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This article analyses the outbreak of bubonic plague in Macau in 1895 from a historiographical perspective centred on the report of the physician Gomes da Silva, then head of the colony's health services. Against the backdrop of a period in which the aetiological agent (Yersinia pestis) was already known, but the mechanisms of transmission—especially the role of fleas—were not yet fully understood, the author investigates how the Portuguese report integrated emerging bacteriological knowledge into the prevailing theories on the transmission and diffusion of the disease. Methodologically, the study reconstructs the epidemiology described for Macau, relates local data to the broader framework of the third pandemic in Chinese territory, and undertakes a critical reading of Gomes da Silva's text, highlighting his argumentation on "infectiousness" versus "contagiousness" and the causal dynamics linking animal foci, urban conditions, and circulation between spaces. It concludes that the report constitutes a relevant testimony of how Portuguese colonial authorities articulated natural and social variables to interpret the spread of the outbreak, offering a coherent reading—albeit situated within the scientific knowledge of the time—to explain the patterns of dissemination in Macau and its regional framing.

The article analyzes the representations of Macau in *Pequeno Caderno do Oriente* and, in particular, the way in which Eugénio de Andrade constructs the city in dialogue with the Portuguese lyrical tradition. Starting from the assertion that the poetic word “shapes” landscapes, people, and culture, Dora Nunes Gago argues that the author’s textual “Macau” is not limited to the impressionistic record of the 1990 encounter, but rather functions as a site for the reactivation of earlier myths and poetics. The author frames the reading within two intertextual lines: the legendary presence of Camões in the Orient and the centrality of Camilo Pessanha as an effective “master.” Methodologically, the study proceeds through an annotated reading of key passages from the notebook (“Defesa de Camões” and the text “Camilo Pessanha, O Mestre”), articulating rhetorical and cultural analysis with the historical contextualization of the figures evoked. As findings, it becomes evident that the legitimacy of certain images (such as the Camonian grotto) may persist despite factual refutations, while Andrade’s criticism falls above all on the poverty of commemorative devices. In parallel, Pessanha’s “music” operates as an aesthetic paradigm for writing the Orient, consolidating Macau as a space of literary memory and poetic asceticism.

The article proposes reading the literary work of Maria Ondina Braga as a "quintessence of remembrance" shaped by sensory and symbolic devices linked to the imaginary presence of China in Macao. Starting from the hypothesis that the very onomastic genesis of "Macau" is articulated with the goddess A-Ma (Amagang), the author mobilizes this mythical background to interpret the writing of an author who lived in Macao between 1961 and 1966, but whose relationship with the East is also mediated by memories, readings, and indirect experiences. Methodologically, the text combines historical-cultural contextualization (biography and intellectual circulation of Maria Ondina Braga) with close analysis of the poetic prose, privileging recurring motifs—above all tea/herbal infusions—as an operator of evocation, a shelter for secrecy, and a form of repetition of the sacred. The argument maintains that remembrance in Braga is not reduced to nostalgia: it transforms into textual ritual, in which repetition intensifies meanings and reconstitutes an affective and cultural "home." It concludes that, in *Terras da Deusa A-Ma*, memory functions as an aesthetic mediation between silence, the unsayable, and belonging, inscribing Macao as the stage of a China reinvented through language.

This article preliminarily examines the role of Portuguese merchants in Asian trade and in the Portuguese Empire throughout the "long eighteenth century" (c. 1684–c. 1835), with a privileged focus on Macau as both locality and community. The central argument maintains that the relevance of Macau and the Canton/Guangdong market must be understood through the identities, networks, and practices of merchants engaged in transport, navigation, "chandelling," investment, financing, and commercial intermediation—activities anchored both in the colony and in connections that articulated metropolitan centers (Lisbon), Atlantic peripheries (Bahia and Rio de Janeiro), and other Asian entrepôts of the Estado da Índia. Methodologically, the text combines an approach influenced by the Annales School—attentive to commercial structures, networks, and everyday life—with an analysis of supply and commodity chains, integrating social, cultural, and economic dimensions. The study draws on Portuguese and European archival sources, as well as secondary documentation and collections located in Europe, the Americas, and Asia. As findings, the article proposes to rebalance a historiography often centered on rival merchants and companies, demonstrating how Luso-Asian networks contributed to the maintenance, development, and expansion of the maritime circuits that sustained the regional economy and the global integration of Chinese trade.

