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The article discusses Mo Yan (莫言) as an intellectual “from the countryside, the homeland, and the world,” arguing that his writing results from the articulation of rural experience, institutional formation, and the creative appropriation of Western literary models. The author contends that the development of Chinese fiction since the late 1970s has accompanied profound social and cultural transformations, in a process comparable to economic modernization: through learning, imitation, and borrowing, a renewing vitality was consolidated, finding its highest exponent in Mo Yan. Methodologically, the analysis proceeds by way of biographical-professional contextualization and an interpretive reading of early-career works, highlighting “The Transparent Carrot” (透 明的胡籮蔔, 1985), conceived from a dreamlike experience and structured by the childhood sensitivity of its protagonist, Heihai (“dark boy”). It concludes that the narrative, episodic and deliberately lacunar, mobilizes an impressionism capable of transforming poverty, hunger, and displacement into psychological density, revealing symbolic relations between figures and objects in the narrated universe. Thus, Mo Yan reconfigures rural memory into a transnational literary language, converting the “land” into a device of imagination and of the world.

The article analyzes the literary representation of the hotel-casino that, since the 1970s, has consolidated itself as an emblem of Macau—the Hotel Lisboa—in a chronicle by Clara Ferreira Alves (1999). Drawing on an intertextual and comparative reading, the study seeks to understand how the text reconfigures the "Other space" through narrative strategies such as figurative descriptions, contextualizations, analogies, and metaphors, simultaneously operating a visual translation and an imagological decoding of the architectural complex. Methodologically, the investigation articulates the analysis of the chronicle "Hotel Lisboa" with other representations, in Portuguese and English, of symbolic buildings, establishing dialogues with descriptive traditions and with twentieth-century Anglophone travel writing. It is concluded that the Hotel Lisboa functions as a platform of passage, a place of pleasure, and a cultural frontier, where modernity and progress articulate with a dynamic of illusion and escape from everyday life. The casino intensifies structuring binaries of the imaginary—luck/misfortune, happiness/sadness, wealth/poverty, reality/escapism—suggesting the proximity between anonymity, public spectacle, and personal tragedies. The article thus interprets literary "fantasy" as the production of a transnational imaginary, often analogous to that of "sin cities" such as Las Vegas, but reconfigured in a local key.

The article analyzes how Rui Rocha’s poetry articulates “the Orient” and “silence” as aesthetic-philosophical principles, arguing that his writing subverts the Western tradition grounded in discursivity, logic, and the primacy of utterance. Taking as its starting point the work *A Oriente do Silêncio*, the author contends that, already in the dedication, a structuring triad is delineated—the reverberation of an ancient China, the ethical mandate to be fulfilled in the succession of lovers, and the sovereignty of tones and writing—which permeates the entire book and relates to a mode of non-abrupt movement sustained by serenity and the continuity of “occurrence.” Methodologically, the analysis combines close reading of passages with a theoretical framework from the Zen tradition (associated with Mahāyāna/Chan Buddhism) to show how the notion of emptiness and the refusal of oppositions guide the poetic experience. It concludes that silence, far from functioning as a mere thematic device, operates as a territory of authenticity: between words and images, the poem instates an ethics of listening and rhythm, offering a worldview fundamentally distinct from the loquacity and artificiality of “showing.”

The text presents an analytical index of authors and studies published in issues 37 to 41 of *Review of Culture* (2013), bringing together contributions in Portuguese and/or English on the history and cultures of Macau and its Luso-Asian intersections. The organization of the material reveals a thematic framework that articulates literature, philology, intellectual history, colonial policies and institutional transitions, as well as studies of identity, linguistic practices, and commercial circulation. Although the document does not itself constitute a methodologically structured research article, the compilation functions as a tool for disciplinary mapping: it allows one to locate recurring research agendas, identify clusters of authors, and recognize approaches ranging from textual analysis and historical commentary to socioeconomic micro-history and the intermedial reading of cultural objects. Among the highlighted lines are studies on Henrique de Senna Fernandes and fictional reconfigurations of Macau, investigations into Portuguese missions and Japanese grammar, dynamics of trade and intercultural encounter, debates on political models and regimes, as well as analyses of cultural mediation in periods of transition. It is concluded that the index reinforces the interdisciplinary nature of the journal and facilitates critical consultation of the corpus for future historiographical and cultural revisitations.

