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The article argues that the "Historic Centre of Macau" should be understood as the historical result of prolonged contact between East and West, initiated by the Portuguese maritime presence in the mid-sixteenth century and consolidated by nearly five centuries of commercial and cultural interaction. It contends that Macau's strategic location at the mouth of the Pearl River, within a context of intense maritime trade networks, facilitated the circulation of people and knowledge, enabling the accumulation of material and immaterial influences from multiple traditions. The analysis emphasises Macau's role as a gateway for the West to China and as an international window for Ming China, in a process associated with the relaxation of trade restrictions and a cultural openness that reconfigured economic and social practices. Methodologically, the text organises the heritage argument through the articulation between the historical function of the port and urban evidence, identifying the network of streets and squares and the succession of more than twenty monuments and architectural typologies that materialise cultural fusion. It concludes that the inscription of the Historic Centre on the UNESCO World Heritage List (2005) precisely recognises that mutual tolerance and that exceptional legacy of cultural exchange.

This article analyzes the decline of the Portuguese State of India within the context of the strategic and economic shift in the Indian Ocean, emphasizing the manner in which this crisis was reflected in Macao. It is argued that, in the face of the growing structural fragility of the "pepper empire" in the seventeenth century — exacerbated by the dispersion of positions, corruption and bureaucratic-military disorganization, rising maintenance costs, and the European naval offensive — the survival of Macao came to depend on strategies formulated in Spain and Portugal through the arbitrismo movement. Based on a critical reading of arbitrismo documents attributed to Duarte Gomes Solis and Jorge Pinto de Azevedo, the study compares diagnoses and proposals addressed to the royal authority, seeking to identify which measures were advocated and which specific needs were felt in the Macanese settlement. Methodologically, the research articulates textual analysis with historical contextualization, situating the proposed solutions within the conjuncture of Luso-Spanish rivalries and Dutch and English competition. It concludes that the "arbítrios" reveal both the perception of an imperial system in retraction and the attempt to rationalize Macao's role as an entrepôt and logistical node, while simultaneously exposing the material and political limits of the reforms imagined to curb the loss of routes, revenues, and capacity for control.

The article analyzes the Dutch attempt to conquer Macau in 1622, placing it within a broader international framework of the early decades of the seventeenth century. The author argues that the episode cannot be explained solely by European naval rivalries or local Portuguese strategies, but must be understood in light of the transformation of political and economic conditions in East Asia, as well as the official responses of Beijing and the Tokugawa shogunate to external pressures. The research articulates a macro-historical context (post-1600 reorderings in Japan, the decline of Ming power in coastal areas, and the intensification of illicit trade) with the inter-Asian maritime dimension, highlighting networks of circulation formed by Chinese and Japanese merchants, adventurers, and corsairs. Methodologically, the text mobilizes a relational reading between state policies and transnational commercial dynamics: it examines how Japanese authorities calibrated the “sakoku” in view of the economic role of the Chinese (including communities and routes that sustained trade with China) and how the European presence—Portugal and Spain against Holland and England—transformed the balance of forces in the seas of Asia. It concludes that the Dutch attack must be interpreted as a convergent result of European competition in a reconfiguring Asian environment, mediated by the interests and limitations of regional empires.

This article reconstructs the trajectory and commercial networks of the Cai and Qiu family firms in Canton between 1730 and 1784, arguing that the expansion and resilience of these groups depended both on mercantile alliances and on strategies of identification and succession within a fragmented and polysemic documentary environment. The methodology is based on the "cross-reading" of European and colonial records—especially Belgian mercantile diaries and ledgers (the Ostend General Company of the Indies), Dutch resolutions and account books, and English sources—comparing variant spellings of names, family relations (father, partners, and "sons" in lists and inventories), and chronologies inferred from events such as marriages and the commencement of commercial activities. Van Dyke shows that "Hunqua" appears repeatedly with multiple nominative possibilities, requiring careful discrimination among individuals sharing the same surname, branches, and associated family names. From this disentangling, the study more confidently attributes to Cai Hunqua (identified in Dutch series as "Young Honqua" and later "Tjayhonqua") a central role in trade with European companies and in the consolidation of a lasting alliance with the Suqua/Chen. It concludes that, by mapping genealogies and encoding onomastic ambiguities, it is possible to recover the internal functioning of mercantile houses and their long-term connections within the Atlantic-Asian system.