The article examines the historiographical controversy surrounding the identification of "Shuangyu" (雙嶼) in Chinese documents with the Portuguese trading base of Liampó, established on the coast of Zhejiang in the early sixteenth century and destroyed in 1548 by imperial troops. Departing from the scarcity of archaeological evidence, the author critically draws upon Ming cartography and its subsequent reeditions, focusing on the manner in which "Shuangyu" appears in different works and scales, and on the consequent difficulty of extracting an unequivocal location from broad-coverage maps alone. The methodology consists of a comparative analysis of maps and descriptions associated with the Port of Shuangyu and neighboring toponymic elements, especially Mount Liuheng (formerly Huanggong/Lu'ao), articulating cartographic information with textual testimonies such as Zhu Wan's inspection. The main conclusions contend that, although "ancient" maps consistently locate the Port of Shuangyu at the foot of Mount Liuheng, they do not permit, by virtue of their scale, a direct and conclusive link to the Portuguese. Thus, the article redefines the problem: before asserting etymological correspondences, it is necessary to control the terminological variations and spatial precision of cartographic sources.

The article critically reconstructs the origin and early activities of João Rodrigues (c. 1561–1634), a Portuguese Jesuit missionary renowned as “Nanban Tçuzu” (interpreter of the Portuguese language) and author of the *História da Igreja no Japão* and of the first Portuguese-Japanese dictionary. Proceeding from the historiographic observation that his family and childhood remain poorly documented, the authors carry out a comparative analysis of scattered and sometimes divergent sources—including references by Jesuit and Eastern scholars, internal catalogues of the Society (1588, 1593, and 1616), and a later autobiographical letter addressed to Rome. The methodology articulates textual reading, onomastic and geographic verification (variations such as Sernancelle/Cernancelte/Sernancelhe), and assessment of biographical plausibility based on evidence concerning his education and social context. The main conclusions support that Rodrigues was born in Sernancelhe, in the district and diocese of Lamego, province of Beira, around 1561, and that he considered himself a “native” of that region when reporting his origin. The article also suggests that his initial educational trajectory took place predominantly within the Jesuit environment already in Asia, which helps to explain his rapid linguistic competence and his role of cultural and political mediation in Japan during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, favoring relations with central figures of the period.

The article examines how three Italian writers—Giovanni Comisso, Mario Appelius, and Alberto Moravia—constructed contrasting images of Shanghai and Beijing for the Italian public in the 1930s. The central thesis argues that, within the span of little more than a decade, their narratives reveal a rapid transformation of the “mental framework” regarding China: from the exoticizing fascination and reception oscillating between praise and rejection in Comisso, to the descriptive curiosity guided by urban wandering in Appelius, and finally to the moral accountability and critical effort by Moravia to overcome stereotypes. Methodologically, the author undertakes a comparative reading of journalistic and travel texts produced by these correspondents, articulating discursive strategies (tone, focalization, lexical choices, and interpretive schemas) with distinct political-intellectual contexts. In this way, the article examines how each author negotiates the “cultural other” and the degree of mediation between on-site experience and prior repertoires. The conclusion is that the three descriptions, although heterogeneous, not only inform about urban scenarios and living conditions but also function as indicators of the maturation of the European gaze upon China, progressively approaching a more reflexive and “scientific” stance vis-à-vis nineteenth-century clichés.

The article examines the figure of Jean-Baptiste Maldonado (1634–1699) in the Jesuit mission in Ayutthaya, arguing that his activities reveal structural tensions between the Portuguese Padroado and the growing political weight of the Paris Foreign Missions in Siam. Based on a critical reassessment of his extensive correspondence (still little explored in historiography because it remains in Latin and due to translation gaps), the author reconstructs the missionary’s trajectory—often confused with other clerics of the same name—and situates his choices and “loyalties” within the jurisdictional and doctrinal disputes of the late seventeenth century, including the issue of the Oath of Fidelity required by Rome (c. 1680). Methodologically, the study articulates documentary analysis, attribution criticism, and contextual reading of the letters with the functioning of the Jesuit networks linked to the presence of St. Paul’s College in Macau and with selective comparisons to other figures in the Siamese mission. The conclusions propose that Maldonado did not stand out as a charismatic builder nor as a large-scale evangelizer, but as an administrative and communicational agent capable of negotiating limits and compromises, revealing how hierarchies and rivalries between orders and institutions shaped, in practice, missionary life in the kingdom of Ayutthaya.

