Your search

The Great Navigation Age began in the early 15th century and concluded at the end of the 17th century, spanning nearly three centuries. This period is divided into four stages according to its characteristics and nature. The first stage encompasses the offshore oceanic voyages initiated by Zheng He (鄭和), Emperor Chengzu of the Ming dynasty (明成祖), and Prince Henrique of Portugal. The second stage comprises the transoceanic voyages undertaken by Christopher Columbus and others. The third stage is defined by circumnavigation, represented by Ferdinand Magellan, Del Cano, and Francis Drake, among others. The fourth stage involves voyages through the polar ice seas, predominantly led by navigators from England, France, and Holland, with Russia maintaining a persistent and dominant role in these expeditions. Russia's navigation in the polar ice seas is also categorized as offshore oceanic voyaging. The Great Navigation Age constitutes the most illustrious chapter in maritime history during the era of wooden sailing vessels.

Until now, we had not found definite records on ship physicians before the Ming dynasty. However, military physicians had existed for a long history in China, and they had some relationships with ship physicians. In order to guarantee the success of Zheng He’s voyages, the Chinese imperial court supported the medical preparations, and especially arranged ship physicians for the fleets. The jobs of Chinese physicians included: curing sailors, preventing diseases, keeping healthcare, gathering herbs, and buying medicines. When navigator Zheng He died, the official mechanism of ship physicians in China had disappeared. After the First Opium War, they just resurfaced again. However, Chinese doctors proved their value in ancient history. They perfected the theory of Chinese medicines, replenished knowledge about overseas medical herbs, explored nautical and tropical diseases, propagated traditional Chinese medical science to the world, and expanded the commercial roads of Chinese medicaments.

The mid-20th century represented a crucial period as a turning point in the development of female consciousness, with literary works written by women authors portraying the diversity of female figures of that era. What is important to note is that, despite their dissimilar origins and ages, or different cultural educations from various periods, their fates all point to similar ends, and it is within these similarities and differences that the transformations of female consciousness are concealed.

This publication serves as an editorial invitation for submissions to the *Review of Culture (Revista Macau)*, an academic journal edited by the Centre for Macau Studies at the University of Macau and published by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macao Special Administrative Region. The article delineates the journal's scope and objectives, emphasizing its role as a forum for debating the history and culture of Macao and for disseminating research findings between East and West in the fields of history, arts, philosophy, religion, international relations, literature, and related areas. The text also clarifies the formal submission requirements, encouraging the submission of unpublished articles in Portuguese, English, or Chinese, as well as the preparation of supplementary materials (images at 300 dpi, captions and sources, endnotes, and bibliography according to the *Chicago Manual of Style*). Ranges for article length and requirements for dual presentation of key elements—abstract (150–250 words) and author biography—in both English and Portuguese are specified, along with typographic and formatting guidelines (e.g., Times New Roman 12 pt for Word documents and the use of traditional Chinese characters). Finally, the invitation outlines copyright and reproduction conditions, aiming to ensure the accessibility and dissemination of published works.

This text constitutes a call for submissions to the *Review of Culture* (Macau Magazine), encompassing both its international and Chinese editions, outlining the thematic scope and editorial conditions for publication in forthcoming issues. The primary purpose of the document is to inform researchers and authors about the journal’s mission—to promote the exchange of ideas between Eastern and Western cultures—and, consequently, to delineate the types of contributions accepted. Thus, emphasis is placed on themes such as tangible and intangible heritage, sociological issues, international relations, notable figures, literature, philosophy, religion and the arts, as well as Macau studies and related fields. The document also presents methodological and formal submission guidelines, including requirements for originality and unpublished work, accepted languages (Portuguese, English, and Chinese), and manuscript structure (abstract and keywords, endnotes, and bibliography in separate files). Technical parameters are specified (Word format, font size 12, Times New Roman; traditional Chinese characters), along with recommended length and additional requirements such as a biographical note about the author and duplicate abstracts (150–250 words in Portuguese and English). Finally, the authors’ responsibility regarding copyright is emphasized, and the policy for making published material available through open access is described.

This text draws on a case study—the missionary work of the Jesuit Rodrigo de Figueiredo in the region of Ningbo during the first half of the seventeenth century—in order to examine Jesuit strategies for the evangelization of China. In doing so, it seeks to assess the potential compatibility between Christianity and the cultural and philosophical system of Confucianism. At this level, issues such as Chinese cosmology and cosmogony, the concepts of transcendence, Creation, and the problem of Evil are addressed. In light of these questions, the objective is to understand the structuring of a Jesuit missionary method based on acculturation—that is, on the ability to reconcile the evangelical message with Chinese culture and worldview.

From the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War to the end of the Second World War (1937–1945), Macau remained neutral. This neutrality did not prevent some of the terrible consequences of these wars from being profoundly felt throughout the Territory. Among a long series of effects, the most dramatic include the mass immigration of war refugees and the efforts made to feed and shelter such a large and sudden influx of people.