The article analyzes the role of Portuguese navigation and Asian commerce in Macau, taking as its starting point the codex “Relação do commercio em os diferente portos da Azia…”, written by Francisco Inocêncio de Souza Coutinho (1779). Arguing that this source, although known, has been insufficiently studied, the author seeks to fill this historiographical gap through a comprehensive reading of the text and the corresponding biographical contextualization of its author within the Pombaline era. The methodology combines a historical survey of Souza Coutinho’s profile and motivations with a systematic analysis of the content: identification of the instruments and systems supporting trade (including the monetary system and units of measurement and their equivalences), examination of references to navigation to Macau and the periodicity of routes, as well as discussion of customs duties and commercial circulation. Particular attention is given to the articulation between Chinese imports and exports from Canton/Macau to Asia, Africa, and Europe through the Portuguese network. The conclusions underscore the geo-strategic vision of the author and the formulation of proposals to overcome the fragility of the mercantile system in the East, situating them within the Asian economic-commercial framework of the mid-18th century and highlighting the utility of the Overseas Historical Archive for Luso-Asian history.

The article analyzes the nature of Portuguese trade in China between 1513 and 1520, the early phase of Sino-Portuguese relations, arguing that mercantile activity cannot be understood solely as diplomatic preparation (or as an extension of the episode of ambassador Tomé Pires), nor reduced to a framework of unstructured smuggling. The author reviews the bibliography that tends to focus on Tomé Pires and the identification of Tamão, pointing out the absence of a systematic study dedicated to the modalities, motivations, and framework of Portuguese transactions. Methodologically, the research draws mainly on Portuguese sources, cross-referencing them with Chinese documentation when available, to characterize the flows of goods and the conditions of commercial contact. Based on the account of Jorge Álvares’s expeditions and subsequent missions (1515–1516, 1517–1518, 1519–1520, and 1520–1521), the text demonstrates that the Portuguese traded with partial authorization from local authorities, operating primarily from ports such as Tamão, with restrictions on movement to Canton. The conclusions highlight a trade based on reciprocity and the strategic value of European goods—especially pepper and other spices, as well as products associated with armaments—in exchange for textiles, porcelain, and high-prestige goods, as well as the importance of formal factors such as the deposit of a padrão and the presence of lucrative cargoes. The interruption of this phase is explained by the expulsion after the conflicts of Tunmen (1521) and Xicaowan (1522).

The article presents, in the form of a critical review, “Five Books to Reflect on the History of the Misericórdias,” bringing together reference studies on the genesis, consolidation, and circulation of the Misericórdias in the Portuguese space and, in particular, on the Asian continent and archipelagos. The central argument maintains that the institutionalization of mercy cannot be understood merely as the export of a charitable model; rather, it is a process of political-social construction, mediated by local networks and different configurations of power. Through a comparative reading of four historiographical works and a commemorative catalog, the text highlights how doctrinal “discovery” and royal patronage favored the creation of urban structures aimed at social harmonization, monopolization of charity, and organization of confraternal elites, connecting devotion and sovereignty in the culture of royal absolutism. Methodologically, the contributions emphasized in the article value the integration of space into research strategies, allowing the distinction of rhythms and particularities by region. As results, the article concludes that the Misericórdias expanded simultaneously with the dynamics of the empire, adapting to contexts such as Goa and Macau, where their permanence depended on the capacity to accommodate colonial societies, in contrast to more brief local experiences vulnerable to Dutch competition.

The article analyzes the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Macau as a key institution in the articulation between charity, power, and the dynamics of the “nuptial market” in a colonial and mercantile context. Building on the historical function of the Misericórdias in the reconfiguration of assistance since the late 15th century, the author argues that, in Macau and other Portuguese Asian enclaves, the local specialization of charitable practice was not limited to responding to relief needs; rather, it contributed to managing social hierarchies and reproducing distinctions, especially by framing Christianized groups and urban marginalities through assistance, disciplinary, and organizational mechanisms. Methodologically, the text articulates a historical-institutional reading and documentary analysis based on the records and commitments of the Misericórdia itself, situating them within the broader trajectory of the imperial network of Misericórdias and the regime of negotiated sovereignty that characterized the Portuguese presence in Asia. As a result, it is demonstrated that the Misericórdia, by organizing resources, reputations, and opportunities, operated as a social infrastructure that conditioned matrimonial alliances, strengthened patronages, and integrated relevant sectors into the colonial moral economy. Thus, the institution emerges less as a merely philanthropic body and more as a mediator between inclusion/exclusion, authority, and social reproduction in societies marked by the expansion of trade and the weakening of traditional forms of solidarity.

