The last few years have shown some amazing changes. As the environment around us sheds its cocoon and spreads it’s neon wings, we also shed our childhood and move into a new age. We have arrived at the fork in the path. The time to choose our own direction, to move on to greater and better things, ...is now. But what a voyage it’s been up until this point.

The last four years have been a transformative time for all of us. Not a sin-gle person whom I saw when I shyly walked into our classroom on the first day is the same. We’ve all grown, become more aware, more educated, and hopefully, happier. We’ve learned to work together to overcome difficulties and we’ve struggled and failed many times in the process. But only through picking ourselves up again and confronting a new challenge have we grown. This magazine is dedicated to the concept of that which appears, which disappears and that which is in the process of disappearing. It carries the memories of things that are past, the enjoyment of those that are present, and the fight for those that are in between. Everyday life shows a constant reminder of this appearing-disappearing cycle and through this publica-tion, we celebrate not only the stories themselves, but also the existence of this cycle within ourselves. Through the help of some amazing teachers and wonderful staff and of course, the hard work of our English Communications students, this publi-cation was made possible. And no matter what future path each of us takes, and what may disappear, this ink and paper is a testament to our time, our work and our knowledge.

Kelsey WilhelmEditor of UMac Bridges Spring 2012

Dis-Appearing Ink

The last few years have shown some amazing changes. As the environment around us sheds its cocoon and spreads it’s neon wings, we also shed our childhood and move into a new age. We have arrived at the fork in the path. The time to choose our own direction, to move on to greater and better things, ...is now. But what a voyage it’s been up until this point.

The last four years have been a transformative time for all of us. Not a sin-gle person whom I saw when I shyly walked into our classroom on the first day is the same. We’ve all grown, become more aware, more educated, and hopefully, happier. We’ve learned to work together to overcome difficulties and we’ve struggled and failed many times in the process. But only through picking ourselves up again and confronting a new challenge have we grown. This magazine is dedicated to the concept of that which appears, which disappears and that which is in the process of disappearing. It carries the memories of things that are past, the enjoyment of those that are present, and the fight for those that are in between. Everyday life shows a constant reminder of this appearing-disappearing cycle and through this publica-tion, we celebrate not only the stories themselves, but also the existence of this cycle within ourselves. Through the help of some amazing teachers and wonderful staff and of course, the hard work of our English Communications students, this publi-cation was made possible. And no matter what future path each of us takes, and what may disappear, this ink and paper is a testament to our time, our work and our knowledge.

Kelsey WilhelmEditor of UMac Bridges Spring 2012

Dis-Appearing Ink

1

Table of Contents Page

Editor’s Note I

Table of Contents 1

Cover StoryThe Traditional Chinese Characters---Is it disappearing? 3

Disappeared Card Game 11Disappearing Brain in Art 13Childhood 15

Disappearing Tomorrow of Grocery Stores 19Behind the Squatters 21Do you know anything about Hong Kong’s education system 23Disappearing Hand Making Ice Cream Taste 25The Source of Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing 27Classic Fragrance never fades 29Just a Salon? 31Working with the bereaved 33Where Has My Stone Pavement Gone? 35“Macao Drama” 37 Unforgotten stationery 39

AppearingMacao Street Music Performance 43An alternative across the border 45Cultural and Creative Industries’ Development Needs Time 47Cricket in Macau: More than a sport 49From Strings to Synths 51Yes, I am a vegetarian. 53Tchouball – More than a Game 55A new movie experience in Macao--the Galaxy UA Cinemas 57M.A.D. C.O.W. Be a Useful Macao Teen 59

Special Thanks 65

Traditional Chinese Characters

简体字

繁體字

誌 志 導 导

親 亲 窮 穷

愛 爱 義 义

選 选 鄉 乡

“Love without a heart?”— looking into the fea-tured pictures, there is one picture showing the comparison between the Traditional Chinese Characters and Simplified Chinese Characters of the word “love”. The difference of these two characters is in the middle of the word, which the word “heart” was missing in the Simplified Chinese Character.

愛

爱

Patrick Van Annie YaoHelen LeeJulia Yuan

Traditional Chinese Characters

简体字

繁體字

誌 志 導 导

親 亲 窮 穷

愛 爱 義 义

選 选 鄉 乡

“Love without a heart?”— looking into the fea-tured pictures, there is one picture showing the comparison between the Traditional Chinese Characters and Simplified Chinese Characters of the word “love”. The difference of these two characters is in the middle of the word, which the word “heart” was missing in the Simplified Chinese Character.

愛

爱

Patrick Van Annie YaoHelen LeeJulia Yuan

Traditional Chinese Characters In most of the Chinese

speaking countries,

Simplified Chinese

Characters are fre-

quently used. According to the

Focus Taiwan, one newspaper

mentioned Ying-Jeou Ma said

there are more than 1.3 billion

people using the Simplified

Chinese Characters while less

than 40 million people still

using the Traditional Chinese

Characters.

Chinese is one official language

in the United Nations. Simpli-

fied Chinese Characters were

adopted to display their Web

pages in Chinese.

History of Chinese Characters

The changes in the forms of

the Chinese characters were

documented. The earliest

system of Chinese Charac-

ters found is the Oracle Bone

Script (甲骨文) and is believed

as a writing system in Shang

dynasty (商朝). Owing to the

words were written on bones

and oracles, this system was

named as Oracle Bone Script.

In fact, the development of

Hanzi (Chinese character)

experienced a long history of

modification, and the most

significant stage was at the

time of Qin Dynasty (秦朝),

when finally Qin Shi Huangdi (

秦始皇) united the country , he

ordered his prime minister Li

Si to develop a new system of

characters, which people have

to use that particular set of

characters in communication.

Thus, due to the habit and

convenience of writing, Hanzi

had changed several times and

finally set in square shape, this

system of writing was called Li

Shu or Clerical Script (隸書).

Chinese characters had

changed several times: from

Oracle Bone Script, Large

Seal Script (大篆), Seal Script

(小篆), Clerical Script (隸書),

Cursive Script (草書), Regular

Script (楷書) and Running

Hand Script (行書). Usually,

the Regular Script is referred

as the standard written char-

acters today.

The formation of Chinese Characters

The formation of Chinese

Characters was usually sum-

marized in six categories,

which were also known as

“Liu Shu”: Pictograms (象形),

Simple ideograms (指事), Ide-

ogrammic compounds (會意),

Phono-semantic compound

characters (形聲), Derivative

cognates (轉注), Rebus (pho-

netic loan) characters (假借).

Pictograms: conveys its mean-

ing through its pictorial re-

semblance to a physical object.

Simple ideograms: base on the

Pictograms, adding a symbol

to it to suggest a new meaning.

Ideogrammic compounds: two

or more pictographic charac-

ters combine together to form

a new word.

Phono-semantic compounds:

3

the Simplified Chinese Char-

acters.

“Around 1960s, the Chinese

Central Government intro-

duced Simplified Chinese Char-

acters and we were told that

from then on, only Simplified

Chinese Characters could be

used.” Professor Dehua Zheng,

Invited Full Professor of Chi-

nese Studies Department of

University of Macau and also

the Director of Research Cen-

tre for Chinese Culture said.

In 1956, Simplified Chinese

Characters was introduced.

The State Council passed the

simplification proposal, with

515 characters simplified,

along with 54 radicals. The

aim of simplification was to

eliminating illiteracy.

Professor Keng Pan Tang, full

professor of Department of

Chinese of University of Ma-

cau, commented: “Eliminating

illiteracy cannot be the reason,

there are still many people

do not know words today.

Because many people are too

poor to afford education, it is

not a problem of characters

but is an economic problem.”

Tang said

The formation of Simplified Chinese

Characters

The Traditional Chinese Char-

acters were simplied under a

couple of principles:

Keep the shape of the original

characters. e.g 龟 (龜)、虑(慮)

Keep the main part of its char-

acteristics, and omit the other.

e.g 声(聲)、医(醫)

Change the radical of which to

be simpler. e.g 拥(擁)、战(戰)

Phonetic symbols are used to

suggest the meaning of the

characters. e.g 惊(驚)、护(護)

Combine those characters that

usually composed of two parts:

one part suggests the meaning

of the character (the seman-

tics); the other part indicates

the pronunciation, most of the

Chinese characters are form

under this principle.

Derivative cognates: have

similar meanings and often

the same etymological root,

but which have diverged in

pronunciation and meaning.

Rebus (phonetic loan) char-

acters: characters that are

“borrowed” to write another

homophonous or near-ho-

mophonous morpheme.

Development of Simpli-fied Chinese Characters

In the age of Taiping Heavenly

Kingdom(太平天國), Chinese

characters were simplified, as

they entry “Taiping Rebellion”

of Merriam-Webster’s Ency-

clopedia of World Religions

described. It was considered to

be the first wave of promoting

have the same meaning by

abolishing the more complicat-

ed one. e.g “里”and “裏”means

the same, use the simplier「

里」as the combined word.

Cursive script, also called

grass script, is replaced by

printed form.（楷书）e.g 专(

專)、东（東）、车(車)、转(轉)

Pictographic character is

created based on the original

meaning. e.g 三人成眾(众)

Some radicals are replaced by

symbols, which are easier to

write. e.g 鸡(雞)、欢(歡)、难

(難)the left part are changed

into “ㄡ”

Ancient Chinese characters

are used. e.g 圣(聖)，礼(禮)，

无（無)，尘(塵)

Simplified Chinese Characters

were developed upon “PinYin”,

which is the Romanization of

Chinese Character.

Usage of Simplified Chinese Character

Hanging around Macao, in

some tourist spots, like the ca-

sinos and resorts, the simpli-

fied Chinese Characters were

adopted. In Venetian we can

find the notice broads written

in Simplified Chinese Charac-

ters. The same case also ap-

plied to the Galaxy Resort.

“After the handover, Tradi-

親 亲

義 义 導 导

選 选

繁

體

字

简

体

字

5

tional Chinese Characters are

continuously used, though

Simplified Chinese Characters

are more used than before due

to business reasons,” Assis-

tant Professor of Department

of Chinese of University of

Macau, Mei Leng said.

According to Macao Public

Security Police Force, until

the end of February 2012, the

number of tourist entering

Macao was more than 10 mil-

lion. Among them, more than

4 million were from Mainland

China, which meant an in-

crease of 19.52% in compari-

son with last year, which is

an increase of more than 700

thousand.

On Apr 3, 2012, a Hong Kong

newspaper Sing Tao Daily

reported that an Agnès b café

located in a shopping mall in

Tseung Kwan O(將軍奧), Hong

Kong, printed their menus in

Simplified Chinese Characters.

Culture

A snack shop near the Jardim

de Luís de Camões (白鴿巢公

園)printed a combination of

Traditional and Simplified

Chinese Characters on their

Menus.

“Fewer students in Macao now

can write in totally correct

traditional Chinese character,”

commented Mei Leng Tam,

“Now they mix up both Simpli-

fied and Traditional Chinese

Characters.”

Taking Vietnam as an exam-

ple, Dehua Zheng said most

of the old governmental

documents were written in

Ancient Chinese Characters.

The Vietnam Government

reformed its own language so

people no longer knew Chi-

nese. Do Thi Thanh Huyen,

a Chinese professor from

Vietnam National University,

Hanoi, shared similar ideas in

his essay: “Loanwords from

Chinese is common in Mod-

ern Vietnamese, Vietnam has

always enjoyed closed ties

with China, which results in

a large number of loanwords

from Ancient Chinese Charac-

ters. Those loanwords are not

only in large quantity but also

widespread, thus becoming

a very important part of the

Vietnamese vocabulary.”

For instance, no one could

read the old official docu-

ments of the Vietnam govern-

ment; therefore they needed

to send students to learn

Chinese Characters, as the

article “Teaching Chinese

as a second language for 50

years”.

“I still remember, during

the third time of ‘Simplified

Characters’, someone advised

we should write ‘白菜’ as ‘白

才’,” said Zheng. On this issue,

Tang also said, “the character

‘靈’, has special meanings. The

top part means ‘rain’. In the

ancient time people often

require rain from the god, so

the pray process need ‘wizard’,

which was represented by the

bottom part. But one wizard is

not enough so they need many

wizards. Therefore, they put

three ‘口’in the middle.”

“In my opinion, we should treat

Traditional Chinese Characters

and Simplified Chinese Charac-

ters equally, put them together

and find out the effective char-

acters one by one,” Tang added.

Macao, Hong Kong and Taiwan

are still using the Traditional

Chinese Characters. Like what

Tam said it is not in the danger

of extinction; however, people

need to write in proper Tra-

ditional or Simplified Chinese

Characters.

简体字

繁體字

7

Card Game

Living in a high-tech world, technology is present day-and-night: the

mobile phone, the computer, iPad, PSP, XBOX. It’s gotten to the extent that

some teenagers say “LIFE without Technology means DEATH!” However, have

they ever thought of how their parents spent their leisure time when they

were teens? What did they do? These were the “Days without Technology”.

Antique Shop in Macao

Ancient Toys in China

In the 1960s, different kinds of small games abounded. Catching the water beetle (捉龍虱), catching the dragonfly(捉蜻蜓), hopscotch (跳飛機), pick-up sticks (挑竹簽), traffic light (紅綠燈), throwing the bean bags (拋豆袋), and card games (公仔紙) were some of the most popular. Of these games, four of them have already disappeared. Catching the water beetle, catching the dragonfly, throwing the bean bags and the card games have all faded away. Nowadays, they can only be found in old stores or museums. Within those four types of games, the “Card Game” was the most famous and also one of the top ten games in the 1960s. Teenagers nowadays don’t even know how to play them.”

Gigi Ung

Mr. Ng, a man in his 50s, speaks of the history and the rules of “Card Game”.

The “Card Game”, he explains, is played using a cardboard paper with around twenty or thirty historical cartoons printed on it, such as “Journey to the West” and “Dream of the Red Chamber”. This paper can be divided into 25 pieces. There are different sizes of the card, the biggest one is about the size of a poker card and the smallest, a two inch photo.

Western idols, like “Bruce Lee”, due to the popularity of the movie “The Big Boss” and “James Bond”, due to the 007 movies were also used. Scenic depictions would appear every now and then. “What is printed on the cardboard is all based on what or who is famous in that period,” said Ng. He adds that the riddle, the description or the caption of the image on the front can be found on the back of the cardboard.

Ng mentions that “Card Game” was one of the top ten most popular games in the 60s, many people in

their 40s and above know about this game. Many of the people born in 60s did not have access to education, and this game provided the opportunity to learn about the history of China through playing.

“Every child was addicted to this game, it’s ridiculous but to say the truth, parents seldom stopped us

playing this game because it was a way for us to learn and our parents were busy on playing Mahjong,” said Ng with tricky smile.

Ng gives an exhibition of how to play the game.There are various manners in which to play. One style

involves two people. First the two players have to make a deal that the loser has to give a certain number of cards to the winner. After the deal is made, they have to choose a card and put it in their palm, and face their hands towards each other. Once the paper falls on the ground, if the side with the cartoon is facing up, you win. If the side with words is on top, you lose, similar to “heads or tails”.

The other way of playing the game involves two or more players. Before beginning, each player has to agree to pick five cards for themselves. For example, Ng explains, if there are five players, there should be twenty-five cards. Among those cards, players have to choose one as a “king” and put the “king” in the second to last position. Each player can use any means to take away the cards covering the “king”, except for blowing on them. Some players slap the table, some kick the table, some even jump on the ground.

Ng recalls with emotion, “Everyone loves keeping things. In our generation, we love keeping the

cards, the worms. Now teens love to keep the electronic product that’s the big difference.” He added, in the past, people always gathered together; like him as a teen, always playing different mini games with his friends every afternoon. Now the only thing that’s together are human beings and the technological device which is always present in their hands. Ng says he can only reminisce on the past because the game that he used to play will never appear again. Yet what will never disappear are his precious memories.

Old Paper Card Game in China

11

Disappeared Brain in ArtTracy Ma

“Have you practiced your piano today?” this is all I have been hearing from my mum eversince I was five years old. Practice, practice, practice… This is what I have been doing for over a decade on my musical path, practicing from the easy John Thompson Easiest Piano Course to the masterpieces of Frederic Chopin or Tchaikovsky.

Can you imagine how crazy it was to learn different masterpiece of various composers of dif-ferent periods, from the Baroque to the Modern in 10 years? I would rather say, it is not learning

music in general, it is just learning how to play your musical instruments.

“IwanttolearnflutebecauseIlikethesong“RedButterfly”,thethemesongofoneofthepopularHongKongTVdrama.”saidMsChan,anewstudentwhostartslearningherfirstinstru-mentinher30s.Ibelievemanypeoplewholearnmusicinstrumentsmighthavesimilarexperi-ences. Then they start studying in music centers; some of them, they even go to Hong Kong or

mainlandChinaforlessonsonceortwiceaweek.

However, the matter is not where you learn from or whom you learn from. The matter is howyoulearn.Manyparentswerecuriouswhytheirchildrencouldplayverywellathome,butthey couldn’t even play a simple song when they were out of their rooms. The reason is simple, most students were simply learning how to transfer the music notes on a piece of paper into an audio tone on the instruments. And when they don’t have their scores with them, they simply

couldn’tplayanything.Alltheyhavelearntfromtutorswas“copyandpaste”.