The article analyzes two opera seasons in Macao—in 1833 and in 1865—to explain how the archipelago became integrated, by maritime routes, into a global musical culture of the nineteenth century. The author argues that, far from constituting isolated episodes, the performances by itinerant Italian companies fit within a transcontinental circulation of operatic repertoires, artists, and tastes driven by oceanic routes and by networks of cultural mediation. Methodologically, the study combines critical reading of contemporary sources, including local press records and residents' diaries, with historical-musical framing on the "globalization" of opera—marked by the expansion of the so-called "Rossini universe" and, more broadly, by the hegemonic weight of Italian production. In comparing the two dates, the author identifies continuities and transformations in the way the Italian repertoire was selected, disseminated, and received in Macao: in 1833, a touring South American company—described locally as operatic "circumnavigators"—staged an expressive series of operas, while in 1865 the presence of a new dynamic of circulation confirms the persistence of Atlantic-Asian maritime connections. It is concluded that the opera seasons functioned as articulation points between Macao and the musical circuits of the nineteenth-century world, revealing the role of maritime routes in the construction of a transregional performative culture.

The article analyzes the need for harmony as a transversal philosophical principle between the Confucian East and the Leibnizian West, taking as its starting point the approach already attempted by Leibniz to Confucian thought and the Yijing (易經). The author argues that, although they share a concern with the pacification of tensions and the integration of differences into a complementary whole, the traditions diverge above all in how they conceive the religious and metaphysical foundation of this harmony. Methodologically, the text proceeds through comparative reading and selective exegesis of passages from the Analects, articulating them with Leibnizian concepts concerning education, perspectival knowledge, and the “pre-established harmony” that guarantees harmonization among monads. As results, the article shows that, in Confucianism, harmony is not merely internal: it requires plurality, sociability, and the cultivation of moral virtues, which makes knowledge a communal exercise. In Leibniz’s case, each point of view would be an expression of a divine order, allowing a rational harmonization without the collapse of plurality. Finally, the author discusses the problem of Western theological translation, suggesting that Leibniz’s approach to Chinese religion requires conceptual mediations (notably via Neo-Confucianism).

The article provides a critical-documentary analysis of Manuel de Saldanha's embassy to Peking (1668–1670), drawing on an unprecedented collection of 52 letters preserved in the Historical Archives of Goa. The author argues that this corpus—comprising first-person writings, including appointments, instructions, directives, and orders issued by the ambassador himself—offers a more detailed account of the mission's internal dynamics and the political-institutional framework surrounding the diplomatic enterprise than other, then-scarce sources. Methodologically, the study systematically cross-references complementary accounts and testimonies, in particular: the itinerary of the Jesuit Francisco Pimentel, the tendentiously negative interpretative framing of Domingos Navarrete, the ambassador's letters to Jesuits linked to the Province of Japan, and the minutes of the Leal Senado of Macao. The analysis concludes that the embassy failed to gain credibility with the Mandarinate authority, suffered successive setbacks over the course of its two-and-a-half-year tenure, and did not achieve the objectives initially envisioned by the Leal Senado and the mercantile community of Macao, thereby contradicting any reading of presumed Sino-diplomatic understanding and acceptance. The text further relates the mission's outcome to the political and economic conjuncture of the Middle Kingdom, marked by dynastic instability and restrictive policies on coastal trade, which structurally undermined the viability of the Macanese settlement.

António Aresta’s article examines how José da Costa Nunes—a Portuguese figure active in the East, particularly in Macao—conceived of China and interpreted its culture and history. Taking as its point of departure the intellectual and moral context of late 19th-century Macao—marked by political-institutional instability, the erosion of knowledge, and social tensions exacerbated by epidemics and rumors—the author frames Costa Nunes’s reflections as a response to a broader crisis of values, not merely local but civilizational. Methodologically, Aresta undertakes a historical-interpretive and contextual reading of the writings and interventions attributable to the author, cross-referencing them with contemporary documents that allow the conditions under which his perspective was produced to be situated (notably correspondence, reports, and administrative acts). The conclusions suggest that José da Costa Nunes’s “vision of China” is not reducible to exoticism or a purely missionary judgment, but rather articulates an observation of the world with a moral and religious project, conceiving the reformulation of the social ethos as a means to confront cultural degradation. Thus, China emerges simultaneously as an object of knowledge and as a critical mirror of European and colonial difficulties, revealing continuities and tensions between doctrine, pragmatism, and expectations of the re-Christianization of public life.