The article examines the role of the Misericórdias in the context of Portuguese enclaves in Southeast Asia between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, arguing that these confraternities were central to the production of Christian sociability and the stabilization of colonial hierarchies in territories where Portuguese sovereignty was frequently negotiated. Starting from the conquest of Malacca (1511) and the subsequent framework of routes and transits between Goa, Hormuz, and the Spice Islands, the author shifts the focus from historiography centered on “discoveries” and military campaigns to the social and institutional history of colonial daily life. Methodologically, it articulates historical reconstruction with a comparative reading of local experiences (Malacca, Ternate, Tidore, Ambon, Solor, Larantuka, and other waypoints as far as Timor), linking the persistence of the Misericórdias to the absence of municipal institutions and the predominance of military and commercial power. The main conclusions emphasize that, despite limited resources and the reduced number of Portuguese, the Misericórdias helped formulate a “Portuguese identity” primarily subordinated to Christendom, operating through social discipline, discrimination, and assistance, and functioning simultaneously as a technology of conversion, a mechanism for framing elites, and an instrument of institutional continuity for the empire.

This article proposes the "Misericórdias" as an intrinsically multidisciplinary research topic, articulating religious, institutional, and social history with studies on the circulation of charity and mechanisms of colonial power in the Portuguese sphere of Asia. Drawing on a historical-qualitative analysis of the origins and expansion of the confraternities, the author argues that the rapid establishment of the Santas Casas, driven by royal patronage and metropolitan normative frameworks, functioned simultaneously as an instrument of urban pacification, regulation of devout lay life, and a strategy for consolidating social hierarchies. Methodologically, the discussion mobilizes documentary comparison centered on the Compromissos: the Compromisso of Lisbon (1516) and its successive adaptation in overseas contexts, with particular emphasis on the Compromisso proper to the Misericórdia of Goa (1595) and on the regulations of the Misericórdia of Macau (drafted in 1627). As a result, it becomes evident that the normative texts were not mere exported models, but instruments for the local reconfiguration of assistance practices, conditioned by demographic compositions, cultural differences, and relations among Christian populations, converts, and subaltern groups. The article concludes that, in light of Marcel Mauss's theory of the gift, charity operated under discriminatory logics, selectively favoring recipients and strengthening elite powers, revealing charity as a social technology of colonial domination.

This article analyzes the Misericórdia of Isla Hermosa (Taiwan, 1632–1642) as a lay initiative and as an institution of Portuguese inspiration, yet situated in a particular colonial context—that of a presidio and an unstable civil community. The author argues that the local Misericórdia should not be directly compared with other Misericórdias of the Portuguese empire, nor with the long-standing experience of Manila, for it differed in duration, social structure, and its role in the actual conditions of the settlement's survival. The methodology rests chiefly on a critical reading of the available documentation, centered on a single principal document, supplemented by secondary references. On the basis of this evidence, the text reconstructs the institution's genesis and its ties to the Dominicans. Its main promoters are identified as Fr. Jacinto Esquivel and Governor Juan de Alcarazo, whose actions appear linked to concrete needs of assistance and to apostolic strategies. Among the conclusions, it is highlighted that the Misericórdia took shape in a liminal space between mission and military administration, functioning as an instrument for organizing charity (including a projected infant school) and as a mechanism for financing Dominican work, before disappearing after a decade.

The article reconstructs, in a panoramic fashion, the history of the Misericórdia of Goa and proposes a reinterpretation of its functioning in light of Marcel Mauss’s theory of the gift, highlighting the centrality of the notion of reciprocity. The analysis maintains that the brotherhood’s charitable works should not be understood merely as religious charity, but as a social and political device intimately articulated with the strategies of the Portuguese colonial state within the context of the “Empire of India.” Methodologically, the text combines historical reconstruction with an interpretative reading inspired by Mauss, considering the mechanisms by which Christian assistance operated selections, rewards, and frameworks of conduct. It concludes that, in Goa — a territory under Portuguese sovereignty particularly relevant since the seventeenth century — the Misericórdia assumed a twofold importance: on the one hand, a progressive monopoly on charity; on the other, the construction of a network of relations marked by asymmetry and discrimination, converting local subalternity into disciplined adherence to the colonial order. Thus, the “gift system” reveals itself as a means of “inviting” submission to political, economic, and military power, through the rigorous control of welfare institutions (from poverty to hospital care), producing social identity and unity structured by Catholic ethics and by reciprocity rendered, in practice, obligatory.