ItisthestudyatmosphereinMacaoandHongKong.Musicstudentsfinallylearntheirpatiencefromcontinuouslypracticingtheirmusicalinstrumentsfor4to5hoursaday,buttheycouldnotacquiremuchoftheskillformusicappreciationandcriticism.Inreturn,mostofthem

could only learn how to memorize the whole piece, and not much more.

Mr Yu, one of the former professional drummers for many Hong Kong pop singers and now a band organizer, al-ways says that “Learning classics is useless! People should learn to play jazz!” Somehow I feel so uncomfortable with his attitude of looking down the value of classics, since I also start learning music from classics. Classic master-pieces have high traditional value which should be appreci-ated and protected for our next generations. However I do agree a bit with his statement, because many people, who had learnt music for nearly a decade, could still hardly think about what they are playing. Many students would simply copy and paste the performance of a masterpiece from their teachers, without evaluating further about the content. They don’t know why the composer wrote this piece. They don’t even know much about the background of the composers of which the pieces they played.

Living under Macao and Hong Kong’s atmosphere, students have many opportunities and advantages of learning music. But we still haven’t fully utilized our resources. It is no doubt that many students stay in front of their instruments and practice several hours a day, but they couldn’t achieve good performance; because they simply practice the technical skills without under-standing. In this state, I do agree with Mr Yu’s view, where he says, “Classics makes people blind.”

“We learn classics for learning the good values from the great composers in history, we should not simply copy their way of style and structure; in the other hand, the more important is that, we should further develop them…” said Ms Vicki Ho, a Hong Kong secondary school music teacher.

Ms Ho explained that she works a bit different from the music teachers in other secondary schools, she won’t simply ask students to sing a hymn like the old traditional way of teaching in schools. She prefers to teach them sing, and also teach them how people work on music at the same time. “I let them choose what they want to learn during lessons, for example, sing a song, music appreciation, or sometimes even teach them a bit of writing simple lyrics.”

Ms Ho is one of the new generations in music teaching, she suppose all things are learnt from interest. As a teacher, they could not force students to learn a lot of theories or techniques at a very short period of time. She would instead assist her students to learn what they really want.

I do appreciate with Ms Ho’s attitude of teaching. If there are more people who could adopt this type of thinking, both teachers and students, I believe, not only the music industry itself, the art culture in general would achieve a much further development in Macau.

“Think and Develop! Not Just Copy and Paste!”Macau is improving speedily; living in this financially well developed city, I believe learning art

becomes easier. In order to raise citizens’ cultural value, government supports a lot into different fields, the Instituto Cultural de Macau subsidizes every school for cultural development and tutorial every year; aside from financial supports, they also help organizing college band shows, which therefore provides a very formal platform for students to gain cultural exchange experience. They also keep on inviting different professional artists to perform in Macau frequently, like the Wiener Philharmoniker or Bobby McFerrin recently.

Since there are still many active art enthusiasts working so hard in Macau, our art culture is luck-ily not dead, though it is nearly a bit in danger, I’m not referring to the amount of money being invested into this industry, but the more important is the personal value and respect towards art culture. I be-lieve Macau would still have a long way to go on.

13

A band from Swiss named Bandari made a piece of music named “Childhood Mem-ory”. It could remind people of their own childhood moments; it might be full of

happiness and grown-up-sorrows. When people come to a certain age, they begin to think of their childhood stories: the most happiest moment, the most embarrassing moment, the playmates, the horrible experience, the favorite food, the game they ad-

dicted to. Those moments have already gone and will never come back.

Time is ticking out, the playgrounds, toys and many things were gone...

Helen Lee

Childhood memory

...but memory never gone.

Panda Paradize Tokens for KristyThe Traditional Facial Cream for Jing

Helen Lee

Two girls from different culture backgrounds talked about their childhood

Kristy Chan is a girl from Macao and she told me “there was a big playground in the Casino Lis-boa, my father used to take me there, unfortunately, the playground has already changed to gambling area”. She said the playground was large enough that children could drive the Bumper car, there was also Sweet Shot. But what she misses most is “Threw the circle.” She also told me that there was also a playground at Yaohan Department Store named Panda Paradize, many girls loved it. There were full of colorful candies, cute and cuddly toys and the most important was “Swing” which attracted a lot of girls.

“You know, the girls, they love daydreaming”, she said. She also showed me the game coin of Panda Paradize on which there is an adorable panda head.

Jing Li is a girl from northeast part of mainland China, when she was talking about her childhood

memory she told me she missed the fragrance of old cosmetic. She said in the northeast winter, the chilling wind made skin uncomfortable and even “cut” the skin like a knife. “That’s really hurt”, she said. Every morning her mother will put some “Friendship Vanishing Cream” on her face for protec-tion. She said, “I like the smell, and it protects my skin from the chilling wind but the product was not produced any more.” Nowadays, there are many big brand cosmetic but the old one is really helpful she insisted. “They are expensive and I am kind of skin allergy,” she said “while the ‘Friendship Vanishing Cream’ is suitable for everyone and my friends also used it when they were little kids”. When she was a child, every winter she can get protection from the “vanishing cream” but now even she is using the expensive cosmetic she is still missing the old one.

As for another thing she missed a lot is the “Children Park” near her place, which has been changed

to a real park opened for everyone now. It means all the entertainment facilities were moved away. “When I was a child, every Children’s Day and my birthday, my parents took me to the Children Park there was Sky Wheel, Bumper Car and Mad Tea Party. ” she mentioned. But it seems that the park did not operate well, for the equipments were old and kind of dirty. When she was 11 years old the park closed down formally. “That’s really petty, I want my every birthday celebrating there but it closed down!” she said.

Two old men from different culture backgrounds also shared their childhood memories

Mr. Ping who is aged around 50 said his mother put “shell cream” on his body in winter since the wind was “unfriendly”. He grew up at Macao and now worked at Macao. “I missed those people who sell food made by them, I remembered the fish ball and fish congee”, he said “when I was a child, people were poor, the economy was bad so there were many people they made food at home and sell the food on the street”. Those vendors they spoke loudly to attract people to buy their food. Mr. Ping said the food he missed a lot is the grapefruit peel. The vendors they peel the grapefruit and put them into the hot water boil them until the peels become soft. Then they make the peels dry and boil them again. After some steps, the grapefruit peels become tasty. “People were very poor at that time, so we don’t throw away the peels, we made it food and sell them”, he added.

Mr. Fang said the thing he missed so much is rolling iron circle with friends. He is 52 years old and he is from Heilongjiang Province, however, he moved to Macao ten years ago. “Rolling iron circle can practice the balanced capacity”, he said, “the reason I love this game a lot is that I am always the win-ner and I’m so proud of myself ”. Children use a stick at the end of which there is a hook to control the iron circle and who can run with the iron circle for the longest way without any mistake is the winner. He said “my father made me the first iron circle in my life, I love it and play with it every day, unfortu-nately, I think my mother threw it away already”.

You can compare the Kristy’s memory with Mr. Ping’s memory to find out the differences between two generations and so does the comparison between Jing’s memory with Mr. Fang’s memory. You can also get to know the differences between two different culture backgrounds among the same age group when you compare Kristy’s memory with Jing’s memory and compare Mr. Ping’s memory with Mr. Fang’s memory.

15

Tomorrow of Grocery Stores

“Madam, what would you like to buy today? A warm greeting comes out from an old grocery store whenever I pass through the store. ” said Aubrey Kuok, a local grocery store customer.According to Macao Yellow Page, there are 48 companies currently operating supermarkets in Macao Under the keyword “Supermar-ket”.Do you notice that grocery stores are far away from us?

A series of interviews was conducted in 15 grocery

stores located in 5 main dis-tricts in Macao, in the Nossa Senhora de Fátima, Sé, Santo António, São Lázaro and São Lourenço neighborhoods generated some interesting results.

They showed that some stores are owned by the operator. Some they have been renting for an extended period of time. 12 out of 15 grocery store owners have been running their business-es for over 25 years.

UN is the owner of UN gro-cery store in Bairro Horta da Mitra (雀仔園） He has operated his store for many years. He took over the store from his father. His family lives on the floor above the shop. He mainly sells rice, canned food, oil and brooms. Every day, he opens his store at 8:00 a.m. He likes to chat with the neighbours. They know each other for many years. He knows the prefer-ence of his customers.

According to the Macao consumer council 147 super-markets have already joined the certificate shop under the category of” supermar-ket and store” including branches and chain stores. Among the 147 units, only 14 units are grocery stores.

UN reflected that they would never sell some-thing expired to custom-ers although he didn’t join

the certificate shop. How-ever, some of their products are hard to sell before they reach the expiration date. He treats the customers as his old friends because those are regular customers and fells that what he sells can be trusted. He reveals that if his products are one or two months close to the expira-

tion date, he gives them to customers for free.

Jody Chao, a young house-wife who is a consumer at local supermarkets said

“Supermarket is convenience. I can buy vegetable, meat, daily necessaries or snake in one place.” She added that grocery stores are small, thus, what they sell to people is more specific. She needs to spend time

on walking around different grocery stores and markets in order to get all the things needed. It is really time-consuming for her. Further-more, she likes to consume in supermarkets because they offer discounts, coupons and promotions. She feels happy after buying something for a lower price.

Michelle Sou

markets use discounts and promotions as a sales strate-gy. In Kuok’s opinion, people might spend more than they expected on buying unnec-essary products.

“We can’t provide a very low price to the customers. If the price is too low, my business can’t be supported.” Tong, WENG FAT grocery owner said. Compared with five years before, his profits have dropped 30%. The same product that a supermarket sell is about one or two dol-lars lower than his store. He finds it hard to survive if he follows the supermarket pricing.

“Supermarkets buy in a large number of prod-ucts each time. The amount of stock purchases by supermarkets is 4 or 5 times more than the grocery stores. Naturally, we will adjust the price base on the number of products.” said Steve Tan, manager of product supply for a beverage sup-ply company.

Although the profit of Tong’s grocery has dropped, he always sometime gives 1 or 2 prod-ucts to his neighbors for free. If some neighbors forget to bring money, he allows them to pay it back another day. It builds a relationship and trust between the shop owner(s) and their customers.Besides, there are some people who like shopping in grocery stores. “The store owner is really nice, he recommends me receipt. Whenever I tell him what I like to cook, he is willing to help me pick up all ingredients.” says Yue Chan, an old lady who lives near Bairro Horta da Mitra. She likes to spend time in grocery stores as well. She builds up a kind of friendship with the owner.“We are not simply store keeper and customers. We are friends.” said UN.

“Our customers are mainly our neighbor-hood and regular customer. Besides, stu-dents love to buy candies in my store.” said Kou, an owner of Kei Pou grocery store in Iao Hon, located nearby a school.

“Although supermarkets have discount, we always over budget on buy thing which is unnecessary.” Aubrey Kuok, a woman in her fifties who is a custom-er of local grocery stores said. Super-

Even though there are some neighbors and regular consumers that go to UN’s store, he can’t see a positive future for his store. What he earns is just enough to support their daily life. He only stays open because of the relationship between him and the his neighbors.

“No one is willing to run this kind of business in the future. Old grocery will be naturally elimi-nated by the market.” said UN.

On the other hand, some owners are more optimistic. “My store is supported by regular customers and students. In fact, my profit is not really bad. It is my daily habit and interest. I would like to keep the relationship with my customers” said Kou.

Grocery stores are full of memories. Although they are disappearing, the kind of friendship between stores owners and neighbours will never disappear.

19

Oliva Leong

Many things and places are likely to be disappeared or being disappeared in this fast developing era, in which they are all memories that we treasure. For instance, the implementation of new city planning entails the reconstruction of the former map in Macao. Squatters and slums clearance is one of the visible examples of new city planning in the recent decade due to the land grant to contractors. On the other hand, it is no doubt that human friendliness is one of the invisible examples that is being disappeared in this modern life.

Squatters are houses made of iron or wood that were once occupied a large area in Macao. In

spite of the replacements of apartments, there are a few squatters near the Ilha Verde, Red Market, AreiaPreta and Patane in which some are vacant and some are still owned by people. Apart from the usage of living, people also use them for restaurant and car business.

Among the squatters in Macao, Ilha Verde was once the major area occuping numbers of squatters. The inhabitant includes the old and weak, learning disabled people, one parent family, unemployed people, or even wealthy people. Squatter area there was built due to the fire outbreak for the victims in 1950 and 1955. Nevertheless, it had confronted the clearance due to the carry out of public housing estates, in which some of the inhabitants can get into public housing estates while some of them cannot.

For any sake, it is a fact that squatter area in Ilha Verde was already out of our sight. It became the memories of the inhabitant forever and it is believed that people’s grievance against the government will dilute as time passed. However, here comes a question: “will the remaining squat-ter and slum areas in Macao undergo the same experience as the Ilha Verde does?”

It is a cold and cheerless Sunday morning, in which shops are closed and people are resting. Nevertheless, I have decided to start my journey of adventure to search for something that is disap-pearing in Macao – remaining squatters in Macao. The first time of my journey is a few weeks ago. I drove and walked along street and alley that is possible to find the existing of squatters. In consequence, I have found a few squatters near the Ilha Verde, Red Market, AreiaPreta, Patane, Rua do Cunha, Edf. TouUn and Coloane Down-town in which some are vacant and some are still owned by people. This time, I am going to search more about people who live in squatters through interviews.

The first place that I go along is the Ilha Verde. The land, which the original squatter areas stood erectly, has become the soil for an engineering project. Nearby, there are still some discarded squatters and I could easily find sign of “Govern-ment’s territory, occupation is forbidden”. After asking some inhabitants, they point me to one alley nearby in which I can see a squatter seems still occupied by someone. Unfortunately, there are some fences that I can’t get into it.

Then I go to the Coloane Downtown to search for some interviewees. Many inhabitants have resist-ance on having an interview. I walked along the path and finally reach “Ying Lee”, a squatter of a fish and seafood store. Mrs. Cheong, aged 65 years old, is the store keeper of “Ying Lee”. Her

Behind the Squatters

house is behind the store where she has been living for about 50 years. There are presently 7 people lived in this squatter.

When I look into “Ying Lee”, it is hard to imagine if there is a typhoon. Typhoon and raining is the scariest thing to them which will lead to flooding and worn out of squatter. Every year they have to pack things for at least two times before the typhoon comes. In the year 2008, it was a disaster to them as their house was worn out and their television was out ordered as well. Even so, they still didn’t think of moving to the urban areas as they have already used to this place and environment.

Cheong mentioned that the land is belongs to the Macao government and they have to give tax to the government every year for occupying the place. The squatters were built by themselves and they have to keep repairing every year. ‘We cannot do anything if the government withdraws the land, yet at this moment I’m not too worry about it zat all. It is because I was heard that the government wants to keep the characteristics of fishing here,’ said Cheong.

The last station that I go is Taipa as I am curious to get know about squatter areas in Macao, Taipa and Coloane. To my disap-pointment, people who live in TouUn was out to work and the others who passed by are not inhabitants in Taipa. Edf.TouUn is where the “Zhuo family village”, where it is one of the squatter areas in Taipa which is private land.

Thus, I move to Rua do Cunha, a tourist scenic spots that is famous in Macao, where there are some remaining squat-ters nearby. Although it is a cold Sunday, it doesn’t reduce the number of tourists. It is a bustling place, yet those asides are where the squatters stand.

Walking along the squatter area, I found 3 men sitting in front of a squatter engag-ing in chitchat. They are all inhabitants of Taipa. After telling them my purpose

to come, they are very nice to offer a seat for my interview. Among three of them, 2 of them have already moved to public housing estates. Both of them are called Mr. Ho as they are brothers. It was a coincidence that I see them meeting Mr. Chan, the owner of this squatter, who has been living in this squatter for 56 years. They start to talk about their story, which is one of the long and interesting stories that I have ever heard.

Ho the elder, aged 58, has been living in squatters around Rua do Cunha until 5 years ago. According to them, the car park beside Rua do Cunha was also squatter area before. There are over a hundred squatters over here. In the past, they need to go to the city hall register for occupying a place for building their other house. The officers in the city hall will then find a place and measure the area of squatter for them. Each family has over 10 people living together.

‘Taipa is a quiet and peaceful place before the bridge was built in 1974 linking Macao and Taipa together. The public order is very good as they are all very poor and neighbors are known by each other,’ said Ho.

In common with the inhabitants in Coloane, they are scary of typhoon and raining. Flooding is a big problem to them. In the past when there is a typhoon, inhabitants would evacuate from their squatters to the city hall in Taipa, in which the Portuguese officers would go to squatters one by one to help the old and weak. Although such horror scenes happened, they can also feel the friendliness of the Portuguese and the cooperation of other inhabitants

Instead of typhoon and raining, their scariest thing is the squatter getting on fire. According to Ho, each family have to make firecrackers to earn money as Taipa is the major place for making firecrackers and fireworks.

