshima exemplifies the contingent and processual character of the "Christianization of elites" as a condition for the mission.

The article examines how Manila articulated itself—as a pole, a mediation node, and a field of competition—within the maritime networks associated with the Zheng clan in the seventeenth century. Arguing that interactions between Manila Spaniards and merchant networks led by Zheng should be conceptualized less as isolated "piracy" and more as rivalry and interdependence between two mercantile circuits, the study reassesses the traditional historiographical discourse. Methodologically, the author identifies, values, and critically reads sources produced by missionaries and Iberian authorities, as well as Manila's administrative records aimed at controlling maritime commodities. These testimonies are confronted with contemporary descriptions of the Zheng system (including Francisco Rogemont's *Relaçam*) and with the contextualization of the logics of monopolization and coercion common to East Asian maritime economies, which frequently operated outside international norms. The findings suggest that Manila functioned as an entry point for regional flows and for Atlantic-Asian integration, attracting capital and Chinese intermediaries, while also intensifying conflicts over routes, ports, and markets. Thus, the article contributes to repositioning Zheng and "piracy" within a broader dynamic of networks, control policies, and rivalry strategies in the South China Sea.

The article analyzes Macau's place in the foreign policy and diplomatic disputes of the United States between 1844 and 1874, arguing that commercial presence and the pursuit of "cheap" labor within the scope of American economic expansion were accompanied by a legal-political discourse that, in practice, contested Luso-Portuguese sovereignty over the territory. The author contextualizes the negotiation of the first Sino-American treaty, signed in Macau on July 3, 1844, following the arrival of Caleb Cushing, showing how Chinese strategies to reopen the negotiation process and the American desire to obtain conditions equivalent to those granted to Great Britain shaped the agreement. Methodologically, the study articulates documentary analysis and historical-institutional interpretation, cross-referencing decisions of the U.S. Congress (such as the "Act" of 1849), governmental correspondence, and concrete episodes of consular tension. Among the main findings, it is highlighted that the application of consular jurisdiction in Macau was presented by the United States as extendable to the entire Chinese empire, reinforcing the idea of Macau as territory under Chinese sovereignty and generating recurring conflicts with Portuguese authorities. The article concludes that the question of consular "legality" operated as an instrument of indirect pressure, influencing Luso-American relations and Macau's international standing.

The article reconstructs, based on Dutch documentation and other foreign archives, the role of Weaver Suckin in the Canton silk trade between 1750 and 1781. The central contribution is to shift the historiographical focus from the macroeconomic structures of cultivation and annual silk volume to the mediators and producers who actually negotiated, prepared, and exported fabrics, particularly under regulatory regimes that limited the types and quantities of merchandise. It is argued that such restrictions, unlike the tea and porcelain trade, imposed smaller margins through reduced volumes, making it more difficult to attract foreign capital and pressuring weavers to meet external demands within governmental limits. Methodologically, the study follows Suckin through corporate and private records (VOC, SOIC, and DAC), combining agents' and supercargoes' annotations with contracts and nominal references; the identification of the character is critically discussed in light of orthographic variations and the existence of homonyms in Canton. As results, the article shows Suckin already consolidated by the late 1750s, active in transactions with the VOC via Hong houses and with other European agents, evidencing his position as a relevant figure in the production and circulation of exportable silk. It concludes that the nominal and documentary reconstruction allows for the recovery of the agency of an "outsider" partially invisible in the most common sources, offering a more integrated reading of Sino-European mercantile networks.