The article investigates the origins and early years of the Misericórdia of Manila (1594–1625), arguing that the institution emerged as an institutional solution for the management of care for the poor and the sick in a colonial context marked by fragmented welfare networks. The research reconstructs the process of formation based on local precedents of charity, especially the role of clerical initiatives and lay figures connected to the practice of the “acts of mercy,” before the consolidation of a brotherhood along the lines of the Iberian tradition. The work then articulates the Portuguese inspiration of the Houses of the Misericórdia—as a confraternal model with statutes, Marian patronage, and a logic of articulation between local elites and organized charity—to explain the plausibility of its adaptation in Manila. Methodologically, the analysis is historical-institutional and comparative: it describes the passage from informal and hospital relief to a stable form of organization, examining continuities and transformations in the modes of fundraising, administration, and distribution of resources. It concludes that, in its early years, the Misericórdia of Manila was consolidated through cooperation between religious authorities, civil benefactors, and preexisting hospital structures, favoring a transition from episodic care to a more regular administration of assistance to needy Spaniards and, progressively, to vulnerable populations in the urban space of Manila.

The article compares the Commitments of the Misericórdia of Goa (1595) and the Misericórdia of Macau (1627), arguing that the longevity and social effectiveness of the "houses of mercy" in Portuguese Asia were based on a process of concentration of charity combined with statutory stabilization. The author contends that the commitments, as an organizing doctrine of the lay brotherhood, produced a normative order capable of flexibly coordinating religious and charitable activities in distinct colonial contexts: a Goan space undergoing progressively colonial transformation and a Macanese enclave marked by a survival strategy within a predominantly Chinese milieu. The methodology combines contextual reading and normative analysis of the statutory texts, articulating doctrine, institutional structures, and social practices. The research interprets the commitments as instruments of institutional reproduction and management of patrimonial resources, highlighting how the accumulation of donations, testaments, and legacies was converted into financial and productive mechanisms (loans, insurance, and investments) that sustained both public and private works as well as the stability of funds for colonial administrations. It concludes that statutory adaptation enabled the Misericórdias to function as a social protection infrastructure and as agents in structuring local elites, largely ensuring the continuity of their activities in a system where the central state did not provide systematic assistance.

The article analyzes the emergence and consolidation of the Misericórdias in Nagasaki, contextualizing them within the framework of Luso-Japanese relations and Catholic evangelization, particularly under Jesuit influence, between the mid-sixteenth century and the subsequent period. It argues that the earliest charitable and hospital structures did not constitute merely a philanthropic response, but also a cultural and institutional apparatus indispensable to the implantation of Christianity in an environment marked by population displacements, conditional tolerance, and political tensions. Drawing on a critical reading of narrative and historiographical sources (with particular recourse to Luís Fróis) and the chronological sequencing of references to ecclesiastical buildings, the article reinterprets traditionally accepted dates and proposes that religious organization in Nagasaki predates, in operational terms, later references. It concludes that the Misericórdia emerges integrated into an expanding urban ecosystem: linked to the reuse of spaces, the creation of local support networks, and the participation of displaced or converted communities. Thus, charitable activity proves structural to missionary work, functioning as linguistic and social mediation, and as infrastructure for caring for, integrating, and sustaining practices of faith.

This article presents the INDEX OF AUTHORS for issues 9 to 12 of the “RC INTERNATIONAL” section of *Revista de Cultura* (2005), bringing together studies produced between January and September 2004. The contribution systematically organizes the thematic and geographical diversity of the published works: Luso-Asian relations, circulation of people and goods, border dynamics and Macau–region exchange (including Hong Kong), as well as approaches to religious history, ritual practices, and trade networks (particularly Chinese, Dutch, Muslim, and Parsi). Methodologically, the collection highlights historiographical and analytical approaches grounded in documentary research and transregional contextualization, mobilizing European and Asian sources to reconstruct key episodes (such as politico-commercial incidents and navigation/trade episodes), individual trajectories, and long-term structures (17th–18th centuries, with earlier incursions). The index entries highlight articles by reference authors and, in some cases, serial works or editorial prefaces, allowing for the mapping of convergent lines of inquiry in the study of Macau and South China at the crossroads of empires, maritime routes, and cultural transformations.