‘We know it is the truth that the govern-ment will withdraw the place very soon since the land is belongs to them. Nev-ertheless, we only hope that they can plan better this time, not like the Ilha Verde’s,’ said Chan.

I have stay there for a long time and we finish the interview just before they have their dinner. In between, they have told me many of their experiences and memories in the past. After interviewed the inhabitants in Coloane and Taipa, I am sigh with emotion. People in the past were friends with their neighbors. They are very generous in giving others’ their hand. They lived peaceful with other inhabitants or even the Portuguese.

“Echoes of the rainbow” is a Hong Kong drama film directed by Alex Law in 2010, which won the Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the Children’s Jury “Generation Kplus” category at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival. It is a touching story in which the main characters are also inhabitants live in squatters. The film shows how difficult their lives are; how they face the nature disasters; and how friendly and warmth they are when being with their neighbors. I think this story can totally express the living environment and friendliness of people in the past.

Time flies and not all the object and place can be remained. Disappeared and disap-pearing are facts that we cannot resist. While the only thermos that I found is friendliness of human.

21

Carmen Si Tou

Do You Know Anything About Hong Kong’s Education System?

“We just learnt Chinese in the past, unlike you and your mother, learning different subjects in a comfortably environment,” Leung Chow Kit Ling said.

The difference of compulsory academic subjects

Through the ages, education is a very important process aims to impart and acquire knowledge from

different aspects which can enrich our lives and help us to live a better life. The education means of the past and now are being changed According to the development and improvement of this globe. However, academic subjects keep changing in different decades.

According to my grandmother, Leung Chow Kit Ling, when she was studying in primary school in Hong Kong in 1940s, Cantonese was the medium instruction. Students at that time learnt about the history of China, poems of Tang dynasty, “three character classic” and The Analects. Education at that time focused on the learning of calligraphy. Besides calligraphy classes, every assignments of students were being written by writing brushes.

Later in the 1970s, when my mother, Sze-To Leung Po Ling, entered primary school in Hong Kong, Cantonese was still the majority language used in classes; however she no longer needed to learn about the “Three Character Classic” and The Analects. Calligraphy classes were compulsory started from primary one. My mother told me that she needed to submit a piece of calligraphy assignment every day.

For me, in the 1990s, when I first entered a primary school in Hong Kong, I started learning calligraphy since primary three. Different from my mother; I just needed to submit a piece of calligraphy homework once a week. Calligraphy class was just held once a week which lasted for around 35 minutes. The biggest difference of learning calligraphy is that my grandmother and my mother learnt to write small letters on each of the small squares on the nine palaces grid. At my age, I just learnt to write big letter which covers all the nine small squares on the nine palaces grid.

At my grandparents’ ages, English classes didn’t exist. My mother told me that primary school she entered was more English-orientated. She had to learn English. She learnt simple conversational English during classes.

At my age for primary schools in 1990s, the sub-jects were more or less the same as my parents. I entered an English as Medium of Instruction (EMI) primary school. During English classes, the tutors would only speak in English rather than other languages. When students spoke in other languages during English classes, marks would be deducted.

My grandmother told me that students had to learn the use of abacus during Mathematics classes. Students were required to bring the abacus to school every day, used it to learn about the adding and minus method. Moreover, they needed to recite the multiplier table.

The later generations like my parents, me, and my cousin, we didn’t learn the use of abacus any-more. We had to learn some simple mathematical equations instead, also more focused on the brain development, learning reasoning mathematics. We didn’t just learn how to calculate for the right answers, but more emphasized on how to find out the answer and the understandings of the equations.

Besides Chinese, English and Mathematics, my father, Sze-To Tze Keung, when he entered pri-mary school in Hong Kong in 1970s, he had a wider range of compulsory academic subjects like health education, civic education, science, physical education, art and music classes. As my mother entered a Catholics primary school, religious education class was also a compulsory subject for primary students.

When comparing the academic subjects of 1940s, 1970s, 1990s and 2000s, we can see a lot of differ-ences. According to my cousin, So Choi Ming Wai, she told me that when her daughter, So Yin Ching,

entered primary school in Hong Kong in 2007, although the academic subjects were more or less the same as mine, general reading classes and swimming classes are compulsory classes for a primary one student. Computer classes were held for primary three to primary six students. Calligraphy classes are no longer as important as before, students started learning calligraphy in primary four. A piece of calligra-phy homework just needed to hand in once as before, students started learning calligraphy in primary four. A piece of calligraphy homework just needed to hand in once or twice a month.

The different education system

My grandmother, Mrs. Leung, and my grand-father, Leung Wing Fok, they told me that at that time they were very poor. Only rich people can afford the secondary school education. The primary school my grandfather studied in Hong Kong was donated and built by the charity organization. The learning atmosphere was totally different from the later decades. Students had to recite “Three Character Classic” and other Chinese poems loudly in class. If a student couldn’t recite or forgot to complete an assignment, he/she would be hit by a ruler or long stick. However, since 1991, corporal punish-ment was being banned by the law in Hong Kong. So, the later generations didn’t experience corporal punishment.

The teachings were less diversified when com-pared to the education in 1970s, 1990s and 2000s. My grandfather told me when he was studying in primary school in the 1940s, the primary school he entered was aimed to teach students how to read and write, because many families were poor and they couldn’t afford the tuition fees for their kids. The education was focused mainly on the morality of a student.

At my parents’ age, there was “six years free education” system promulgated in Hong Kong, kids could receive free primary educa-tion. However, there was a public examination for primary six students, fighting for the seats of secondary schools. At my age, the six years free education had been changed to nine years free education. In 2007, it became 12 years free education.

According to my grandparents, they just needed to go to classes for three to four hours every day; At the ages of me and my parents, students chose to go either morning classes or afternoon classes, each section lasted for five hours per day.

As the increasing of academic subjects, my cousin told me that her daughter needed to go to classes for the whole day, from 8:00a.m. to 4:00p.m. The aim of education is no longer just helping students to become literate. My cousin told me that swimming classes are compulsory classes for a primary one student. Schools aim to help a kid develop in different aspects rather than just teaching them write and read.

The world is changing every day and the educa-tion system is changing throughout the decades. Hong Kong people are more pressured to com-pete with others in different aspects. Pressures are started being put on since you are a kid. So, a wider range of academic subjects are required as a better preparation for a kid to grow up in this competing society.

23

Sisappearing of Handmade Ice-cream

Grace Liu

People who live in Macao are often attracted by the prosperity of this international city. The 5-star hotels and the pleasure houses seeming to imitate Las Vegas’s style. However, eating too many delicacies of every kind can make you feel bored. A tra-ditional Macao may hold the key to alleviate this.

Ice Cream is a very popular snack that can fit people of any age and ice cream stores can be seen everywhere in Macao. Outside Haagen-dazs ice cream shop, customers can often be seen in long queues . However, natural ice cream, which is made by hand seems less and less popular. As a traditional brand of hand made ice cream-- HongHeng Cocos (洪韾號), still keeps the “old and mellow taste”.

The distance between Rua de Tercena(果欄街) and the Ruins of St. Paul’s is around three minutes on foot. How-ever, Rua de Tercena’s conditions may seem to pale compared with the busy of Ruins of St. Paul. One hundred years ago, Rua de Tercena was one of the busiest streets in Macao. As the collection site of exports, it dealt with a lot of business.

HongHeng Cocos got into opera-tion in 1869. Its primary industry is exporting coconuts. Its busi-ness operated up until 1949, when Chine?? obtained its liberation.

Walking into the HongHeng Cocos, the first thing visible are several large coconuts. The facilities in-side the store are so simple that there are no seats for customers.

Ms. Liu, a visitor from mainland China said that, “I read the news about HongHeng Coco from the

Internet and today I came here es-pecially for its coconut ice cream.”

Many customers who do come claimed it was due to the fame of the company.

There are four flavors of HongHeng ice cream. Coconut, Mango, Taro and Chocolate. Among these four, coconuts and mango rank first and second in sales, respectively. Their raw materials are supplied from Malaysia and the Philippines. Al-though the ice cream lacks luxurious packaging, customers find it brings a cool, smooth and sweet feeling.

Mr Lee, the owner of the HongHeng, excitedly spoke of his product.

“HongHeng is the only pure nature hand making ice cream store left in Macao. There is no pigment or chemical addi-tive in the cream at all, and this is why when you eat it, you have a different taste-- it is all by nature. We begin to make ice cream at eight o’clock in the morning. The production steps include removing the shell, peeling the brown skin, cleaning the pulp, squeezing juice and then putting the product into freezer. You may think it is very simple, however, every step is important and each is really time and labor-consuming. You know what, two coconuts can only make 0.5 kilograms juice!” With the proud expression, Lee continued:“Although many factories want to cooperate with me, I did not accept them. This ice cream making-process is a fam-ily secret and I will never tell other companies.”

When speaking of the operation of the company, Lee showed slight dis-appointment.

“ You know, because the location is remote, there are not too many tourists coming here, so that the business is not as good as other stores in a good location. Even in the summer, we can only sell about 100 cups. Considering the cost of 15 patacas every cup, we hardly earn any profits.”

When asked why Lee did not choose to run his business in a new place, he said that he did not want to close the old store because it has been there for over 100 years. And more important, instead of only making profits, what he really wants is to leave something for Macao.” I will feel sad if the next generation has no impression of the ice cream without additives.”

Ms. Sabrina Lin, who came here especially, said,”nowadays, there are too many ice creams. However, when you eat too much you will feel disgusted because of too much sweet. This is why i come here to taste the hand-making ice cream.”

Vincent Chu, a native Macao resident, said that he thought the HongHeng ice cream was not only a “yummy” snack, it represented a symbol of Macao’s local food culture. He was impressed by the spirit of the 100 years old store. As a native Macao resident, he cherished this memory and wanted it to be handed down from one generation to the other.

25

Jessie Rong

People living in Macao may feel that it is a diverse culture society. However, Macao has a variety of special traditional and interesting local cultures

originally. From Macao Museum exhibition, I known some basic information about Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing. Every year 7 th day of the fourth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, drunken dragon dance performance will be held on the following day. Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing includes a series of activities, such as the drunken dragon dance, local citizens gathering to eat and talk, the dragon boat longevity rice distribution to local citizens and so on. Macao Fish Trade General Association has the special custom of Drunken Dragon Dancing to celebrate on this day. According to the interview from Macao Fish Trade General Association, Guan Zhiong is the director Macao Fish Trade General Association. He described that Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing is a local special cultural, we should know and protect it. Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing is a celebration ritual of bathing festival. On that day, the dancers from the Macao Fish Trade General Association will dance in the street. Usually dancer and many local participators will gather in Pagoda Sam Cai Vu Cun to have the ceremony. In general, the dancers drunk themselves first with rice wine and then they will dance with wood dragon head and tail in the street. The citizens will walk out of the door and watch this wonderful performance. It is really a very special culture; it seems the wooden dragon can dance in reality. The dancers are very professional for his performance. The Legend Story about Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing Gu Hong is the another interviewee and he is also the member of the Macao Fish Trade General Association. He is 64 years old now; however, he was the dancer of drunken dragon dance performance when he was very young. According to his talks, there is also a very interesting legend story about this culture. It is said that, long time ago, Macao had a pestilence. The villagers asked the Buddha for help. The villagers decided to invite and carry the Buddha to the village. On the way of back home at the side of river, there is a boa snake jump out from forest suddenly. The villagers struggled for the fighting with boa together; finally, the boa snake was killed. The blood of boa snake flowed into the river and the water in the river cure the disease in the village. Then the villagers think that the boa snake was the embodiment of the dragon, afterwards, the people are dancing the drunken dragon to commemorate it. Later and later, the local Macao people inherit the habit and then it becomes

The source of ,Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing

Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing

Pictures are provided by the Vai Meng Kwan, Chairman of Macao Fish Trade General Association相片由澳門鮮魚行總會理事長關偉銘先生提供

Jessie Rong

People living in Macao may feel that it is a diverse culture society. However, Macao has a variety of special traditional and interesting local cultures

originally. From Macao Museum exhibition, I known some basic information about Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing. Every year 7 th day of the fourth month of the Chinese lunar calendar, drunken dragon dance performance will be held on the following day. Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing includes a series of activities, such as the drunken dragon dance, local citizens gathering to eat and talk, the dragon boat longevity rice distribution to local citizens and so on. Macao Fish Trade General Association has the special custom of Drunken Dragon Dancing to celebrate on this day. According to the interview from Macao Fish Trade General Association, Guan Zhiong is the director Macao Fish Trade General Association. He described that Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing is a local special cultural, we should know and protect it. Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing is a celebration ritual of bathing festival. On that day, the dancers from the Macao Fish Trade General Association will dance in the street. Usually dancer and many local participators will gather in Pagoda Sam Cai Vu Cun to have the ceremony. In general, the dancers drunk themselves first with rice wine and then they will dance with wood dragon head and tail in the street. The citizens will walk out of the door and watch this wonderful performance. It is really a very special culture; it seems the wooden dragon can dance in reality. The dancers are very professional for his performance. The Legend Story about Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing Gu Hong is the another interviewee and he is also the member of the Macao Fish Trade General Association. He is 64 years old now; however, he was the dancer of drunken dragon dance performance when he was very young. According to his talks, there is also a very interesting legend story about this culture. It is said that, long time ago, Macao had a pestilence. The villagers asked the Buddha for help. The villagers decided to invite and carry the Buddha to the village. On the way of back home at the side of river, there is a boa snake jump out from forest suddenly. The villagers struggled for the fighting with boa together; finally, the boa snake was killed. The blood of boa snake flowed into the river and the water in the river cure the disease in the village. Then the villagers think that the boa snake was the embodiment of the dragon, afterwards, the people are dancing the drunken dragon to commemorate it. Later and later, the local Macao people inherit the habit and then it becomes

The source of ,Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing

Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing

Pictures are provided by the Vai Meng Kwan, Chairman of Macao Fish Trade General Association相片由澳門鮮魚行總會理事長關偉銘先生提供

a ritual of bathing festival. It is a very important and special culture in Macao. At the noon of that day, people will be distributed the “Dragon Boat Longevity Rice” at the two markets. The longevity rice from S.Domingos market is more traditional, with ingredients such as roast pork, hairy cucumber, pork skin, peanuts, Chinese mushrooms and beancurd sticks. The Longevity Rice from Red market is vegetarian and includes ingredients such as black fungus, white fungus, Chinese mushroom and carrots. It is said that people who eat the Dragon Boat Longevity Rice will be lifelong and lucky. It is very meaningful. Besides, according to the talk of Guan, we also know attitude of the government. As it needs expenditure to hold this activity, the government gives Macao Fish Trade General Association certain financial support every year. The ex-chief executive Ho Hau Wah had attended to watch this performance on the festival day, which shows he pays an attention to protect Macao traditional culture. The Reasons of DisappearingAccording to the interview,Guan and other members of the Fish Trade General Association pointed that, with development of economic and political, Macao is a diverse and modern society. First, the people more and more come from outside of Macao, the cultures from others dilute the local culture. Second, the old generation knows about this ritual and they did not inherit it to their offspring seriously. Third, the younger are busy with their study and work, they prefer the modern lifestyle, and the traditional life style seems far away from them gradually. Fourth, there is expenditure pressure in Fish Business Association because the Macao Drunk Dragon Dancing will spend certain money. The Meanings of Knowing Macao Drunken Dragon Dancing Custom Are you familiar with culture of Macao Drunk Dragon Dancing? Quite a lot of people may say no. Without doubt that protecting this traditional culture is important for the younger in Macao. As time go by, Macao drunken dragon dancing is disappearing now, fewer and fewer teenagers know about that. It is necessary that the locals should know about it, and then they have the responsibility for inheritance. Macao government added the Drunken Dragon Dance to the list of intangible cultural heritage in June, 2011. The importance of cultural inheritance is make the younger generation knows about the past and the history. The performance make people believe that the roots of all Chinese are intertwined with the soul of the fishery industry. It is through persistence and good fortune in good times and hard times that they managed to persist until today. Guan suggests that cultural inheritance should start from now on, we should do it first by ourselves. During the dates from March 11, 2012 to April 18, 2012, there is an exhibition about Macao traditional culture will be held in Macao museum, besides; there is also a speech about Macao drunken dragon dancing in Macao museum. It introduces the culture of this traditional habit and it aims to this cultural inheritance. The Macao museum exhibition attracts some teenagers and this is a good opportunity for Macao traditional culture inheritance. Meanwhile, the people in the Fish Business Association hope that the government will also support them. The older people in Macao most know this culture, and now they start to realize that they should try their best to educate their offspring about this drunken dragon dancing culture from now on. rice from S.Domingos market is more traditional, with

The Meanings of Knowing Macao Drunken Dragon Danc-ing CustomAre you familiar with culture of Macao Drunk Dragon Dancing? Quite a lot of people may say no. Without doubt that protecting this traditional culture is important for the younger in Macao. As time go by, Macao drunken dragon dancing is disappearing now, fewer and fewer teenagers know about that. It is necessary that the locals should know about it, and then they have the responsibility for inheritance. Macao government added the Drunken Dragon Dance to the list of intangible cultural heritage in June, 2011. The importance of cultural inheritance is make the younger generation knows about the past and the history. The performance make people believe that the roots of all Chinese are intertwined with the soul of the fishery industry. It is through persistence and good fortune in good times and hard times that they managed to persist until today. Guan suggests that cultural inheritance should start from now on, we should do it first by ourselves. During the dates from March 11, 2012 to April 18, 2012, there is an exhibition about Macao traditional culture will be held in Macao museum, besides; there is also a speech about Macao drunken dragon dancing in Macao museum. It introduces the culture of this traditional habit and it aims to this cultural inheritance. The Macao museum exhibition attracts some teenagers and this is a good opportunity for Macao traditional culture inheritance. Meanwhile, the people in the Fish Business Association hope that the government will also support them. The older people in Macao most know this culture, and now they start to realize that they should try their best to educate their offspring about this drunken dragon dancing culture from now on. Are you familiar the way your ancestors walked along with? It is very meaningful and interesting for you to learn and inheritance. Drunk dragon dancing is a colorful traditional cultural in Macao. There are a lot of things we need to participate in. If you know this culture you may talk to your friends or classmates, you can also hold some cultural activities to memorize this tradition. We hope that the government will focus on more traditional culture inheritance instead of only emphasizing economic. Let all of us keep this tradition culture beside us.

ingredients such as roast pork, hairy cucumber, pork skin, peanuts, Chinese mushrooms and beancurd sticks. The Longevity Rice from Red market is vegetarian and includes ingredients such as black fungus, white fungus, Chinese mushroom and carrots. It is said that people who eat the Dragon Boat Longevity Rice will be lifelong and lucky. It is very meaningful.