The article proposes a historiographical reassessment of Francisco Vieira de Figueiredo, a prominent figure as a merchant and benefactor linked to the Portuguese presence in the Far East, reinterpreting him as a “fidalgo” socially produced by institutional mechanisms rather than by lineage alone. The argument articulates biographical reconstruction with a critical analysis of the gaps and persistences in historiographical production: from the pioneering mentions by Charles Boxer, who for decades omitted the character’s place of origin, to the author’s recent study, grounded in primary documentation. Methodologically, the text cross-references traces dispersed across different archives and editions, with particular emphasis on the process of the Tribunal of the Holy Office for admission as a familiar of the Inquisition of Goa. Based on this dossier, the article reconstructs filiation, place of birth (Azambujal, near Ourém), and mobility trajectory, identifying the consolidation of the patronymic “de Figueiredo” in India, associated with the conferral of the “Habit of Knight of the Order of Christ” in 1647. As main conclusions, it is shown that Vieira de Figueiredo’s social ascent is understood through the convergence of service and recognition and through verification procedures (purity of blood, origin, and status), allowing for the reading of the emergence of an aristocratizing identity in the colonial context of Goa and Macau.

The article examines how returns to Macau — simultaneously as place, archive, and symbolic desire — contribute to the elaboration of contemporary postcolonial narratives within the Luso-Portuguese context and that of so-called “Greater China.” Departing from the long European colonial tradition of travel accounts, the author shifts the focus from exploration to an “expedition” of restitution: rather than extracting benefits from the colonial enclave, the aim is to restore what would have been “borrowed.” To support this thesis, the article mobilizes a cultural and literary reading of Portuguese works set in Macau and reinterprets the territory’s peculiar status, often described by scholars as a “special” colony, marked by incomplete sovereignty and implicit negotiations with China. Methodologically, the analysis articulates intertextual genealogies (especially the Camonian heritage and its mythologies of symbolic reconstitution) with an examination of circulations of power and affect across cross-border networks (Hong Kong, the Chinese littoral, and beyond). It concludes that the literary reappropriation of the return to Macau produces new narrative configurations: it reorients imperial memory beyond direct domination, shifts the “end of empire” toward an ambiguous discontinuity, and allows an understanding of how postcolonial meanings are constructed in the present, in tension with the contemporary intensification of the China–Portugal bond.

The article analyzes how Agustina Bessa-Luís, in *A Quinta Essência* (1999), constructs images of Chinese culture through the gaze of the protagonist José Carlos, whose search for the "source" of the Chinese spirit organizes a "temporal journey" that articulates practically four centuries of Portuguese presence in Macau. Arguing that otherness is produced by mechanisms of familiarization—mixing fantasy, delirium, and historical reality—the author interprets the novel as a device for reading cultural encounter, simultaneously proximate and distant. The study mobilizes a critical-literary approach centered on the articulation between plot and underlying History, examining "bridge-texts" and documentary references (letters, memoirs, diaries, travel accounts, dictionaries, decrees) that sustain a frequently stereotyped view of the Orient. As an interpretive axis, the inscription of *The Dream of the Red Chamber* (*Hong Lou Meng*) stands out, functioning as a structuring cultural archive: its images, themes, and narrative forms intersect with the empirical experience of the characters in Portugal, Macau, and China. It concludes that the novel reconfigures the relationship between identity and difference by converting History into a matter of imagination, exposing the conditions of production of cultural "others" and the limits of deciphering the foreign.

The article analyzes the echoes and influences of the First Portuguese Republic in Macau, seeking to explain how the process of recognizing the new regime unfolded in a singular colonial context, marked by political, institutional, and social distance from the metropolis. Arguing that the circulation of republican determinations encountered practical and symbolic limits in the territory, the author maintains that many mechanisms were not fully applied, nor immediately, while others were adapted according to local conditions or simply did not materialize. The approach mobilizes a historiographical perspective centered on reconstructing the reception of the Republic in Macau, taking as reference events and debates from the period between 1880 and 1910, as well as the particular dynamics of local administration and the ideological sensibilities linked to the previous regime. It concludes that the republican proclamation, while arousing expectation, fear, and a reconfiguration of social perceptions, also generated administrative embarrassments and interim decisions, revealing the specificity of the republican “impact” in an imperial space distinct from the remainder of the Portuguese patrimony.