This article presents, in index format, the set of contributions published in issues 29-32 of the Revista de Cultura (RC) under the broad theme of the historical, cultural, and transnational dynamics of Macau and its Atlantic-Asian circuits. The section brings together research works on commerce, maritime networks, and diplomacy (including Luso-Portuguese relations and Macau's role in regional circulation), as well as studies on social structures and political powers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The methodology, essentially historiographical and interdisciplinary in nature, articulates documentary analysis and bibliographic review with cultural and interpretive approaches: from the reading of literary and artistic representations of "visions of Macau" to analyses of museography and the circulation of knowledge (such as Jesuit libraries and documentation on medical practices). The results/conclusions of the set point to Macau as a strategic node in processes of commercial modernity and the circulation of people, objects, and knowledge, while also evidencing the transformations of borders, identities, and forms of worship and cultural memory. Thus, the index consolidates a thematic panorama that reinforces Macau's centrality in the study of interactions between empires, communities, and connected geographies.

The article analyzes the tensions between the Society of Jesus, linked to the Portuguese Padroado, and the Leal Senado of Macau, taking as a case study the conflict involving Bento Pereira de Faria (1676). Situating the analysis within the political-religious framework of the post-Restoration period and the jurisdictional disputes between the Padroado and the Congregation of Propaganda Fide, the author argues that municipal governance and missionary ambitions intersected around competences, patronage, and the control of religious practices, in a context marked by international competition and the redefinition of influences in the East. Methodologically, the study draws on the historical-documentary reconstruction of the episode, articulating the local analysis of Macau with the broader problematic of the mechanisms of presentation, financing, and missionary autonomy in Portuguese territories. The author demonstrates that, although the Padroado regime sought to delimit evangelizing action to areas under Portuguese political dominion, the presence and prestige of the Jesuits—particularly in the broader Asian sphere—intensified friction points with civil and religious authorities. The article concludes that the 1676 case reveals how the administration of Macau operated simultaneously as a space of mediation and a field of conflict, where the interests of the mission and public order did not always converge.

Starting from the symbolism of Macao's **Portas do Cerco** (Border Gate) and the two dates engraved on opposite sides of the wall (August 22 and 25, 1849), this article analyzes how Portuguese colonial memory was materialized and contested over time. The author focuses on the figures of **João Maria Ferreira do Amaral** and **Vicente Nicolau de Mesquita**, understood less as isolated historical individuals than as supports for a political narrative constructed to legitimize Portuguese authority. Methodologically, the text mobilizes a historiographical discussion on the “ambiguity” of history—as a situated narrative—by cross-referencing the reading of the monument and the inscribed dates with the public trajectory of the two statues (inauguration in **1940**, removals in **1966** and **1992**, and the return of the artifact to Portugal), as well as with the way in which colonial and Sino-local authorities disputed the meaning of “aggressors” and “patriots.” It concludes that the statues constituted devices for **consolidating power** and **selecting memories**: in a context of empire and colonialism, history was reconstructed “in favor of the victor,” but also left traces of trauma that re-emerged when the political order changed. Thus, the Portas do Cerco functions as a spatial archive of a memory in conflict and in continuous rewriting.

The article by Federico Masini examines Martino Martini's (1614–1661) *Novus Atlas Sinensis* as a historiographical work and an instrument of Eurocentric mediation of geographical knowledge about China. The central thesis holds that Martini must be understood "above all" as a missionary from China to Europe: drawing on materials gathered during his missionary experience and the linguistic and intellectual networks established on his journey, he transformed scattered observations into a descriptive cartographic model that conditioned the European reading of Chinese space, as well as its uses, customs, ancient and modern history, and even its language. Methodologically, the study proceeds with a reconstruction of the editorial genesis and the production conditions of the atlas, articulating biographical stages (Hangzhou, Fujian, stopovers in the Philippines and Batavia/Jakarta, arrival in Europe) with the diplomatic and religious contexts in which the work was prepared and published. In particular, the analysis highlights how periods of waiting and "extra-missionary" activity favoured its composition, with the support of Chinese manuscripts and bibliography and the linguistic assistance of a baptized Chinese collaborator. It concludes that the *Novus Atlas Sinensis* was the first, and for more than a century the only, geographically comprehensive descriptive atlas of China in European circulation, consolidating itself as an enduring reference of European cartographic and historical culture concerning the Empire.