According to the interview, Guan and other members of the Fish Trade General Association pointed that, with development of economic and political, Macao is a diverse and modern society. First, the people more and more come from outside of Macao, the cultures from others dilute the local culture. Second, the old generation knows about this ritual and they did not inherit it to their offspring seriously. Third, the younger are busy with their study and work, they prefer the modern lifestyle, and the traditional life style seems far away from them gradually. Fourth, there is expenditure pressure in Fish Business Association because the Macao Drunk Dragon Dancing will spend certain money.

27

furniture shops still alive that mainly working on polishing and painting procedures.

Unlike normal furniture shops that sell finished products, in Chong’s shop, consumers can see the raw material. “See this table. Though it is so old and even broken now. If someone wants, we will do the refurbishment and sell them.” Wai Kit Chong introduced.

Never Fade

Classic Frangance

Julia Yuan

Two generations from one family have completely different attitudes towards their classic

furniture shop…

Wandering on Avenida de Almeida Ribeiro, a street near the Ruins of St. Paul’s, I happened to see an old furniture shop. It only has a small space where several carpenters standing by the door and talking happily. The inside was piled up with old, broken chairs, tables, and even windows decorated in carvings. Some finished furniture has been put neatly on one side of the door. Fragrance just came from this Chinese classic furniture shop named Xin Yu Bao, which means “new royal boutiques.”

The boss of Xin Yu Bao, Wai Kit Chong, is a 68-year-old man. With him was his 25-year-old son who now is trained to be his successor, Seng Hou Chong. Sitting at the gate are his apprentices, two young men, who were polishing two chairs made of pear flower wood. Wai Kit Chong devoted himself in doing furniture-polishing business for around 36 years, while his son just started this polishing career shortly. Nowadays in Macao, only two to three classic

Dying with the trend?“I am concerned that this shop couldn’t survive in the future. Not like in the past, now people tend to buy new furniture instead of polishing them newer. For the old furniture they don’t want, they’d rather sell it to the rag man or just throw it away.” Wai Kit Chong said. Despite that the demand for polishing furniture is decreasing nowadays, there are other factors affecting their business to survive. Chong said that the income of running this furniture shop is never stable. In fact, the competition within furniture business is quite stiff. He expressed that with more and more furniture plants rising in mainland, their furniture shop, which still highly relies on manual labor, gradually lost its competiveness in producing furniture at a larger scale and higher speed.

“Doing a furniture business is not easy.” Wai Kit Chong said. As the wood is increasingly valuable, it is gradually difficult to get them. For example, it

takes 1000 years for the Indian scented rosewood to grow to six inches.

“Flower Pear wood (Huali) from Hainan has become a National level of protection plant, of which cutting is prohibited. Offenders can be imprisoned for 15 years.” Wai Kit Chong said that even though the flower pear wood was devalued in recent 10 years, a chair made of it today could be sold for millions of dollars. “When the river rises, the boat floats high.” He described the whole industry like this.

Wai Kit Chong still loves his career. He said, “The reason why I insist on my career is that keeping classic is very meaningful. I have a real skill and earn every penny by my hands, which also give me a peaceful and happy life.” The tiny old classic furniture shop symbolizes not only a

piece of memory of the last generation, but also a dream of this generation. The father, a common worker, has been circulating an important workmanship in Macao via his humble but great life unknown to the public. Though, it is not time to judge whether the son’s dream will come true or not. It is believed that once their classic furniture-polishing shop is unfortunately eliminated by the trend, a brand new business full of life will be replaced under the efforts and persistence of these father and son. The most important thing is-- the fragrance of wood will never fade.

Also, due to his poor physical situation, he could not often do the job himself but rather to give guidance to his son and apprentices.

Difficulty vs. opportunityThe father and son finished doing their work for this day and were about to have dinner, while two apprentices also left the shop and went back where they live. Only the laughter of happiness was still lingering around the small furniture shop.

Act as a real “Owner”The son Seng Hou had quitted his job from casino and came to help father at the beginning of the early 2011. Seng Hou told me that when he worked in casino job, he was just a member of bubble economy, while working in the shop of his father makes him achieve a sense of fulfillment and can

“act as an owner”.

“I have learnt one of the disappearing skills in Macao from my father, that is polishing furniture.” Seng Hou smiled. In contrast to his father, Seng Hou does not worry much about furniture shop’s future. What he saw is business opportunity. “If I have enough money in the future, I want to establish a big classic furniture group, with the power of my skills and business sense.” Seng Hou said while doing his last piece of work today, “Now it’s just a start.”

During the whole interview, father Wai Kit Chong coughed very badly and said he caught stroke because of doing the polishing work day after day, so he could not drink beer he loved anymore.

29

Hong Seng Barber Shop was established in 1974 and has stayed in the same location for 38 years. ‘I haven’t made any changes for the exterior part of the shop since it opened, I believe that people come to my shop not because of the outlook, but the craft of cutting hair by my staff and the friendliness of my shop’, said Lam. ‘Hong Seng has been established for many years here,’ said Mr. Leung, a secondary school teach-er and a regular customer of Hong Seng. The salon has been cutting his hair since he was 14.

‘The shop does not have a big change, just as same as the past. Although it is an unequipped salon, I like the style and people here; they can make me happy and drive my pressure away.’ ‘For me, Hong Seng is not just a place for me to have hair cut, but also a place for me to relax,’ said Leung. ‘I will go there and talk with the hairdressers and the staffs after school when I am free; there are many neigh-bors near Hong Seng like to stay there to have chats too,’ he added.

The focus of many shop own-ers has always been profit, yet a distinct few establish a solid

customer base by fulfilling expectations consistently. Hong

Seng barber shop, one of the old-style salons in Macao, near

Rua do Pe. Joao Climaco in Macao, is a throwback to last

generation and focuses on the friendliness between the shop

and the consumers.

“Our salon is not simply a salon, but

also a chat and rest place for the

neighbors and the customers”,

said Lam, wife of Mok Kuan, owner of Hong Seng Barber

Shop.

Mrs. Kuong, a housewife living near Rua do Pe. Joao Climaco, said that she goes to Hong Seng to sit and talk with the staff inside after she buys food from the market. According the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), the gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2011 increased 17.5 percent. As the standard of living in Macao gets higher and higher in Macao, people tend to purchase services in the international and fashion salons, rather than in elder, less equipped shops. ‘Although my shop still exists, we only have two hairdressers, and there are only a few people to make the hair cut per day and it is useless for us to buy new kind of equipment for mak-ing hair. There are only some neighbors and loyal customers will come to our shop’, said Lam with the face with no selective-ness. ‘The running and maintenance of an old-styled salon and fash-ioned salon is different.’

Just a Salon?Mandy Lam

Hong Seng Barber Shop was established in 1974 and has stayed in the same location for 38 years. ‘I haven’t made any changes for the exterior part of the shop since it opened, I believe that people come to my shop not because of the outlook, but the craft of cutting hair by my staff and the friendliness of my shop’, said Lam. ‘Hong Seng has been established for many years here,’ said Mr. Leung, a secondary school teach-er and a regular customer of Hong Seng. The salon has been cutting his hair since he was 14.

‘The shop does not have a big change, just as same as the past. Although it is an unequipped salon, I like the style and people here; they can make me happy and drive my pressure away.’ ‘For me, Hong Seng is not just a place for me to have hair cut, but also a place for me to relax,’ said Leung. ‘I will go there and talk with the hairdressers and the staffs after school when I am free; there are many neigh-bors near Hong Seng like to stay there to have chats too,’ he added.

The focus of many shop own-ers has always been profit, yet a distinct few establish a solid

customer base by fulfilling expectations consistently. Hong

Seng barber shop, one of the old-style salons in Macao, near

Rua do Pe. Joao Climaco in Macao, is a throwback to last

generation and focuses on the friendliness between the shop

and the consumers.

“Our salon is not simply a salon, but

also a chat and rest place for the

neighbors and the customers”,

said Lam, wife of Mok Kuan, owner of Hong Seng Barber

Shop.

Mrs. Kuong, a housewife living near Rua do Pe. Joao Climaco, said that she goes to Hong Seng to sit and talk with the staff inside after she buys food from the market. According the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), the gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2011 increased 17.5 percent. As the standard of living in Macao gets higher and higher in Macao, people tend to purchase services in the international and fashion salons, rather than in elder, less equipped shops. ‘Although my shop still exists, we only have two hairdressers, and there are only a few people to make the hair cut per day and it is useless for us to buy new kind of equipment for mak-ing hair. There are only some neighbors and loyal customers will come to our shop’, said Lam with the face with no selective-ness. ‘The running and maintenance of an old-styled salon and fash-ioned salon is different.’

Just a Salon?Mandy Lam

Macao is experiencing rising inflation and rent prices and naturally the price of goods and services move with the market. However, the price of cutting hair of Hong Seng Barber Shop still remains comparatively low. ‘The price to cut hair here is cheap, it’s just cost MOP 40 for the hair cut,’ said Lam. ‘I have already adjusted the price by adding MOP 1 per year, the cost of cutting hair when the shop first established was only a few cents’, she added. ‘My husband has already purchased this shop many years ago, so we don’t have to pay the expensive rent. Although life is not easy for my husband and me; we both think that running a business should have conscience. Also, we are not only emphasize on money that we can earn, but also the relationship between our shop and the regular customers; thus, we just add MOP 1 per year, it is already enough for us and the salary to the staff,’ said Lam.

Jimmy Leong, the owner of CLASS I, a new fashion salon in Macao, said that it is hard for him to maintain the running of the shop if he charges MOP 40 per hair cut. ‘The running and maintenance of an old-styled salon and fashioned salon is dif-ferent, I think that our aims are different too,’ Leong said. ‘We aim to earn more money and recruit more customers as we are newly developed and we have to pay a high salary to the hairdresser and the expensive rent; however, for the old-style ones, I think that they do not have to pay the rent and they already have regular customers, so that they can run and main-tain their shops at a lower cost.’ ‘Customers and we are not just customers and staffs, but old friends.’ Salon services include: hair wash, hair cut, hair treatment, dying and curling. Hong Seng Barber Shop provides these as well as shaving services. ‘It just cost MOP 10 to shave, or

sometimes we shave for free of charge when the male custom-ers have their hair cuts,’ said Mr. Chan, one of the staff in Hong Seng, who has been work-ing there for over 20 years.

‘Customers and we are not just customers and staffs, but old friends. Mr. Leung is our regular customers, sometimes we will go to Casade Cha Long Wa which is located near our shop, to yum cha after cutting his hair.’ ‘Simple customers will not yum cha with a hairdresser, only old friends will. I think that Hong Seng has helped me to build up a good relationship with the customers’, Chan added. As there are many new devel-oped salons, the available jobs for experienced hairdressers are well paid. However, Mr. Chan does not jump to another salon after staying at Hong Seng for 21 years. ‘Mr. and Mrs. Mok are good boss, they are very kind to the staffs,’ said Mr. Chan, the hairdresser in Hong Seng Barber Shop. ‘Al-though the salary is not high, I

feel the friendliness from Mr. and Mrs. Mok, and the custom-ers, I am happy when I work,’ said Chan.

“I hope that Hong Seng will not be disappeared because Mrs. Mok told me that she is thinking to close the business due to the sickness of Mr. Mok,’ said Leung.

‘I have many memories here and not many shops like Hong Seng in Macao now,’ he added.

31

In Chinese culture, the burial custom is a matter considered very serious as

it is a farewell to the beloved deceased, showing respect and love to them. But

who provides the casket services?

Coffin makers. Since it’s not a very popular career for Chinese people it is

facing a shortage of new blood.

Working with the Bereaved

Jessie Tai

In Chinese culture, the burial custom is a matter considered very serious as

it is a farewell to the beloved deceased, showing respect and love to them. But

who provides the casket services?

Coffin makers. Since it’s not a very popular career for Chinese people it is

facing a shortage of new blood.

Working with the Bereaved

Jessie Tai

In Chinese culture, the burial custom is a matter considered very serious as

it is a farewell to the beloved deceased, showing respect and love to them. But

who provides the casket services?

Coffin makers. Since it’s not a very popular career for Chinese people it is

facing a shortage of new blood.

Working with the Bereaved

Jessie Tai Oi Tai

There are only five coffin shops in Macao. Wong Lin is one of the coffin shop owners and has spent most of his working life in the casket business. He expresses the hope that people will more openly talk about death.

“I think this business is not as bad as outsiders expected. All of us have to use this service some day and no one is exceptional.” he is optimistic about the future of his career.

The casket business in Macao is steeped in tradition and most of the establish-ments are family-owned. The children of the current undertakers are slowly taking over the business as their par-ents age. Philip Cheung is one such example. He admits that it is very dif-ficult to get away from this business since his family has been working in the same business for three genera-tions. His grandparents, father and uncles all worked in the coffin busi-ness. Therefore, he has no choice but to inherit his family business, although first he must finish his university study in foreign country.

He has been working for more than 20 years and he believes that his job cre-ates merit for the deceased and their family. “Coffin is significant to de-ceased as people believe that there is a life after death and they want to bury in a good quality coffin to preserve their bodies.” Cheung said. A coffin is usually used for seven to eight years at most and afterwards the ashes of the dead will be put into a bone China and then placed in funeral home.

A worker of coffin shop, Cheng, he has been working for one year. At the be-ginning, he decided to work in this field because it doesn’t require a lot of artistic skills or a high educational level.

He stated that in the Catholic ritual, a coffin is placed beside the dead body at home for some days. “It was my first time to see a dead body.” Cheng added, “Honestly speaking I was total-ly stunned when I delivered the coffin there.” He had to adapt to seeing the face and tissue dead bodies. “Life is fleeting and it goes quickly. Treasure every moment we are living.” is his grasp after a period of work.

In a Taoist ritual, a Taoist priest car-ries out the ceremony in which he chants and prays to enable the de-ceased to have a smooth journey to the after world. The body is placed in the coffin after the ceremony. Their belief is that death is not the end of life but a continuation of life into another phase.

In the casket business, punctuality is a must. Once an order from the con-sumers is received, they have to prom-ise to deliver the coffin to the funeral home on time. Therefore, time man-agement is important.

Though Cheung said his job helps oth-ers, he doesn’t want his daughters to follow in his footsteps. His “No!” comes before the question is even completed. He thinks that the funeral industry is fading. “A lot of people are Christians now and they have western ceremony or some other ways to farewell the deceased,” he said. “We are no longer needed.”

Moreover, shortage of labor is also a major issue. The average age of the la-bour is now over 50, which is close to the retirement age and young people are not interested in working the cas-ket business due to more diverse op-tions. Florence Wong, an undergraduate student said, “Why not to get an easier and comfortable job”. She thinks that it is harsh work.

According to the Statistic and Cen-sus Service Department of Macao, the death rate is decreasing compared to the same time last year. As a result, coffin makers get fewer and fewer jobs.

“It just can earn a living and no more is expected.” Cheung said.

33

“They are my parents, siblings and youth, and here is the master piece that I feel most proud of...Regrettably, they have all returned to dust.”

Where Has My StonePavement

Gone?

Julia

na M

adei

ra d

e C

arva

lho

Draftsman Architect

The voice of Artur Alexandrino da Silva Madeira de Carvalho, a former official draftsman of Macao, bursts with enthusi-asm as he points at his photo album and sighs with emotion. Flipping through the memories, he tells stories behind each picture. A sudden feeling seems to surges into his heart; he closes the album and his eyes glisten with tears. He sits in an old chair, looking through the dim light that comes from through the win-dow saying, “I still have a deep passion in painting...and wishing so much that all they could appear again in my life.”