The article analyzes the figure of Victor Hugo de Azevedo Coutinho (1871–?), born in Macau, proposing him as a privileged case for understanding the historical connections between Portugal and the overseas territory, particularly in the context of the transition from the Monarchy to the First Republic. Starting from the premise that his personal, professional, and political trajectory is intertwined with the processes that marked the end of the monarchical regime and the republican cycle, the study constructs an interpretative narrative with a chronological thread, articulating biographical dimensions and political-social conjunctures. Methodologically, the work draws on historiographical frameworks and the cross-referencing of biographical references already produced by local authors (such as Manuel Teixeira, Leonel de Barros) with factual elements relating to his naval training and public role. The central argument holds that Azevedo Coutinho, despite his origins in Macau, was shaped by Luso-Atlantic institutional networks and, once in Portugal, assumed relevant positions, becoming an "interpreter" of decisions in environments of high political instability. The conclusions highlight Macau as a formative and symbolic space, revealing the circulation of republican projects and the participation of elites with overseas connections in the reconfiguration of the Portuguese state.

The article proposes a comparative analysis of the maritime expeditions of Zheng He (Ming) and Vasco da Gama (Portugal), focusing on how the "dimension" of the missions and their historical "consequences" were interpreted, mythified, and reconstituted by historiography. Proceeding from the difficulties of reading the past—the "fog of memory" and the "mystification of history" arising from documentary gaps, political interests, and traditions of celebration—the authors argue that both official accounts and popular narratives tend to convert complex strategic choices into heroic gestures that are teleologically self-justifying. Methodologically, the text mobilizes a comparison of trajectories, objectives, and results on an Atlantic/Indian Ocean and Sino-maritime scale, engaging critically with historiographical debates and with contemporary uses of the past (including distortions publicized by widely circulated works). The conclusions maintain that the two fleets should be read less as "absolute ruptures" and more as situated responses to specific economic, political, and technological networks, whose impacts varied according to institutions, routes, and forms of commercial control. By recommending transnational studies, the article aims to reduce cultural biases and offer a balanced appreciation of the "virtues" attributed to maritime heroes in the Luso-Chinese space.

In 1615, two Jesuits — Francesco Buzomi and Diogo de Carvalho — were sent from Macau to Cochinchina, a territory governed by the Nguyễn princes, accompanied by Japanese preachers. The article argues that this decision by the Society of Jesus cannot be understood merely as a spiritual enterprise, but as an articulated response to the geopolitical and economic conjuncture of the early seventeenth century, marked by commercial expansion and maritime confrontations between European powers, especially with the intensification of the Luso-Dutch rivalry in the Asian space. The author contextualizes the “why” of the 1615 choice, connecting it to the Portuguese need to consolidate local political alliances and ensure stability for the trade routes linking Macau and Malacca, particularly within the framework of monsoon navigation. Methodologically, the text combines historical-diplomatic contextualization with an interpretive reading of Jesuit institutional motivations and the requests emanating from the Luso-Asian circuit, highlighting the role of intermediaries and petitions such as that of Fernão da Costa. As results, it shows that the mission presents itself as an instrument of cultural and religious mediation capable of sustaining political and commercial relations in a territory relatively “open” to Portuguese dynamics since the sixteenth century, but little explored by the Jesuits.

The article reassesses the role of the earliest Portuguese representations of China produced in the early sixteenth century, focusing on the manuscript known as Francisco Rodrigues’s *Book and Atlas* (c. 1512). Based on the codicological analysis of the set, the comparative examination of the internal elements of the codex (including the coexistence, in the same volume, of a copy of Tomé Pires’s *Suma Oriental*) and the cartographic comparison among maps, sketches, and legends, the author contests historiographical interpretations that attribute to the atlas an immediate function of geopolitical updating and direct support to the centralized cartographic policy of King D. Manuel, according to a supposed logic of “revision and sending” in a later period. The main conclusions argue that the *Book and Atlas* should be understood less as a normative instrument of “state cartography” and more as a composite of navigational and observational materials compiled at different times and under different conditions. It is argued that the 69 panoramas of the Lesser Sunda Islands archipelago (Alor to Java), possibly derived from earlier notebooks from the post-1512 return, were not consistently integrated into the corresponding charts, nor do they appear to have influenced subsequent Portuguese cartography of Southeast Asia and the routes to the South China Sea. Thus, the article repositions Rodrigues’s work as evidence of the pragmatic process of maritime knowledge production, dependent on local mediations and limitations of integration among drawing, text, and cartography.