The article analyzes the formation and evolution of Western images of Macao between the mid-sixteenth century and later periods, arguing that such representations function as privileged historical sources for understanding both local transformation and the "external" gaze. Based on the collection and analysis of limited records produced by Western travelers, residents, and witnesses—including writings, publications, paintings, and poetry—the author identifies which images became most persistent in the European imagination and how they gradually crystallized. The narrative is organized around recurring topics, highlighting, in particular, the association of Macao with a "unique place in the world" marked by the beauty of its natural setting. Western authors tend to emphasize the harmonious relationship between the maritime environment, mild climate, bays, and coastal landscapes, and the architectural and human vestiges of the city. Gathered examples show consistent descriptions of the atmospheric quality, the tranquility of daily life, and the visual "exuberance" of the Praya and the shoreline. It is concluded that Western images of Macao, although not always neutral, mirror cultural dynamics of contact—alternating between aesthetic fascination and biased readings—and, simultaneously, allow for the reconstruction of material and symbolic dimensions of Macao's urban history.

The article argues that the demographic history of Macau between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries cannot be explained by narratives centred on simplified foundational “origins” or on ideologically constructed identities, but must be understood as a historical process in which social, political and economic structures organise—and at times disorganise—the forms of population reproduction. Methodologically, the study combines a critical review of the available historiography with documentary analysis oriented towards counting systems and registration practices, distinguishing the gaps relating to the Chinese (majority) population from the tendencies that privileged the minority often labelled as “Macanese”. The research concludes that, in the early modern period, Macau presents a stable, multi-secular demographic ceiling of approximately 12,000–15,000 inhabitants, the maintenance of which is altered not by “internal modifications” of natural rates but above all by exogenous factors. The demographic turning point lies in the acceleration of the influx of Chinese labour emigration, predominantly young and male, which surpasses the traditional limit in stages (approx. 8,000 in 1822 and around 20,000 in 1837), preparing the Chinese numerical domination observable in later censuses. Thus, the analysis reinterprets administrative categories and census instruments as indicators of broader structural changes from the pre-industrial enclave to the emergence of a new demographic regime.

This article examines how, between the late eighteenth century and the early decades of the nineteenth, North American travelers and merchants in Canton and Macao transformed commercial experience into local forms of sociability. In contrast to a historiography predominantly centered on Christian missionaries and edifying narratives of explorers, the author argues that commercial engagement—rekindled after the opening of direct American trade with China in 1784—produced a cultural encounter marked by the circulation of goods, social practices, and languages of “conviviality.” Methodologically, the text draws on narrative sources from travelers and documentation regarding the functioning of the Canton system, highlighting the institutional restrictions imposed on foreigners (including spatial segregation in the “factories” and control over access to the city and Chinese families). From this basis, the article interprets episodes of cultural exchange—such as the organization of events and forms of entertainment identified with Anglophone and European traditions, and practices of shared consumption (for example, “dinners with chopsticks”)—as negotiated mechanisms for building proximity, trust, and personal relationships among merchants of different origins. It concludes that, although the regulated and hierarchical environment limited contact, the “commerce of sociability” operated as a parallel cultural economy that reconfigured expectations and identities within the Luso-Chinese space and the port of Canton.

The article examines the import and export trade in Macau between the late Ming dynasty and the decline of the Qing dynasty, highlighting the structural interdependence between the city and the Chinese trade network. It starts from the premise that Macau’s daily survival depended largely on supplies and raw materials provided by Chinese merchants, a condition that simultaneously enabled the imperial authorities to politically regulate the territory. The analysis focuses on the agents of mercantile traffic—great Portuguese merchants, other Europeans, and Chinese merchants—and on how they operationalized the flows of goods destined for Portuguese export trade to Asian and European markets. Methodologically, the study articulates a critical reading of narrative sources and historical records with contextualization of the institutional transformations of the “Estado da Índia,” particularly the transition from royal monopoly to concessions to private individuals, which reinforced privileges of navigation, jurisdiction, and the ordering of loading and unloading priorities. The conclusions underscore that Macau’s economy was sustained by a system of competitive advantages and multilateral mediation: the Portuguese settlement on the Chinese coast culminated in the consolidation of Macau as a platform; and, despite the dominant role of the Portuguese, the continued action of Chinese interlocutors was decisive for the functioning of the commercial circuit, as well as for the ability of local authorities to control the city through daily supply.