Madeira served in the army for fifteen months when he turned 18. He subse-quently worked in Public Works Depart-ment of Macao as an inspector for 10 years. He learned architecture in his lei-sure time and finally shifted to the Civic and Municipal Bureau to work as an ar-chitectural draftsman. He has done this for 20 years.

“We perform some of the same tasks as what the architects do and will often work with them. We are always good partners.” He adds that they, like any other architects, prepare drafting that can be applied to many areas. Aside from construction and architecture, he also used to create drawings of circuitry or mechanical designs, including techni-

cal details and specifications such as ma-terials, dimensions and procedures. In addition, draftsmen use calculators, ta-bles and technical handbooks to ensure accuracy. Madeira is dedicated to Macao’s develop-ment and cultural heritage. His works combine both Eastern and Western styles. Some of his succesful works include sculp-tures, buildings, churches, cemeteries and stone pavements.

Stone pavement is a traditional style of pavement used for many pedestrian ar-eas, plazas and atriums in Portugal and throughout the old Portuguese colonies such as Brazil. It is typically designed with black and white stones of basalt

and limestone. Madeira explains stone pavement must be made of only two colors because the small black and white squares alternate to suggest day and night. “Without black, no color has any depth. But if you mix black with eve-rything, suddenly there’s shadow of fullness and trueness.” he adds.

“Inspirations are like small stones. They are everywhere, all of the time. All you have to do is pause and let them appear. You’ll know when you see one, because it will set off a small burst of feeling inside you. It might be the no-tice of the ugliness of a piece of chewed gum on the pavement, or the beauty of a pigeon. Whatever you notice, you will be seeing it with fresh eyes, and that¡¦s how my ideas pop up.” he says. Certain things are reformed or replaced in the course of a country’s progress, and Madeira now has to confront the reality. His stone pavements in Macao have almost all been removed and re-placed by designs of newer generations. With a strong feeling of regret and sad-ness he says “Other times, other man-ners. Things should be replaced with new thoughts and new blood, but I am never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. God always leads us to where we need to be.”

“A draftsman is the

drawer of dreams.”

Steps of setting stone pavement: 1. Designing the patterns that will be put on the pavement, 2. Preparing the small stones - usually in black and white, 3. Cutting the stones into square or rectangular shapes, or in random patterns so as to make them look natural, 4. Carefully and manually placing each stone in the right position, 5. Spreading a cement mix on the pavement, 6. Leaving it to dry 7. Cleaning it by brushing off the unnecessary cement.

Madeira, whose native language is a combination of Cantonese, English and Portuguese, is a typical Macanese, born in Macao. Since 1887, Macao was under Portuguese administration. Madeira’s grandfather, as a soldier in Portugal, was sent to Macao for military service. He settled down after years of roaming and estab-lished a family. “With a color page, a new generation does start.” Madeira says.

“My father got married with a half-breed of Portuguese and Chinese woman from Timor and founded a huge family, and I am the ninth son of the 11 children.” he smiles and continues, “I’m proud of my father. He was a sailor and would often bring us presents once he returned home after sailing. I miss those days that we fought over the toys.” They lived in the period of World War II; his parents could not afford to raise all of his siblings. Therefore, he and two of his brothers were sent to an or-phanage named Don Bosco for school-ing. The rest were either sent to rela-tives’ house or to stayed at home. His father passed away after undergo-ing surgery when he was 14 years old. Years later, his mother died from dis-ease and left behind Madeira and his 10 siblings. “Though it was a tragedy, I believed God would send us an angel to fill in for our parents,” he looks at his wife and says, “...and here she is.”

35

Theater Drama is perhaps one of the most representa-tive art formats of a culture. With the story script, mu-sic, characters and sets and props, they composites bits of live.   It tells stories of a nation, a culture, a group of people or even   one single character. Macau, a place with crossover cultures of the Por-tuguese and the Chinese, also had its own development of theatre drama. But this seems fading out of the culture in a way that no local significance or identification is featured. Modern Theater Drama didn’t appear to be a trend in Macao until 30 years ago. Chao Shu Lei, one of the most well known directors, drama educator in Macao, was the pioneer of the Macao Theater Drama. Chao, graduated from The States, ma-joring in Theater Drama Educa-tion, came back to Macao and

Macao

Drama

John Julian Pun

Theater Drama is perhaps one of the most representa-tive art formats of a culture. With the story script, mu-sic, characters and sets and props, they composites bits of live.   It tells stories of a nation, a culture, a group of people or even   one single character. Macau, a place with crossover cultures of the Por-tuguese and the Chinese, also had its own development of theatre drama. But this seems fading out of the culture in a way that no local significance or identification is featured. Modern Theater Drama didn’t appear to be a trend in Macao until 30 years ago. Chao Shu Lei, one of the most well known directors, drama educator in Macao, was the pioneer of the Macao Theater Drama. Chao, graduated from The States, ma-joring in Theater Drama Educa-tion, came back to Macao and

Macao

Drama

John Julian Pun

started his Theater Education career. He was also the found-er and the first principal of the Macao Conservatory – School of Theater Drama. Later, he continued his theater work by establishing the Macao Fringe Club (Clube Fringe de Macau). He is named as the Father of Theater Drama in Macao. He was awarded “Medal of Mer-its in Culture” (A medalha de mérito cultura) in 2004. Chao mentioned that though there are many drama shows available in Macao every year, but they rarely carries “the taste of Macao”, and they are limited to certain group of people. Mr. Chao doesn’t see Macao drama in this way. He believes that drama belongs to everybody in a society; eve-rybody should have a chance to participate, either as crew of the show or as audience. He insisted in many of his writ-ings on the Macao Daily that the resources provided by the Macao government, should be used to encourage “Macao Dramas”, but not those from the other places. “I insist on my own belief of drama in Macao, I think it belongs to everybody, its memories and records of history in Macao. I hope that what we do and cre-

ate now can be history for the future that shows who Macao people are, but not only re-peating others’ art.” Chao said.

“Scripts are the soul of the theater” Chao exclaimed when I asked him what he believe is the most important for drama. Chao was exciting when he talked about the drama soci-ety in Macao 20 years from now; he named it the “Hun-dred Flower Era”. “Dozens of good drama scripts were written every year, and you can see the effort of students made for the performances.” Benny Ieong, Donald Heung, Vice presidents of K.I. Drama Club sees dramas in Macao in a declining slope. “I see dra-ma as a very useful tool for us to make friends, and spend our leisure time. It is fun and I really enjoy it. I would love to join one of them if I have time now. But all of us are busying with their work, and I see many of the friends that we used to act together left the drama world.” Benny, Donald and five of their friends cre-ated K.I. Drama Club in 2008, focusing on creating “Macao Drama”, the club insists on performing dramas written by local Macao writers or by their own. “We joined a lot of the lo-cal shows held by the govern-ment, all of them are related to Macao, we don’t want to per-form others’ culture, and Ma-cao has its own stories to be shown on stage.” Donald said. He has been directing and writ-

ing scripts that held great con-nection with the Macao Society. He felt pity about Macao losing its own features in drama arts.

“Yes, there are dramas out there, but I want to watch something I am familiar with, something I feel connected to. Most of them (dramas) are borrowed scripts or foreign drama clubs. I used to act as a Macao people, as who I am. If I am asked to act as “for-eigners”, I will quit.” Lor Wai Wun said in his interview. The best actor winner of the dra-ma competition held in 2009. It was recorded that there were around 20 active drama clubs and over 400 people were fond of drama and were really into it. “There were no professional actors in Macao, all of us were amateurs.” Tim said, active member of the Macao Associa-tion of Drama Art. “But I am sure that our attitude towards drama art was the greatest.”

“When I was a student, there were no teachers that teach drama, the drama club at school was formed by stu-dents, and we practice by our-selves. But I don’t see similar things happen now. Perhaps it’s because of the change of technology; students lost their passion in drama, or to be exact, arts.” Tam exclaims, teacher of Ning Nam Mid-dle School, former member of the Yuet Wah Drama Club. I was one of those who cre-ated K.I. drama club, and I was one of those who insist on “Made in Macao” dramas, being awarded the best actor in the Macao Show 1 Show Drama competition, I want to act something represents Ma-cao. Macao’s culture definitely worth people’s effort on creat-ing arts out of it!

37

Katy Lai

Macao is a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. It is also the perfect cross-road for the meeting of East and West cultures with ancient Portuguese, Roman and Chinese build-ings in the city. Yet the Macanese culture still remains Chinese style. In the past 50 years, it was easy to find traditional Chinese products around Macao.

The very good example is - Chinese Zhusuan,. According to the UN-

ESCO website, the Chinese Zhusuan is described as follows: “Chinese Zhusuan is the knowledge and practice of math-ematical calculation through moving beads on an abacus, a rectangular device of bamboo or wood with beads strung along thirteen to nineteen rods divided into two decks. Practitioners perform mathematical calculations including addition, subtraction, multipli-cation, division, exponential multiplica-tion and higher equations. Zhusuan for-mulas have easy-to-learn rhymes that represent the specific calculation rules and summarize the calculation practic-es multiplication and higher equations.”

The practice of Zhusuan passed over by generation to generation and yet is now not easy to be found in Macao. It was a compulsory subject to learn the tech-nique of using Zhusuan of the students

in the past 50 years. However, as we are stepping into a modern world, the cosmopolitism culture has excluded the Chinese Zhusuan, and people use electronic calculators for their math-ematics works instead of Zhusuan. In addition, the subject named under Zhu-suan does no longer exist in the aca-demic reports of the colleges noqadays. Few current stationary stores sell the Chinese Zhusuan, and it is hard for us to find people using Zhusuan nowa-days. Local stationery store owner, Mr. Leung Wan Sum claimed that fewer and fewer people consume the Chinese Zhusuan now, people use electronic calculators rather the traditional Zhu-suan for their mathematics workout. Mr. Leung stopped selling Zhusuan in recent years and claimed people prefer convenient and modern equipments. Nevertheless, some Chinese medica-tion and herbs pharmacies remain the practice of using Zhusuan instead of

Unforgettable Stationary

nese calligraphy. A number of organi-zations hold this calligraphy courses in order to maintain this traditional handwriting practice. However, the particular courses are decreasing in recent years.

electronic calculators. We can find the atmospheres of the Chinese herbs phar-macies fulfilled with a sense of intangible Chinese culture.

More example of the disappearing tradi-tional stationery is the Chinese calligra-phy. The tools people used for the Chinese calligraphy are a brush pen, and ink. Chi-nese people originally used brush pens with ink for their handwriting, and this is also a compulsory subject for students in school. Before the 21sth century, most secondary and primary school requested the students to learn the practice of Chi-

39

PassionateUbiquitous? Rare?Energetic

On the second Sunday of every month, a group of teens pursues their dreams, performing street music in different plazas in Macao. Their goal is not monetary, but merely to hear the applause from the audience. It’s a start for Macao street music performances; it is also an

activator of the development of local music in Macao.

“I remembered it was a Thursday night in 2003. Three teen boys stood at the center of Largo do Senado, and sang Beatles’ song ‘Hey Jude’ with their acoustic guitars. It was the first street music perfor-mance I had seen in Macao. Though the boys don’t have brilliant music skill and advanced instrument, their courage and enthusiasm for music were worth being appreciated and encouraged,” Eva Lam recalls.

By Tracy Chang

Lam is a local singer and com-poser. Due to this experience,

Eva’s enthusiasm for music was rekindled, and she dreamed of performing her music in the street like the boys did.

MACAO STREET MUSIC SHOW

In 2011, Eva met Mark Lam, a core organizer of Macao Dreamworks Creator Association, and asked

her to join. Mark, in a trip to Yunnan a few years ago, ex-perienced street music performances first-hand, seeing local musicians showcasing original songs. Many tourists who observed the show followed the rhythm and danced. Mark thought that it would be great if local Macao artists could also create an atmosphere such as that created by these performers.

In January 2012, Mark decided to launch a one-year event called “PURE”, a platform for developing local music in Macao. The most significant activity in PURE is the monthly “PURE Street Music Performance,”. It has currently been held twice at the Pereira Plaza Macao and the Iao Hon Park.

Another similar public music performance, “Sun Never Left,” was held by Macao Creative Industries Promotion Association of St. Lazarus Church District in March 2011. The performance, lasting three hours, was held every Saturday and Sunday, from 15:00 to 18:00 at Rua de Sao Roque in Macao. Hide Cheong, one of the core organizers of the Macao Creative Industries Pro-motion Association of St. Lazarus Church District, com-mented, “There are many talented musicians in Macao. However, they hardly find a place to perform music. Thanks to the location support of Macao government,

“Sun Never Left” can give opportunities and provide a platform for local musicians to develop their music.”

Preformers

Most of the performers stated that they gained a lot of valuable experiences from their street music perfor-mances. Eva, as one of the artists in PURE believes she has evolved. In the past, she always cared about the reaction of the audience. If she felt that people were not satisfied with her music, she got upset. However, after joining the “Pure Street Music Performance”, she real-ized that she only needed to be open-minded and share her feelings of music with the audience, and the audi-ence would appreciate and like the music. “I am not

used to singing in front of many strangers. The experi-ences of street performance enhance my confidence, and broaden my social networks. It allows me to share my music to other musician and helps develop my music,” she said.

Willy Chang, an environmental designer, said, “after performing my music in PURE and some street music shows presented by other associations, I felt I become more confident. Moreover, it helps to build up my repu-tation. Recently, my business increased and many cus-tomers curiously asked me whether I was the guy who performed music in street. I feel like I’m a star now.”Street music performance seems to be suffering from under-development. The lack of resources and funding are still big problems for this type of association.

Wan Chu, one of the performers of Sun Never Left, mentioned, “Although there are so many people supporting us now, we would receive complaints from citizens. Usually they complained about the volume of our music. Some of them suggested us to change place since our performances were near folk houses. Some of them just dislike our music.”

Tony Lai, a social worker in the Macao New Youth Association, stated that music associations could work more closely with the Macao government. On way suggested

is enhanced financial support from the Macao govern-ment for the development of local musicians. Another method of governmental support could come in the form of fixed places for regular music performances. In this way, street music performances may become a new tourist attraction in Macao.

Moreover, in regard to the further development of local music, Hide hopes that creative works such as local music can gradually expand their social network and help promote and raise public awareness. Contrary to Hide’s opinion, Mark expressed “Macao local music doesn’t need to be industrialized now. I’d rather it develop slowly and let more people enjoy the process.” He continued, “If possible, I would like to build a music college in Macao and invite famous singers or music producers from other regions to be the teachers. In this case, Macao music can be improved and the music skills of local singers can be enhanced. At that time, Macao music industry will become significant in the world music market. It’s my big dream of music.”

Music is a common language that can introduce ideas and bring different peo-ple together. However, in the fast-paced society of today,people focus princ-pally on work and seldom have time to pursue a dream in music. Mark said, “I am so happy that people love our music. Most of the members do not only support our events, but they also want to be our performers. They came from different social classes, such as doctors, teachers, designers and students.”

Mark initially believed that “PURE” would need

a lot of time to gain the pub-lic awareness. Unexpect-edly, the performances rapidly caught the publics eye, the number of members joining the PURE group has since risen to 200 as of Feb-ruary this year.

43

Increase in income= making both ends meet?

According to the Statistics and Census Service Macao (DSEC) , consumer price index (CPI) of January this year increased 6.8 percent compared with the same period of 2011. In addition, the Macao median income of the last quarter of 2011 is MOP 10,000 as

compared to MOP 9,600 of the first quarter of the same year. However, the accelerating inflation

seems to outpace the increase in income.

“I also know some people who work in Macao but live in Zhuhai. Some of my workers are like this. Living in Zhuhai,a

house hold can save up to 30 to 40 percent of their daily expense,” said Law.

Furthermore, she added, “Even their children need to cross the border to go to school in Macao every day”.

ALTERLATI

VE

Law Siu May, an entrepreneur of a Macao ironwork design company, bought a flat in

Zhuhai in 2010.

“The reasons for me to live in Zhuhai are the good environment and the (housing) price difference (comparing with Macao). Paying the same price, I can buy a much better flat in Zhuhai,” said Law.

When being asked about her living in Zhuhai, Law said that there was not much difference from living in Macao. However, she added that not everyone found they were suitable to live in Zhuhai.

“In my opinion, there are two types of people who would like to live in Zhuhai. The first type is the people who can flexibly handle their time and have no time constraint on work. The second type is the people who find no way to afford the housing price in Macao,” said Law.

Chi Weng Fung, who faces the opposite situation, is a Zhuhai resident who holds a work permit (blue card)allowing him to work in a bank in central Macao.

“In order to earn a living, I cross the border to work

in Macao from Mondays to Fridays. The cross-border life does cause me some troubles,” said Fung

During the weekdays, Fung has to get up at 6:00

a.m. in his home in Zhuhai and arrive at the Gongbei Port at 7:00 a.m. in order to reach his office before 8:45 a.m.