This article investigates why the Chinese goddess Nu Wa—often associated with cosmogony and the repair of the sky—is venerated in Macao in a peripheral space, through an apparently “subsidiary” cult within the local pantheon. The author articulates an etiological and exegetical approach: she reconstructs the formation and transformations of the Nu Wa myth from classical sources (from texts of the Warring States period to compilations and works of the Han and Ming dynasties) and relates these literary narratives to their religious appropriation in the Macanese context. Methodologically, the study combines textual analysis, religious history, and an examination of the temple’s functioning, while also drawing on contributions from disciplines such as history, literature, religion, folklore, and anthropology. As a case study, the small Temple of Nu Wa (renovated after fires and today marked by the reconfiguration of urban space) is described, showing how the divine hierarchy in Macao incorporates the goddess into a broader network of Daoist and devotional practices, rather than placing her at the center of the more prestigious maritime “service.” Among the main findings, the liminal character of the cult stands out: the matriarchal nature of Nu Wa persists as an archetypal and ontological image, but is locally reorganized—including her coexistence with Lu Zu—in order to integrate into the territory’s syncretic spirituality.

The article examines the "energy" of plot and the act of narrating in post-colonial fiction, arguing that competing stories—rather than merely the valorization of orality—reveal social and political dynamics that resist essentialism. Drawing on Richard Kearney's formulations concerning the power of narratives to shape fragmented events and produce communal identity, as well as Michael Jackson's distinction between canonical stories that reinforce boundaries and narrative practices that dissolve or transgress them, the author proposes that the apparent tension between collective cohesion and individual difference can be productive, and is verifiable in two literary cases. Methodologically, the text brings Brian Castro and Mia Couto into dialogue through a comparative and contextualized reading, articulating narrative poetics with biographical trajectories marked by cultural "in-betweenness" and processes of decolonization. The works analyzed evince procedures of self-invention, identity ambiguity, and reconfiguration of national and linguistic belongings, refusing stories "imposed from above" and opening space for multiple points of view. The conclusion is that, in Castro and Couto, storytelling functions simultaneously as a mechanism of meaning-making and as a critique of totalizing categories, transforming narrative into a device of resistance and rewriting of the post-colonial.

This article analyzes the role of the Portuguese merchant fleet based in Macao between the last quarter of the 17th century and the end of the 18th century (1684–1792) within the framework of China’s maritime trade expansion with Europe and Asia during the “long eighteenth century.” The central thesis argues that, although Macao did not exhibit evident prosperity during this period, the continuous activity of Portuguese merchants and shipowners was decisive in opening, developing, expanding, and maintaining markets, while simultaneously inserting Macao into the network of rivalries and tensions among European traders and Asian commercial circuits. The study adopts a predominantly perspectival approach centered on the Portuguese community of Macao and, based on available historical evidence (with attention to gaps resulting from documentary loss), articulates discussions on: (i) Macao’s typology as a colonial port; (ii) urban political economy and its mechanisms for decision-making and conflict resolution; (iii) the behaviors of owners, operators, and investors, including the identification of ships, typologies, tonnage, and routes; and (iv) the general composition of goods circulated, contextualizing the relationship between navigation and hinterland in China’s modern economy. As a case study, the insertion of Portuguese trade in Batavia is examined in greater detail. It concludes that the Portuguese fleet was an integrated component of the Chinese maritime economy and mediated the flows of goods demanded in the Canton market.

This article examines the life and intellectual trajectory of Wu Yushan (Wu Li, 1632–1718), a renowned painter and poet, within the turbulent context of the Ming-Qing dynastic transition. Author Gu Weimin argues that Wu’s eventual conversion to Catholicism and his singular "pursuit of faith" were inextricably linked to his identity as a Ming loyalist (*yimin*). By analyzing Wu’s eminent family background—descending from a line of high-ranking Ming officials—the study highlights the profound sense of loss and political passion that defined his youth following the Manchu conquest. The article explores Wu’s social network, composed of prominent loyalist scholars and artists such as Qian Qianyi, whose shared resistance to the new regime influenced Wu’s moral and artistic development. Through a biographical and historiographical lens, Gu illustrates how Wu maintained his integrity amidst political upheaval, using his creative output to navigate the "devastating anguish" of his era. The research suggests that Wu’s religious transformation was not merely a personal shift but a complex response to the collapse of the Ming social order, representing a quest for spiritual certainty during a period of intense cultural crisis. Ultimately, the work provides a nuanced portrait of a scholar-artist whose search for faith served as a means of reconciling his loyalist identity with the realities of a new dynastic era.