The article argues that the analysis of “global cities” in the pre-modern period should be reassessed based on the effective connections between mercantile centers, their demographic networks, and circuits of regional circulation. Taking Macao (1720–1820) as part of a broader system of networked cities and “megalopolis” on the southern coast of China, the authors propose studying the links between Canton, Macao, and the Pearl River Delta through the overlap of market data and demography, as well as by reconstructing the routes and “pathways” that articulated the Macanese enclave with the hinterland. Methodologically, the text revisits historiographical criteria and analytical models already employed to explain urban centrality, combining the notion of “gateway settlement” (Burghardt) and polycentric network schemes with reinterpretations of Skinner on market development and the discussion of typologies of exchange inspired by Geertz (bazaar). As a result, the article shifts the focus from isolated Canton to an interconnected “urban-functional ensemble,” in which Macao operates as a strategic node, and highlights differences between formally documented “exchange” and the dynamics of small-scale traders, often underrepresented in historiography due to a scarcity of data.

The article analyzes how the Portuguese Jesuit Álvaro Semedo (1585–1657), who lived in Ming China for over thirty years, represented the imperial examination system in his work *Relação da Grande Monarquia da China*. It argues that this description, although grounded in observation and linguistic proficiency, produces a portrait that is simultaneously meticulous and idealizing: the examinations are presented as a meritocratic and morally disciplining mechanism for shaping the literati, supposedly indifferent to social origin and decisive for advancement and governance. Methodologically, the study undertakes a historiographical reading of Semedo’s text, highlighting its central elements—the centrality of the Four Books and the Five Classics, the discipline of study (including silent reading and writing), education by private tutors, surveillance and procedural rigor—as well as the translation and European terminological equivalence of the degrees (xiucai, juren, jinshi). In the conclusions, the author emphasizes that Semedo describes the three-level process, underscoring anti-fraud mechanisms such as anonymity (mifeng tenglu zhidu) and the repression of dishonesty, but frames these practices within a Christian and moralizing interpretive matrix that contributes to constructing an exemplary image of the imperial examinations.

The article analyzes how the “localization policies” invoked in Sino-Portuguese disputes and negotiations during the transition period (1988–1999) influenced the administration of Macau. Starting from the institutional framework defined by the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration, the author argues that the dispute between Lisbon and Beijing over the scope and function of the joint commissions—above all the Sino-Portuguese Joint Liaison Group (JLG) and the Sino-Portuguese Land Group (LG)—structured divergent expectations about what should be “locally” legitimated and recognized after 1999. Methodologically, the study tracks the dynamics of the negotiations and the interpretive divergences over competencies, demonstrating how China tended to submit any decision with future impact on the Special Administrative Region to prior consultation, while Portugal claimed non-interference and administrative autonomy until the transfer. The main conclusion is that these “localization policies” materialized less as a homogeneous policy and more as a negotiated practice, which conditioned the decision-making process of the Portuguese administration in Macau, while at the same time preparing, through formal and informal channels, the acceptance (or contestation) of measures intended to ensure institutional continuity, social stability, and economic development in the post-handover period.

The article investigates why the Sanjie Huiguan (三街會館), “Guildhall of Three Streets”, in Macau, transformed from a corporate space of merchants into a sacralized place associated with the cult of Guan Di/Guan Yu. The central question—how a precinct linked to commercial transactions became a “temple” and a deity-guarantor of prosperity—structures a historical-cultural analysis that articulates the institutional transformation of the building, the “ascent” of Guan Yu to divine status, and the longevity of the cult in the polytheistic Chinese tradition. Methodologically, the study combines interpretive reading of cultural and discursive sources with ethnographic-historical contextualization of the role of guilds in the Macanese commercial ecosystem, examining especially the representation of Guan Yu in the historical novel Sanguo Yanyi (三國演義). The author argues that the literary dramatization of Guan Yu favored his expansion beyond the official biography, simultaneously legitimizing the intervention of imperial authorities in the production of a ritually glorified hero. It is concluded that the Sanjie Huiguan exemplifies the intersection between myth, popular culture, and socio-economic organization: the sacralization of the guild space operated as a symbolic mediation between heroic ethics, religious cosmology, and the wealth aspirations of merchants, contributing to the enduring centrality of Guan Di as a “god of fortune” in the Chinese imaginary in Macau.