In the 16th century, the Pacific was marked by the appearance and action of the Portuguese, who came to intervene in the mercantile, cultural, and religious domains, competing with the Muslims who had previously monopolized that commercial traffic, religious proselytism, and cultural influence. The official voyages of the Portuguese in the Pacific began in 1508, with the sending of the first expedition to Malacca, with the Portuguese having traversed the maritime coasts of practically all the eastern territories bathed by that ocean. Some historical aspects of the Portuguese presence in Malacca and the adjacent island of Sumatra are brought to light. And also their presence in Timor and the Moluccas islands in search of exotic products, such as

Much has been written about the early Jesuits who made Macao a base for spreading Catholicism in China and beyond, but little attention is given to the trajectories of Protestant Christianity in the colony. This article evaluates the empirical findings and analytical insights of R. Lawrence Ballew’s latest book, entitled

In the first ten years or so of the Portuguese presence in Macao, Portuguese men were mostly married to Christian women from Malacca and Nagasaki, and these women brought with them the habits and customs of their respective cities. For instance, eyewitness accounts describe the apparel of Japanese wives who wore

Jaime Correia do Inso (1880–1967), naval officer and writer, proved himself a passionate devotee of Macau and China, to which he dedicated an important part of his literary activity. This is not to overlook the fact that he also produced significant historical studies on the Portuguese navy and, occasionally, on certain subjects concerning Timor, Africa, and Brazil, scattered across various magazines and newspapers.

This article examines two different topics related to the concept of ambivalence and its phenomenological experience applied to the Eurasian Macanese community case study. The first section, from an ethnographic point of view, addresses a set of intersubjective dynamics of identification and differentiation developed by a group of friends during an intimate reunion of commensality. During this particular event, the social actors highlight their ambivalent condition, deploying this as an improvised and positive strategy to adapt to changeable external circumstances. The second section recasts the narrative of Macao's hybrid history, which lies at the origin of the Macanese community and characterises its permanent redefinition, thus drawing political and cultural dimensions into the discussion alongside the identity-building project implemented in the recently-established Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR). In this case, there is an implicit ambivalence to the Sino-Portuguese negotiation process over the application of the People's Republic of China nationality law to Macao-born residents, in particular to ethnically mixed Macanese, within the context of the handover of sovereignty to China.

Portuguese colonial occupation and settlement from the sixteenth century onwards included a significant dimension of religious dissemination: a primary example is the imposition of Iberian Roman Catholic sacred forms at sites throughout peninsular Macao, China. Through early occupation and sustained commercial activity with local peoples, colonised Portuguese regions in Macao experienced aggressive assertion of Catholic religious dominance. In Macao, Portuguese military commanders, colonial governors, and missionary orders established Roman Catholic churches, chapels, and shrines — with their attendant Iberian religious modes — overlooking sites occupied by indigenous Chinese temples and shrines, or Buddhist sites.

The wisdom and practical ethics of Confucius, regarded as the sage of sages, are present in Portuguese culture with an unsuspected transversality, especially since the dawn of the 17th century, having been introduced through the agency of the Jesuits.

Macao and Hong Kong were founded as port cities for the China trade around 1557 and 1842, respectively. This paper discusses the rich but understudied urban history of these two cities. The paper adopts an evolutionary perspective and uses three research vectors: (i) the nature of the relations between the cities and their respective hinterlands, (ii) the role and character of mercantile elites, and (iii) their urban morphology. The argument is that what enabled these two cities to survive as colonial cities on the South China Sea was their ability to adapt to or transform their environments, and to establish social, cultural, economic and political dynamics with China and with other neighbouring countries. One of the key findings is that the urban history of these cities is crucial to understanding their current roles in the local, regional and global urban hierarchy.

In 1880, the commemoration of the tricentennial of the death of Luís de Camões by the Portuguese community of Macau residing in Hong Kong evoked the greatest poet of Portuguese culture and reinforced his connection to Macau, where tradition holds that he wrote parts of his epic poem.

This paper examines the discussion on the meaning of the Chinese character

A native of Fujian province, Lin Zexu was appointed Imperial Commissioner to halt rampant opium trafficking. Launching a "forcible" opium suppression campaign, he coercively confiscated and destroyed an enormous amount of opium at Humen in June 1839. Meanwhile, he went to Macao to press the Portuguese authorities for cooperation to curb the British opium trade, and the historic Sino-Portuguese meeting was held in Lian Feng Miao (Temple of the Lotus). His commanding role was crucial in the events leading up to the Sino-British animosities. After China’s defeat in the First Opium War, the hardliner was banished to remote Yili in Xinjiang. Before long, he had been rehabilitated to tackle the Taiping Rebellion, but died on his way to take up his new appointment. Posthumously, he has been well remembered on the international stage. In his honour, the United Nations designated 26 June as International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. In recognition of his brief visit to Macao, Lin Zexu has been revered in the prominent area of Lian Feng Miao.

Although the 21st century has brought to Portugal a new series of comedians in the media space, the truth is that reflection on the phenomenon of humor is almost non-existent, and that society in general is still progressively moving towards the acceptance of laughter as something fundamental in life.

According to a general notion, the concept of landscape was consolidated in Europe at the beginning of the sixteenth century, exemplified by Dutch landscape painting, while in Asia the term landscape has been present in Chinese poetry and painting since the fourth century. It is thus assumed that both notions of landscape are comparable and that the later European term for landscape must be revised in light of the earlier Chinese concept of landscape. The present essay provides a critical overview of the positions of François Jullien, “Living off Landscape or the Unthought-of in Reason,” and of Augustin Berque’s thought on ‘mediance,’ which is inspired by classical Chinese and Japanese notions of landscape. In the current context of global ecological degradation and in the face of the total manipulation of natural landscapes by humans, landscape must be rethought, taking into account that the European concept of landscape, as explained by the aforementioned authors, has not been properly considered. In particular, its dual origin, in politics and aesthetics, its connection with the technical and scientific spirit of modern times, the specific problem of subjectivity in modernity, and the possibility of the loss of subjectivity, as recognized, for example, in Foucault’s work over half a century ago. Especially the work of François Jullien seems to reiterate a sum of post-structuralist and/or postmodern assumptions, founded on his peculiar reading of classical Chinese thought, which have serious consequences for his interpretation of the concept of landscape.