The article argues that knowledge of the historical relations between Portugal and Southeast Asia is more robust when cooperation between historians and diplomats is intensified, especially in the context of international commemorations that simultaneously function as public production of history and as an exercise in cultural diplomacy. Drawing on the example of the “500 years” celebrations of relations between Portugal and Thailand, the text argues that the interaction between state agents and researchers transforms the commemoration into a methodological “brainstorming”: it allows for discussion of what should be celebrated, how to historically frame the facts, and how to manage contemporary historical sensitivities. The methodology is essentially qualitative and essayistic, based on observation of institutional experience and on reading of diplomatic precedents with historiographical interest, from compilations and studies produced by consuls and chargés d’affaires (late 19th to 20th century) to contributions from figures associated with the mission in Bangkok and the international circulation of knowledge. Among the main results, the article concludes that, in the Thai case, the recent colonial “baggage” conditioned the narratives little, facilitating a more productive exchange; and it argues that transferable lessons can guide similar initiatives for other Southeast Asian countries (Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, and Vietnam), reinforcing the historiographical dimension as an instrument of mutual understanding.

The article proposes a historiographical overview of the Portuguese presence in Siam, focusing on the so-called “feitoria” of Bangkok in the nineteenth century, situating it within the broader framework of Luso-Siamese relations. The author articulates the continuity between contacts initiated in the sixteenth century, the dynamics of military modernization, and the strategies of commercial and religious intermediation, arguing that the basis of these relations combines military aid, political demands, and the attainment of material conditions for European presence in Siamese territories. Methodologically, the approach is based on a critical review of sources and historiographical production, mobilizing references from chroniclers and authors contemporary to the initial contacts and discussing the institutional evolution of the Portuguese presences—highlighting mercantile activity, the role of mercenaries, and the tension between jurisdictions and missionary orders. The text concludes that, despite transformations over time, the structural logic of Luso-Siamese negotiation persisted: the circulation of weapons, the need for specialized labor, and religious mediation functioned as mechanisms of consolidation, while European conflicts and ecclesiastical disputes at different times limited the reach of the Portuguese Padroado.

This article examines how Portuguese and Spanish sources from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries constructed narratives about the culture and exercise of power in the Maluku Islands, emphasizing the articulation between local political forms (sultans, kingdoms/rajas, communities, and statuses such as sangaji and khimalaaha) and the categories of governance employed by the Iberian empires. The central argument maintains that the political-cultural “rupture” associated with the European arrival, although frequently cited, must also be read as a product of imperial disputes—particularly the “Moluccas Question”—and of the needs for documentary, diplomatic, and informational legitimation. Methodologically, the study proceeds through a comparative reading of historiographical production and primary narratives, contrasting chroniclers and travel accounts, with special attention to how the Spanish, supported by extensive administrative reports, produced multiple “accounts” of expeditions (including the Magalhães–Delcano route), while part of the Portuguese writing emerged from itinerant circuits and learned mediations. The conclusions show that the Iberians not only described Maluku but reshaped its hierarchies, converting local cultural systems into a political language suited to asserting sovereignty and strategic knowledge of the spice routes.

The article analyzes the silk trade between Japan and Macau in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, examining the boundary between missionary work and commerce, particularly the role played by the Society of Jesus. The author frames the Luso-Oriental circulation within a “world in motion,” in which the expansionist project simultaneously sought “souls and goods,” and argues that in the Far East the material survival of the Jesuit missions depended on diversified forms of financing, including commercial operations and revenues. Methodologically, the research combines historical contextualization with an examination of documented episodes and financial controversies, focusing on a financial “scandal” in Macau in the 1580s related to investments and profits associated with contracts and the redistribution of silk. The author argues that the Jesuits, despite their religious framework, acted with a business logic: they negotiated silk and expanded revenues in contexts of indebtedness and maritime risk, generating open conflicts with local merchants. It concludes that the case reveals a pragmatic integration between evangelization and mercantile practices, exposing structural tensions within the Luso-Japanese system of economic intermediation.