“The time spends on traffic is the biggest problem.

Normally, I don’t have much personal time during the weekdays,” said Fung.

When being asked if he had considered renting

a flat in Macao, he replied that it was too expensive.

“Though crossing the border every day is time

consuming, I would rather waking up earlier than paying the high rental fees in Macao,” said Fung.

Law, shared her opinion on the time spent commuting. “Spending hours on traveling to work is not rare in other cities. In Hong Kong, some people live in Yuen Long or other remote districts may need to spend hours to get to their workplaces. Macao people may need to

adopt to this new life style gradually,” said Law.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, April 2011, there are 21,201 registered Macao residents who lived in the Mainland China in 2010. In addition, in the Macao census 2011, it mentions that there are around 7,900 Macao residents who live in Zhuhai but work and study in Macao.

An alternative across the borderThe pricing of residential units is one of the most discussed topics in Macao. The Policy

Address of 2012 stated that “homes for all in a contented society” was fundamental to Macao’s housing policy. This is evidenced by the government striving to reach the target of 19,000 new or renovated public housing units by the end of 2012. Before

we see the promises of the government come into effect, is there any alternative for Macao residents to satisfy their housing needs?

Sophia Mak

Since 2011, there has been a special path in the Gongbei border gate for the cross border students who study in Macao but live in Zhuhai. Obviously, the government sees the necessity to cater to the needs of those people.

Border gate- 24 hours operation

“Actually, there is no difference between living in Macao and Zhuhai. The only thing that make it different is the border gate,” said Law.

Currently, the border gate operates for 17 hours daily, opening at 7 a.m. and closing at midnight.

“If the government can accommodate our needs and operate the border gate on a 24 hours basis, it can serve the needs of many people. Even the government is willing to delay the closing hours for around 2 hours and start operation 2 hours earlier, it can make a big difference,” said Law.

According to Chan Meng Kam and Ung Choi Kung, members of the Legislative Office, on August 12, 2012, China Customs responded to a proposal from Chan Meng Kam of the Macao National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) submitted during the 2011 NPC (National People’s Congress) and CPPCC session for the possible implementation of 24-hours border crossing between Macao and Zhuhai.The China Customs pointed out that there was a necessity to carry out the 24-hours border crossing gradually on the basis of long-term development.

Currently, there are totally four ports in Macao that connect to Zhuhai. In Chan Meng Kam’s proposal, he suggested that the 24-hours border crossing operation should be first carried out in the Gongbei Port to relieve the pressure on the checkpoint operation that is caused by the increasing exchange between the two places.

Appearing phenomenon? Trend?

Law said that the trend of living in Zhuhai is more than a recently appearing phenomenon.

“I bought my flat in Zhuhai about two years ago. But I think I am the late-buyer because some people started living in Zhuhai five to six years ago. Five to six years ago, a 1000 square feet flat only cost about 500 to 600 thousands patacas. The time when I bought the flat, the price became almost a double,” said Law.

A good investment in China?

Some real estate agents in Macao are now promoting real estate in Zhuhai, especially those near Hengqin. The convenient location due to the construction of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the comprehensive housing facilities,and the investment opportunity are their principal selling points.

Mable Fung, who went to Hengqin with a housing agent in January 2012 to view a currently promoted flat, said that the environment there was nice.

“I’m pretty sure that there will be more and more people choosing to live in the Mainland China. The environment there is better than Macao. After the construction of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the traffic will be more convenient,” said May Fung.

In reply to the living environment in China, Mable pointed out that some housing estates are well facilitated with relatively more space compared to Macao.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao-Bridge is expected to be finished in 2016. At that future date, the bridge will connect three places: Hong Kong, Macao, and Zhuhai.

“Even though I am not going to live in Zhuhai in the future, it will be a good investment. With

the appreciation of RMB as well as the rising economy in China, the housing price may also rise sooner or later,” said Mable.

In March 2012, Premier Wen Jiabao commented that currency may be “near equilibrium”. In a

report in the South China Morning Post on the 10th March 2012. It said that the RMB showed the largest single-day decline in 19 months after figures revealed that the trade deficit in February was the largest in at least 22 years. Experts in Hong Kong, such as Anita Fung, the chief executive officer of HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Corporation) Hong Kong, also hold the view that the RMB would rise in a moderate rate.

The relationship between Macao and Zhuhai is expected to be closer after the sign of “The Framework Agreement on Cooperation Between Guangdong and Macao” in 2011. With the operation of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, the mobility of the population may beyond expectation.

45

“In my childhood, Macao was still a small city and the living standard was poor. I had no toys to play with,

so I went out to the open space near my home and played with my neighbors. Sometimes, I used a chalk to draw things on the ground. This experience developed my sense of art,” said Chan Wai Fai, a Macao comic creator.

There are local people participating in many dif-ferent forms of art. Water-paintings, sketches, sculp-tures, graphic designs, and videos are some of the examples of these. These artists take art as a life-long interest. Many of them establish non-profit organiza-tions, such as the Macao 10 Fantasia, Associação dos Criadores de Macao and the Art for All Society with the aim of exhibiting the work of local Macao artists.

In recent years, their work has been increasingly recognized by the Macao government. The Macao gov-ernment aims to develop creative industries as one of their strategies for economic diversification. The Cultural and Creative Industries Committee, formed in 2010 has promoted the cultural industry in five areas: promotion, funding, training of personnel, legal assistance and research. Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture in Macao, Cheong U, announced in December that a fund

for the development of Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) will be launched this year, reported the Macao Daily Times.

Macao is working hard at improving the CCI, but more

There is an old saying: “Everyone is born with talents.” What are your talents? Some people discover their talents by chance and develop them into skills throughout their life.

work is still needed for their future development. Some local art associations express that higher participation of Macao citizens’ in arts, and support of the government, will help the CCIs sustainable development in Macao.

Chan Wai Fai, pen name A Cheng, a Macao comic creator is the Executive Director of Macao 10 Fantasia and a Committee Member of the Creative Industries Promotional Association of St. Lazarus Church District of Macao. He expresses that CCI are more likely to be a cultural exchange than an industry.

“In this stage, it is a cultural exchange between painters, not making it as any kind of industry. Perhaps there are a few great artists who can sell their works”. He added that his publications are financially supported by the government. “Take painting as your interest rather than business, then you are happier, persevered to continue with arts”. He believes that CCI are beginning in Macao and there is a long way to go and “learners’ heart and perseverance will make art a difference”.

“The load of work and stress of our citizens make no time for appreciation of art, art is something that should involve everyone’s participation,” said Coke Wong, the Director of Art for All Society. He said however, that the government has been working hard for the CCI promo-tion. It acts as the “farmers” in cultivating the industry and when the time comes, society will get its “harvest”.

By Kristy Chan

CULTURAL AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES’ DEVELOPMENT NEEDS TIME

“Macao is a great place for arts. The most inspiring thing here is that there are many artists and writers who have chosen Macao as their subject,” said Christopher Kelen, an associate professor teaching Creative Writing and Poetry and Children’s Literature at the University of Macao.

He expressed there could be more space for im-provement in the environment. The government and the casinos could offer support to artists for work and development. This could come in the form of fellow-ships and various types of grants. These financial sup-ports could enable artists to work creatively full-time.

“Creative industry is a start in the meantime. It is a beginning but we need the first step in order to develop further,” said Sio, the founder and chairman of the Associação dos Criadores de Macao, a non-profit organization founded in 2005. It aims to gather the creative works of artists in different professions together, developing and promoting the creative industry of Macao.

Sio believes that there are many opportunities in every industry, but people need to find them by them-selves. She expresses that students can first develop connections with their teachers or lecturers. “When you know one person in that profession, you will get to know more. The lecturers will introduce you more people so you will build your networks further, most importantly, you have to be open-minded and find more opportunities,” she suggests to the youth of Macao.

Art is made to be appreciated. It requires participa-tion in order to be so. In the long run, the government could set up art education courses starting at the elementary level. The aim of such would be to foster people’s interest and initiative to participate. The by-product of this, an increasing appearance and recognition of local arts. Tourists provided with such cultural representations, might choose to venture beyond the casinos. In the meantime, the develop-ment of CCI take time. As Andy Warhol, an influen-tial figure in contemporary art, once said: “The idea of waiting for something makes it more exciting.”

Picture 1: Christopher Kelen in his painting ex-hibition and the University of Macao publication ceremony ‘Near and far and mainly Macao’Picture 2: A painting created by Christopher KelenPicture 3: Displays in public area of St. Lazarus District by Coke WongPicture 4: A student drawing flowers

Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3 Picture 4

47

Have you ever heard about a kind of sports called cricket? Cricket has been present in Macao for awhile and yet hasn’t gained wide-spread recognition from the majority of the local population. Ad-nan Nasimthe president of Macao Cricket Association, says that the sport has been played in Macao since 1986. With more and more peo-ple coming and enjoying it, cricket is gaining popularity in Macao.

Yesterday—“homesickness healer”

Simon, a senior cricket player calls the sport “a gentlement game”. Gentleman here does not

sugget the player should wear suits or shirts when playing cricket. It means that players participate in the sport with an even temper and without cheating any excessive appeal.

Simon comes from India. In India, almost everyone begin to play cricket when they were only four to fiver years old. “It is so nice that we can play it here as well,” he added.

Cricket was brought by some Indians and Pakistan who moved to Macao for work in the 1980s.

As the most popular sport there, many peo-ple play cricket. Playing cricket in Macao pro-vides those who are working over seas a chance to talk to play and have together. Graudually, more and more foreigners joined them and small teams got established.

“When I came to Macao from Pakistan in 1987, peo-ple had already played cricket in the gym of Univeristy of Macao, which was still named University of East Asia at that time,”Adnan Nasim told the UMac Bridges.

“However, local people did not really get involved actu-ally. They may even do not understand what we were doing with a bat,” Adnan Nasim said.

Today—“self-sufficient player”In 2007, cricket lovers in Macao founded the Macao

Cricket Association. The first problem they encoun-tered was where to find a proper field.

A formal cricket field should be a circular grassy ground. “We cannot find an ideal field for regular train-ings in Macao, not even a rectangle one,” the General Secretary of Macao Cricket Association, Dr. Sharif Shams Imon told the UMac Bridges.

Without knowing what cricket is, many people be-lieved they occupied their field for football and baseball. The lack of field pushed them to form an association in order to promote cricket in Macao together.

Finally, the International School of Macao agreed to offer them a small field for training. Now, Nasim and other players begin their regular training again at 11 a.m. every Sunday morning for Macao Cricket Festi-val which may be held in June.Since then, two cricket activities are held in Macao regularly every year.

In December, a cricket contest named “Harmony Cup”, which gathered more than one hundred people from Macao and around twenty people from Hong Kong to attend in 2011. Another event called “Macao Cricket Festival” is held in July since 2007. As a festi-val, many people do not come alone to join the event. They bring their families as well.However, most people who joined these events were people from countries like Australia and theU.K. “It is a great pity that no Chinese has ever represented Macao to attend any

Annie Yao

Cricket in Macao: More than a sport

Cricket in Macao: More than a sport

Tomorrow- “Culture diffuser”Though more and more people play cricket in

Macao, how to get local people participated in playing cricket is a big headache to Macao Cricket Association, as well as other cricket players in Macao. To most of them, cricket is a part of their lives and they would like to have fun with others. Just as what Simon said he could not imagine what his life would be like with-out Cricket:” no sport can be as attractive as cricket to me. I do not know what sport I can do if I cannot play cricket in my spare time. What’s more, almost all my best friends play cricket. It enables as to play with each other.” However, to most Chinese, they may not be to imagine what their lives will be like with cricket.

When talking about the future, Nasim and his crick-et friends are still optimistic. In their eyes, cricket is more than a kind of sport—cricket is the representa-tive as a kind of culture as well.

international cricket contests,” said Adnan Nasim.

Simon used to bring some of his Chinese friends to watch their trainings. “They found it really coolthough they just stood aside and did not play with us,” Simon said.

Nor does the government join them because the players and organizers did not want to get the govern-ment involved in as well. In their opinions, their pur-pose is to create an environment for cricket players to have fun together. “We will try to collect some regular fees from our members rather than the government for more equipment,” said Adnan Nasim ”as we may have to follow sponsors’ willingness after getting spon-sorship.”

Adnan said, “Just like table tennis in China, when everyone can play it or at least know it, its features cannot be separated from the characteristics of the people there. Playing cricket requires bravery and gen-tleness; it influences us while we create it as well.”

By holding a Cricket Coaching Camp in Sam Yuk Mid-dle School in May 2008, those cricket players could still feel the enthusiasms among the younger genera-tion. “Their hard-workings told

us they have interests in this sport.” Nasim said. “We do cherish chances to teach cricket and the culture it contains in schools, though we have few chances and little time to do so,” Adnan Nasim talked about his ideas. “Maybe we can try to get some helps from Hong Kong, where cricket is more regarded as a kind of sports.”

It may still take a long time for cricket to be well-known to all the people in Macao. However, cricket players will keep working on it. Just as what Nasim hoped, “we want to do something that can help Macao become a real international city, which means you can find not only people from different countries live in here, but also their ways of living, the cultures they represent, by letting them watch and play those spe-cial kinds of sports.”

49

From Strings to Synths:Music Evolution and Macao

By Kelsey Wilhelm

Electronic music, as compared to acoustic music, has many advantages.

“It’s portable, you can constantly have your music there to listen, to produce, to compare” says Dj 2ez from Australia “you don’t need to set up in a garage, you just set up in your headphones”. Portability is one of the essential changes that has come into not only the production, but the apprecia-tion of music: electronic or acoustic. In terms of the actual production of an electronic track, most producers use a “controller”, a device with various knobs and/or dials, drum pads and a certain number of piano-style keys that allow them to play and manipulate notes, effects, volumes and many other things. This can be linked directly into a music program or routed through a “sound card” which essentially splits various input and output channels. For a travelling music producer, these incredibly light devices, coupled with a pair of head-phones and a computer are all you need. This has allowed for music to spread more rapidly than ever across the globe. All someone needs in or-der to make a song (acoustic or electronic) and show it to the world is a phone, computer or table with an internet connection. This is made possible by people such as Alexander Ljung & Eric Wahlforss, the ger-man sound designers who founded a website called Soundcloud in 2007.

“We had these people around us involved in really cool tech stuff, and also people making music and we wanted to fuse some of that together and cre-ate something useful” says Alexander. “Initially we wanted to do something very simple which would make it easy for somebody to send a track and re-

ceive that track, listen to it and give some feedback”. This has evolved into a music platform that now sup-ports hundreds of thousands of music makers, has its own iPhone application and costs between 29 and 500 euros a year for an account. Portability and the integration of media allows for not only production but self-promotion of artists through various websites. According to the Record-ing Industry Association of America, the music business upped its digital revenue by 1,000% in a six year period starting in 2004. Music sharing platforms such as SoundCloud circum-vent the former necessity of signing contracts with companies solely in order to be heard, while simul-taneously providing the users exposure to the same record companies.

Acoustic music is not going to lay down however. Here in Macao, the Conservatory of Music boasts over 700 students and 80 teachers. The Macao Or-chestra, established over 20 years ago, still performs regularly and in November the Macao Music Festival hit its 25th anniversary. Groups such as Solar, the popular Macanese band comprised of two brothers started off playing entirely acoustically. “Hush”, the rock concert, featuring mostly local artists draws full crowds every year to the steps of the Cultural Center. However, new evolutions straying from the norm are starting to emerge. The Live Music Associa-tion, set up by “a group of live music performance enthusiasts” in 2008 is one of such evolutions. With a 6000 square foot area that can fit 150 audience members, this is the ideal place to let local musi-

Portable and Powerful

What defines this generation? We could say the post-baby boom, the repetitive financial disasters, the natural catastro-phes or the dominance of Apple just straight off the top of our heads. What truly and audibly has changed however is the background music of these global transitions. That is, the rise of electronic music and it’s subtle integration into our daily lives.

Acoustic music has been around since we can remember. From deaf legends such as Beethoven to more fiery modern guitarwork as Rodrigo y Gabriela it is a medium which is believed by most will never die.

Electronic music, on the other hand, has only recently made an emergence onto the scene. Electronic instruments, such as the Theremin, an instrument played entirely without touching it, and controlled using magnetic fields, have been around since the late 1920s. Yet only within the last few decades has it achieved a huge surge in popularity. Rea-sons for this may not only lie in the listeners, but also in those that produce the music. With a steady turn towards internet promotion and dissemination, digital production seems to be finding a home and it’s digging in for a long stay.

Reverberating Strings

cians showcase their talent. It is also the first step for the promotion of local artists which, according to a local bass player, is “a too-long awaited change”. Local “Jam Nights”, composed of both career musi-cians and start-up players have a place on Monday through Thursday. These sport a variety of artists and instruments, some barely recognizable, and are organized at places such as the Russian Bar in New Century, The Lemongrass in Nova Taipa and Road-house in Macao, yet none have the same available conditions as LMA.

Music(ian) Makers

Ray Granlund and Victor Garnier are two people who’re actively participant in the music scene in Macao. Together they established a company called Solid Sounds in Macao which now is managed by the Panda Artist Management Group out of Barcelona, Spain. The group works with artists from across the world to promote, produce and manage their sounds.

“Solid Sounds historically represented the music production and live music presenting instead of hands on artist management. Because of the occur-rences here in Macao, we’ve been forced to focus more the agency side of things” says Ray. His background in music all started with the piano at age 5, and after a short dabble in violin which he

“got sick of” turned to synthesizers in the 8th grade.

“I fell in love with synths […] then got my first taste of music and computers together, a software for writing sheet music and notes on a computer”. Ray, at the time of this report, was recording a band in the Dom Pedro V theater. His experiences shows how varied are the backgrounds of musicians. After studying linguistics and computer sciences he decided he finally found his niche in music and has since tried to promote that to locals through tutorial programs and workshops. He describes his decision to focus on music fondly.

“I dropped everything else and just did music, had a lot of theoretical education, studied singing, was going to be an opera singer” he says. Opera however

,although not his current occupation, brought him to Macao.

“That’s how I met and fell in love with Macao, hang-ing off a ledge of the Post Office [in Senado Square] by a rope singing opera” he recalls. Electronic music is on the rise, the nightlife scene, dominated by clubs such as Cubic, D2, DD3, Lotus, Sky21 and recently China Rouge, is all the rage. Cubic, calling itself the “a new world for indulgence and pleasure” is an image of a flashy lifestyle,

equipped with alternative lighting, LEDs and laser projection, it’s constantly filled with people dancing to various Djs. This method of music, being almost purely electronic, is one of the “easiest” says Ray. It requires only one person and their equipment. Plus, being in a club environment is very different to a concert. A certain

“vibe” has to be maintained and the crowd is con-trolled by a “subtle evolution over the course of the night” he continues.

“You have to know when to throw that song in so that the crowd peaks, but you also have to know how to build up to that peak, and how to bring them back down again after” says Dj Devlar, an American. This process continues over the course of the set, he ex-plains, and is the key to making or breaking a night. Programs specific for DJs have become more popular over the years with the common use of free software such as Virtual Dj to more complex programs such as Traktor Scratch, made by Native Instruments, adding more and more possibilities in terms of effects, recording, triggering, sampling and many more. Producing software, ranging from the Mac-stock Garageband to Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Fruity Loops, Reason and others are assuming a more and more dominant role in home-producing. These allow for the integration of both acoustic instruments, using DAW: digital audio workstations and other components, such as plug-ins, mixing the acoustic with various accompanying effects as well as synths, loops of any kind and vocals. This type of music production, being based on an ever changing musical platform is always able to expand its horizons. Already sounds from real instruments can be almost perfectly replicated and reproduced using synthesizers. The future seems to lie in what is inevitably around the corner. An in-tegration of both mediums. Already electronics are used in virtually every phase of the music produc-tion process. Is it time to hold tight to our guitars and embrace the digital wave?

Spin It, Mix it, Produce it, Embrace it

51

YES, I AM A VEGETARIAN.Ruby Lei

The popularity of going veg can be reflected through the number of vegetarians in the world. Currently, the group counts for a 10% of the entire population on our planet, there are 14 million veg-etarians in the USA and a quarter of England’s population is vegetarians too. In fact the trend has gained recognition in Macao for there are 17 vegetarian restaurants, accounting to more than 20 if shops for selling veggie ingredients are included. The trend was originated from tradi-tions and religion in the city. Ms Hung, a vegetarian since 1990, went into her deep thoughts when she said, “Those days only people with a religion chose to be vegetarians. Around the veggie shops I could always remember those similar faces, or maybe some Buddhist monks. Our group was not in a main stream, though some locals keep the practice of not eating meat on the 1st and the 15th of a Chinese lunar month till now,

mostly out of a motivation of tradition.”Mrs. Tai, a vegetarian for over 20 years in Macao,

said she had only 1 or 2 common veggie friends in the early 1990s. “Every time you dined out with

friends and relatives they treated you as if you were some kind of weirdy and criminal, as if I

worshiped a god that didn’t exist! But now I am more respected with my choice and at least half of my friends are veggies.” Ms Hung and Mrs. Tai had motivated their husbands and children to be veg-

etarians too. “She didn’t force me to, but she made a little revolution by cooking less

meat diets,” Mr. Tai added as his wife frowned over him. These vegetarian families always have meetings sharing thoughts and ideas on delicious and nutritious recipes. Recently the group is ad-dicted in cooking congee with ten different kinds of grains, which claims to step up metabolism and enhance physical strength . Such recipe can always

Two pieces of vegetarian sushiHyperreal vegetarian wontonCurry potatoes mixed with other veggie ingredients

AS I GENEROUSLY FED MY STOMACH WITH OVERWHELMING JOY OF VALENTINE’S DAY CHOCOLATES AND FEW BIRTHDAY DINNERS OF SASHIMI AND SPICY HOT POTS, I WAS REFUNDED WITH A THREE-DAY DIARRHEA AFTER THE LOOSE. WHEN THE SENSE OF GUILT DROWNED MY DIGESTIVE SYSTEM AND SEEING THE COLORFUL PILLS WAITING TO BE SWALLOWED DOWN MY THROAT EVERY FOUR HOURS, I STARTED THINKING OF EATING SOMETHING LIGHTER, MAYBE GOING TO A VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT.

must it be superstitious when it comes to veg? I mean we are in a world of science today!”

I guess the words from Leong have spoken up for the group. The tide was rooted in Macao and is definitely spreading over the city. This article traced me back to the good old days when I hang out with my grandmother during my times of naïve and ignorance. She would always treat me with this sweet and sour gluten(齋鹵味), a traditional type of vegetarian snack, and fooled me that they were sweet sour pork just to keep my month shut when she was busy shopping for dinner, and I was a com-plete idiot to tell my mom that I have had enough pork when I reached home.

be found in veggie stores, with the ten grains mixed and vacuum-packed for the ease of cooking.

Ms Cheng, a vegetarian for 15 years, foreseeing the local trend and business opportunity, opened her own restaurant 2 years ago. “The number of veggies in Macao is apparently increasing; we always have teenagers and young couples coming. The demand is huge.” Joyce, a 27 year-old vegetar-ian and a regular customer at Cheng’s restaurant, said she often come over with her friends to try out new recipes. “I started going veg since high school. Most of my friends are already used to it. The popularity can be seen when more restaurants add vegetarian recipes in their menus, and I can dine easily anywhere with my friends.” Another young vegetarian restaurant which specializes in Shanghai food, has gained reputation and support from many folks. “People are open to more options these days; half of my customers are actually meat-eaters. I don’t see this as business but a chance for them to taste different,” said Mr. Ko while phone calls of reservation never stopped.

Besides, researches have found a steady veggie diet lessen the possibility of having diabetes , heart diseases , obesity and cancer. Professor Tim Key, a Cancer Research UK epidemiologist at the Uni-versity of Oxford, said: ‘Over a lifetime about one in three people will be diagnosed with cancer. So if 33 people in every hundred get cancer this would come down to about 29 with everyone following a vegetarian diet, which is 12 per cent lower.’ Ms Leong, a cancer recovered patient who finished her therapy few years ago said, “I am a vegetarian for 11 years.” She could not stand when people start questioning her of deep belief upon a religion, “Why

Photo: (Top) Mr Lei, husband of Ms Hung, became a vegetarian under the influence ofhis wife. (Bottom Left) Joyce, a 27 year-old vegetarian and a regular customer at Cheng’s restaurant. (Bottom Right) Ms Hung, a vegetarain since 1990.

Two pieces of vegetarian sushi

YES, I AM A VEGETARIAN.Ruby Lei

The popularity of going veg can be reflected through the number of vegetarians in the world. Currently, the group counts for a 10% of the entire population on our planet, there are 14 million veg-etarians in the USA and a quarter of England’s population is vegetarians too. In fact the trend has gained recognition in Macao for there are 17 vegetarian restaurants, accounting to more than 20 if shops for selling veggie ingredients are included. The trend was originated from tradi-tions and religion in the city. Ms Hung, a vegetarian since 1990, went into her deep thoughts when she said, “Those days only people with a religion chose to be vegetarians. Around the veggie shops I could always remember those similar faces, or maybe some Buddhist monks. Our group was not in a main stream, though some locals keep the practice of not eating meat on the 1st and the 15th of a Chinese lunar month till now,

mostly out of a motivation of tradition.”Mrs. Tai, a vegetarian for over 20 years in Macao,

said she had only 1 or 2 common veggie friends in the early 1990s. “Every time you dined out with

friends and relatives they treated you as if you were some kind of weirdy and criminal, as if I

worshiped a god that didn’t exist! But now I am more respected with my choice and at least half of my friends are veggies.” Ms Hung and Mrs. Tai had motivated their husbands and children to be veg-

etarians too. “She didn’t force me to, but she made a little revolution by cooking less

meat diets,” Mr. Tai added as his wife frowned over him. These vegetarian families always have meetings sharing thoughts and ideas on delicious and nutritious recipes. Recently the group is ad-dicted in cooking congee with ten different kinds of grains, which claims to step up metabolism and enhance physical strength . Such recipe can always

Two pieces of vegetarian sushiHyperreal vegetarian wontonCurry potatoes mixed with other veggie ingredients

AS I GENEROUSLY FED MY STOMACH WITH OVERWHELMING JOY OF VALENTINE’S DAY CHOCOLATES AND FEW BIRTHDAY DINNERS OF SASHIMI AND SPICY HOT POTS, I WAS REFUNDED WITH A THREE-DAY DIARRHEA AFTER THE LOOSE. WHEN THE SENSE OF GUILT DROWNED MY DIGESTIVE SYSTEM AND SEEING THE COLORFUL PILLS WAITING TO BE SWALLOWED DOWN MY THROAT EVERY FOUR HOURS, I STARTED THINKING OF EATING SOMETHING LIGHTER, MAYBE GOING TO A VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT.

must it be superstitious when it comes to veg? I mean we are in a world of science today!”

I guess the words from Leong have spoken up for the group. The tide was rooted in Macao and is definitely spreading over the city. This article traced me back to the good old days when I hang out with my grandmother during my times of naïve and ignorance. She would always treat me with this sweet and sour gluten(齋鹵味), a traditional type of vegetarian snack, and fooled me that they were sweet sour pork just to keep my month shut when she was busy shopping for dinner, and I was a com-plete idiot to tell my mom that I have had enough pork when I reached home.

be found in veggie stores, with the ten grains mixed and vacuum-packed for the ease of cooking.

Ms Cheng, a vegetarian for 15 years, foreseeing the local trend and business opportunity, opened her own restaurant 2 years ago. “The number of veggies in Macao is apparently increasing; we always have teenagers and young couples coming. The demand is huge.” Joyce, a 27 year-old vegetar-ian and a regular customer at Cheng’s restaurant, said she often come over with her friends to try out new recipes. “I started going veg since high school. Most of my friends are already used to it. The popularity can be seen when more restaurants add vegetarian recipes in their menus, and I can dine easily anywhere with my friends.” Another young vegetarian restaurant which specializes in Shanghai food, has gained reputation and support from many folks. “People are open to more options these days; half of my customers are actually meat-eaters. I don’t see this as business but a chance for them to taste different,” said Mr. Ko while phone calls of reservation never stopped.

Besides, researches have found a steady veggie diet lessen the possibility of having diabetes , heart diseases , obesity and cancer. Professor Tim Key, a Cancer Research UK epidemiologist at the Uni-versity of Oxford, said: ‘Over a lifetime about one in three people will be diagnosed with cancer. So if 33 people in every hundred get cancer this would come down to about 29 with everyone following a vegetarian diet, which is 12 per cent lower.’ Ms Leong, a cancer recovered patient who finished her therapy few years ago said, “I am a vegetarian for 11 years.” She could not stand when people start questioning her of deep belief upon a religion, “Why

Photo: (Top) Mr Lei, husband of Ms Hung, became a vegetarian under the influence ofhis wife. (Bottom Left) Joyce, a 27 year-old vegetarian and a regular customer at Cheng’s restaurant. (Bottom Right) Ms Hung, a vegetarain since 1990.

Two pieces of vegetarian sushi

53

“Tchoukball is different from basketball. There is less physical contact (involved in tchoukball competition). You hardly see players manifest themselves (during the competition). Teamwork is the key. We compete with another team. However, our opponents are our friends but never our enemies,” said Fu Keong Lo, who has played tchoukball since 2009, after his first match in the 1st Macao Tchoukball Tournament held in Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI) Stadium.

Tchoukball More than a GameNatalie Chan

Sports like basketball, soccer and volleyball are probably familiar to you. However, have you heard about tchouk-

ball? Do you know how to play tchoukball? Or do you know how to pronounce “tchoukball”?

Tchoukball is pronounced “chook-ball”, Lo explained that ‘Tchouk” is echoic to the sound when the ball is struck at the rebound frame, which is a trampoline-like net similar to the hitting area of a tennis racquet.

Shen-Szu Fang, the general secretary of the International Tchoukball Federation (FITB), attended the opening of the 1st Macao Tchoukball Tournament held in MPI Stadium on February 12, 2012. He said that tchoukball is a team sport conceived by the Swiss biologist and physical educator Dr. Hermann Brandt in 1971. FITB was found with the support of Swiss Tchoukball Federation and French Tchoukball Fed-eration in the same year and Dr. Brandt was the president. Dr. Brandt died in 1972.

There is a rebound frame at either end of a tchoukball field. The frames are not used to separate two sides, but serve as a mechanical amplifier to return the ball to the field. Teams compete against each other by rebounding the ball off the frame at either end of the field. The defending team tries to catch the rebounded ball before it lands in the playing area. There is no assigned score-frame to the teams, which means both teams can score from either frame if the defenders fail to catch the rebounded ball.

Tino Siu acquired tchoukball in 2006 and established the Chi-na-Macao Junzi Qiu (Tchoukball) General Association (MTA) on October 17, 2010. “I am attracted by the spirit of tchouk-ball. Therefore, I would like to recommend to Macao people,” said Siu. According to Shen-Szu Fang, the general secretary of FITB, MTA is the only recognized tchoukball association in Macao by FITB.

The spirit of tchoukball is fair play, comity and mutual re-spects. Tchoukball can be translated as Junzi Qiu, which liter-ally means gentleman in Chinese. “It is common that tchouk-ball players own up to the fouls they committed if referees overlook the faults, and players congratulate a score even they lose a point,” said Siu.

“Tchoukball is a game like other sports. However, it is more than a game. I would describe tchoukball as education,” said Fang who is the head coach of Taiwan National Team, which is the current world tchoukball champion. “My players told me that they did not expect the transformation by playing tchoukball,” Fang added.

“I find myself influenced a lot by tchoukball,” said Lo. “I was a bit individualistic before. But now I would consider my friends and my family before I make any decision.”

Interceptions, tackles, and any kind of physical contacts are forbidden in Tchoukball in order to prevent from sports inju-ries. “No physical contact and we have knee pads. The possible injury would be a sprained finger or bruised face if you miss a ball,” said Phoenix Lei, who plays basketball, handball and tchoukball, when she is doing warm-up for her first match in the local tournament.

Tchoukball

“Tchoukball is interesting. With the rebound frame, the key (of tchoukball) is not to slam but to imagine or cal-culate where the rebound goes,” Fang said with a smile when Lei scores with an edge ball.

“Some would wonder if we are playing handball when they see tchoukball. Tchoukball looks alike handball but yet unique from any other ball games,” Siu confessed that tchoukball is not a mainstream sport in Macao, such as football, volley ball, and basketball, etc. which are taught in school.

“We welcome everyone to try and I believe they will like it [tchoukball],” said Siu with confidence to the develop-ment of tchoukball in Macao.

“I think the development of tchoukball will be better in Macao than in Hong Kong because Siu’s student net-work is helpful to promote in a small city like Macao.” Fang said. Siu is a professor of the School of Physical Education and Sports in MPI.

MTA expands the promotion of tchoukball from MPI to local secondary schools. The 1st Inter-Secondary School Competition is currently proceeding since No-vember 2011. Nine secondary schools participate in the competition. “We are planning to promote in local primary schools and universities,” said Siu.

“I persist to practice because I like tchoukball and we have many opportunities to participate in world com-petition,” Lei said after the Macao team went to the 2nd Asia Pacific University Tchoukball Championship in Taiwan in November 2011.

According to Siu, the Hong Kong – Macao Interport Tournament will be held in Macao in May 2012; the Ma-cao team will participate in the 5th Asia Pacific Tchouk-ball Championship in August in the Phillipines.

“Tchoukball is a game like other sports. However, it is more than a game. I would describe tchoukballas education,”

Shen-Szu Fang (left) and Tino Siu (right) in Macao Polytechnic Institute Stadium

Shooting

Rebound frame at tchoukball field

55

“Tchoukball is different from basketball. There is less physical contact (involved in tchoukball competition). You hardly see players manifest themselves (during the competition). Teamwork is the key. We compete with another team. However, our opponents are our friends but never our enemies,” said Fu Keong Lo, who has played tchoukball since 2009, after his first match in the 1st Macao Tchoukball Tournament held in Macao Polytechnic Institute (MPI) Stadium.

Tchoukball More than a GameNatalie Chan

Sports like basketball, soccer and volleyball are probably familiar to you. However, have you heard about tchouk-

ball? Do you know how to play tchoukball? Or do you know how to pronounce “tchoukball”?

Tchoukball is pronounced “chook-ball”, Lo explained that ‘Tchouk” is echoic to the sound when the ball is struck at the rebound frame, which is a trampoline-like net similar to the hitting area of a tennis racquet.

Shen-Szu Fang, the general secretary of the International Tchoukball Federation (FITB), attended the opening of the 1st Macao Tchoukball Tournament held in MPI Stadium on February 12, 2012. He said that tchoukball is a team sport conceived by the Swiss biologist and physical educator Dr. Hermann Brandt in 1971. FITB was found with the support of Swiss Tchoukball Federation and French Tchoukball Fed-eration in the same year and Dr. Brandt was the president. Dr. Brandt died in 1972.

There is a rebound frame at either end of a tchoukball field. The frames are not used to separate two sides, but serve as a mechanical amplifier to return the ball to the field. Teams compete against each other by rebounding the ball off the frame at either end of the field. The defending team tries to catch the rebounded ball before it lands in the playing area. There is no assigned score-frame to the teams, which means both teams can score from either frame if the defenders fail to catch the rebounded ball.

Tino Siu acquired tchoukball in 2006 and established the Chi-na-Macao Junzi Qiu (Tchoukball) General Association (MTA) on October 17, 2010. “I am attracted by the spirit of tchouk-ball. Therefore, I would like to recommend to Macao people,” said Siu. According to Shen-Szu Fang, the general secretary of FITB, MTA is the only recognized tchoukball association in Macao by FITB.

The spirit of tchoukball is fair play, comity and mutual re-spects. Tchoukball can be translated as Junzi Qiu, which liter-ally means gentleman in Chinese. “It is common that tchouk-ball players own up to the fouls they committed if referees overlook the faults, and players congratulate a score even they lose a point,” said Siu.

“Tchoukball is a game like other sports. However, it is more than a game. I would describe tchoukball as education,” said Fang who is the head coach of Taiwan National Team, which is the current world tchoukball champion. “My players told me that they did not expect the transformation by playing tchoukball,” Fang added.

“I find myself influenced a lot by tchoukball,” said Lo. “I was a bit individualistic before. But now I would consider my friends and my family before I make any decision.”

Interceptions, tackles, and any kind of physical contacts are forbidden in Tchoukball in order to prevent from sports inju-ries. “No physical contact and we have knee pads. The possible injury would be a sprained finger or bruised face if you miss a ball,” said Phoenix Lei, who plays basketball, handball and tchoukball, when she is doing warm-up for her first match in the local tournament.

Tchoukball

“Tchoukball is interesting. With the rebound frame, the key (of tchoukball) is not to slam but to imagine or cal-culate where the rebound goes,” Fang said with a smile when Lei scores with an edge ball.

“Some would wonder if we are playing handball when they see tchoukball. Tchoukball looks alike handball but yet unique from any other ball games,” Siu confessed that tchoukball is not a mainstream sport in Macao, such as football, volley ball, and basketball, etc. which are taught in school.

“We welcome everyone to try and I believe they will like it [tchoukball],” said Siu with confidence to the develop-ment of tchoukball in Macao.

“I think the development of tchoukball will be better in Macao than in Hong Kong because Siu’s student net-work is helpful to promote in a small city like Macao.” Fang said. Siu is a professor of the School of Physical Education and Sports in MPI.

MTA expands the promotion of tchoukball from MPI to local secondary schools. The 1st Inter-Secondary School Competition is currently proceeding since No-vember 2011. Nine secondary schools participate in the competition. “We are planning to promote in local primary schools and universities,” said Siu.

“I persist to practice because I like tchoukball and we have many opportunities to participate in world com-petition,” Lei said after the Macao team went to the 2nd Asia Pacific University Tchoukball Championship in Taiwan in November 2011.

According to Siu, the Hong Kong – Macao Interport Tournament will be held in Macao in May 2012; the Ma-cao team will participate in the 5th Asia Pacific Tchouk-ball Championship in August in the Phillipines.

“Tchoukball is a game like other sports. However, it is more than a game. I would describe tchoukballas education,”

Shen-Szu Fang (left) and Tino Siu (right) in Macao Polytechnic Institute Stadium

Shooting

Rebound frame at tchoukball field

55

A NEW MOVIE EXPERIENCE IN MACAOTHE GALAXY UA CINEMAS

Hanging out on weekends, planning to watcH a movie witH colleagues and friends, tHree montHs before, we only Had a few cHoices in macao: wHetHer going to cinema alegria, cineteatro macau or tHe macau tower. now, we Have one more cHoice because recently a new cinema cHain Has establisHed-tHe ua cinemas in tHe galaxy resort, wHicH is tHe first multiplex cinema cHain in macao, is offering a brand new experience of movie watcHing to tHe macao citizens by establisHing

a modernize cinema cHain in macao. UA cinemas opened recently at 15th December,

2011, but Macao citizens are familiar with the UA cinemas because it had 27 years history in Hong Kong. According to the official website of Lark International Group, they introduced the UA Cinema brand to Hong Kong in 1985, and is one of the major cinema chains in Hong Kong. In 1997, it started the online ticketing service called Cityline, customers can reserve the ticket through phone calls in 2006; it started the online ticketing service which customers can buy their tickets through the official website of UA cinemas.

same time, the Galaxy resort noticed the demand for the cinema chain, therefore, Galaxy resort invited UA to start a cinema chain in Macao in order to learn how to run a cinema chain, that makes the appear-ance of the UA Galaxy Cinemas became possible.

Since the public opening, UA cinemas becomes very popular among local citizens. “We are slightly surprised by the enthusiastic response from the local. According to the experience from Hong Kong, normally it takes around six months to build up its customer loyalty and make the business become more stable.” Yung said, “but the Galaxy UA Cinemas does not need to take this long. In account to the revenue from Christmas to New Year, we are among the top six of the UA cinemas in Macao and Hong Kong,” Yung thinks that it is because of the strong adver-tisement and the attraction from the Galaxy resort.

The price for the ticket is MOP65 for a 2D movie and MOP95 for a 3D movie; in addition, price for watching a movie in Director Club is MOP175, the price of watching either a 2D or 3D movie is more expensive than other Macao cinemas. Yung thinks that in terms of the facilities that UA Galaxy Cin-emas provides, they should charge more but in con-sideration to their principle, which is to provide an entertaining service to the resort’s guests and local citizens, they decided to set the price at this level.

UA in Macao“The market for Hong Kong has already been

saturated,” said the Executive Manager of Galaxy UA Cinemas, Perry Yung. In order to keep the cinema chain developing, UA needs to extend the market by stretching their branches to other places; at the

The UA Galaxy Cinema has nine theaters in total, four theraters are the Director Club theaters and the remaining five are the traditional theat-ers, among the five traditional theaters, the Grand Theater is the largest one which consists of 350 seats.

Patrick Van

A NEW MOVIE EXPERIENCE IN MACAOTHE GALAXY UA CINEMAS

When asked competitions in Macao, Yung stated confidently that there should not be any competitions because UA cinemas is targeting different audience with the other cinemas in Macao. He said the UA cinemas are targeting the families in Macao and the other cinemas are also having their only advantages, their long history of establishment has created cus-tomer loyalty which makes them more competitive.

In the future, Yung said they are going to have many exciting promotions. In the long term, they hope to provide more 3D experiences like playing 3D dramas or concerts in the cinema, and even people can reserve a theater for a meeting; in addition, they also try their best to have a live broadcasting for the World Cup.

DifficultiesYung thinks that there are not many restrictions in

Macao, but the hiring and training of the staff is giving them a hard time. “It is not easy to hire a staff in Macao,” the assistant manager of Galaxy UA cinemas, Rommel Htut said. “Not many people know how to broadcast a film inside the theater, it is much complicated than

ing in UA Galaxy cinemas, “but still I will keep doing my job because I am satisfy with my pay.”

Impact to the localYung thinks that UA cinemas has brought some

impacts to the entire Macao movie industry. The establishment of UA has made the local citizens com-ing back to the cinemas, as a result, it has extended the market. Yet, it is also beneficial to other cinemas.

“I never go to other cinemas since the opening of the UA cinemas, the seats are much more comfortable than the others” said John Julian Pun, whom had several experience of watching movies in UA cinemas.

“I had never been to cinemas after I married,” said Ben Van, who has marred over 30 years, “I was curi-ous about the UA cinemas so I went there once, it is a comfortable place, but I won’t go there anymore because I would like to watch movie at my own place”

“Cinema is a place for social function, it is a place for friends to hang out with, for a date and for family time.” Yung concluded. “We also bring people back to the cinemas. Sometimes we receive some feedbacks, telling us that they are surprised by the changes of the cinemas because it has changed a lot from 40 years.”

ExcutiveManager Perry Yung (right) and Assistant Manager Rommel Htut (left)

we play a movie with our desktop, we need to provide training but still not many people are willing to join us. We are working hard on this area, hoping that we can have more people working in this field in the future.”

“Sometimes I find it hard to cheer myself up because I have to do the same task for eight hours a day,” said Vina Su, a general staff work-

A NEW MOVIE EXPERIENCE IN MACAOTHE GALAXY UA CINEMAS

Hanging out on weekends, planning to watcH a movie witH colleagues and friends, tHree montHs before, we only Had a few cHoices in macao: wHetHer going to cinema alegria, cineteatro macau or tHe macau tower. now, we Have one more cHoice because recently a new cinema cHain Has establisHed-tHe ua cinemas in tHe galaxy resort, wHicH is tHe first multiplex cinema cHain in macao, is offering a brand new experience of movie watcHing to tHe macao citizens by establisHing

a modernize cinema cHain in macao. UA cinemas opened recently at 15th December,

2011, but Macao citizens are familiar with the UA cinemas because it had 27 years history in Hong Kong. According to the official website of Lark International Group, they introduced the UA Cinema brand to Hong Kong in 1985, and is one of the major cinema chains in Hong Kong. In 1997, it started the online ticketing service called Cityline, customers can reserve the ticket through phone calls in 2006; it started the online ticketing service which customers can buy their tickets through the official website of UA cinemas.

same time, the Galaxy resort noticed the demand for the cinema chain, therefore, Galaxy resort invited UA to start a cinema chain in Macao in order to learn how to run a cinema chain, that makes the appear-ance of the UA Galaxy Cinemas became possible.

Since the public opening, UA cinemas becomes very popular among local citizens. “We are slightly surprised by the enthusiastic response from the local. According to the experience from Hong Kong, normally it takes around six months to build up its customer loyalty and make the business become more stable.” Yung said, “but the Galaxy UA Cinemas does not need to take this long. In account to the revenue from Christmas to New Year, we are among the top six of the UA cinemas in Macao and Hong Kong,” Yung thinks that it is because of the strong adver-tisement and the attraction from the Galaxy resort.

The price for the ticket is MOP65 for a 2D movie and MOP95 for a 3D movie; in addition, price for watching a movie in Director Club is MOP175, the price of watching either a 2D or 3D movie is more expensive than other Macao cinemas. Yung thinks that in terms of the facilities that UA Galaxy Cin-emas provides, they should charge more but in con-sideration to their principle, which is to provide an entertaining service to the resort’s guests and local citizens, they decided to set the price at this level.

UA in Macao“The market for Hong Kong has already been

saturated,” said the Executive Manager of Galaxy UA Cinemas, Perry Yung. In order to keep the cinema chain developing, UA needs to extend the market by stretching their branches to other places; at the

The UA Galaxy Cinema has nine theaters in total, four theraters are the Director Club theaters and the remaining five are the traditional theat-ers, among the five traditional theaters, the Grand Theater is the largest one which consists of 350 seats.

Patrick Van

A NEW MOVIE EXPERIENCE IN MACAOTHE GALAXY UA CINEMAS

When asked competitions in Macao, Yung stated confidently that there should not be any competitions because UA cinemas is targeting different audience with the other cinemas in Macao. He said the UA cinemas are targeting the families in Macao and the other cinemas are also having their only advantages, their long history of establishment has created cus-tomer loyalty which makes them more competitive.

In the future, Yung said they are going to have many exciting promotions. In the long term, they hope to provide more 3D experiences like playing 3D dramas or concerts in the cinema, and even people can reserve a theater for a meeting; in addition, they also try their best to have a live broadcasting for the World Cup.

DifficultiesYung thinks that there are not many restrictions in

Macao, but the hiring and training of the staff is giving them a hard time. “It is not easy to hire a staff in Macao,” the assistant manager of Galaxy UA cinemas, Rommel Htut said. “Not many people know how to broadcast a film inside the theater, it is much complicated than

ing in UA Galaxy cinemas, “but still I will keep doing my job because I am satisfy with my pay.”

Impact to the localYung thinks that UA cinemas has brought some

impacts to the entire Macao movie industry. The establishment of UA has made the local citizens com-ing back to the cinemas, as a result, it has extended the market. Yet, it is also beneficial to other cinemas.

“I never go to other cinemas since the opening of the UA cinemas, the seats are much more comfortable than the others” said John Julian Pun, whom had several experience of watching movies in UA cinemas.

“I had never been to cinemas after I married,” said Ben Van, who has marred over 30 years, “I was curi-ous about the UA cinemas so I went there once, it is a comfortable place, but I won’t go there anymore because I would like to watch movie at my own place”

“Cinema is a place for social function, it is a place for friends to hang out with, for a date and for family time.” Yung concluded. “We also bring people back to the cinemas. Sometimes we receive some feedbacks, telling us that they are surprised by the changes of the cinemas because it has changed a lot from 40 years.”

ExcutiveManager Perry Yung (right) and Assistant Manager Rommel Htut (left)

we play a movie with our desktop, we need to provide training but still not many people are willing to join us. We are working hard on this area, hoping that we can have more people working in this field in the future.”

“Sometimes I find it hard to cheer myself up because I have to do the same task for eight hours a day,” said Vina Su, a general staff work-

57

Hilda Chan, one of the participants of the campaign, mentioned that she did not care much about the society even

she is studying Society Studies and her life was just as a robot without hope. She said “I would be a canned

food from a factory of the society if my mind was not awakened by the campaign.” But now, Hilda has commitment to society and cares about Macao. She wants to change the unfair issues happened

in Macao, try her best to MAD COW. Hilda added, “After joining the campaign, I believe that I am useful.”

M.A.D. C.O.W. ,

BE A USEFUL MACAO TEEN

Queenie, Lam Weng SiA blue heart is just like a melted candle without fire. Who cares? Hasty pace of life, rapid changes of the world, heavy workload of students, conflicts flooded to teenagers. What is the true meaning of studying, dreams and even life? Is there anyone ever stopped and heard the cries of teenagers? The answer is, Yes.

Be a “MAD COW”

Karen Ip, a ministry staff of Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS), said that their organization hosted activities like

“Talent hatching program” to train the teenagers in Macao to be

-- the faith and the aim of FCS running as a “Dream Factory.”, to have Vision, Passion and Adventure.

Karen was once a decadent in her university time. Due to some mental problems, she was always in despair, frustrated, great pressure and afraid to contact with people, and was even suspected to have depression, the illness caused her losing hair and finally became bald. Karen mentioned that life was totally in the rock bottom during university time. However, two staffs from Dream Factory did not abandon her. Marco Lou, consultant of UMCF, said “My wife and I strongly believed that Karen could be ‘saved’ and stand up again.” It took a long time for Karen to accept the two staffs and they now has an unbreakable relationship since then. The couple inspired Karen to become a ministry staff to achieve the belief that life affecting life. Karen said teenagers need to be identified and affirmed and she always has a strong feeling of satisfaction after a teenager was found to become more mature, more potential and more charming through the trainings.

Karen thinks that the whole person development is essential to university students.” She said, “University is a core time to train students to become a person that have ‘shoulder’ to the society.

It is a transformational stage of a high school student to a citizen of the society.” As a staff, she holds various

trainings to build up their leadership potential. She added, “Everyone can be a leader, an ex-decadent might be a CEO in business, a government offi-cial or a president of a country. You never know

what a person will become 10 years later.” There-fore, there are needs of youth development in Macao.

Anti-saltifishialization Say no to be saltifishialized!

Man without dream, has no difference with a “salty fish”. “Salty fish” is a dead fish in Chinese to

indicate those people who do not have dream and therefore their life is dead. Last year, the University of Macau Christian Fellowship(UMCF) held a camp

called “Dream Crafting –Anti-saltifishialization”, “Anti-saltifishialization” was a coined word created

by UMCF, which means to against being a salty fish, the aim is to awake the dreams of teenagers, since they found that many teenagers in Macao does not have dreams and blindly perusing material life. However, UMCF thinks that mental wealth is more important than physical wealth.

Photo: (Top) Karen Ip, Ministry Staff of FCS, (Middle) Anti-saltifishialization Camp of UMCF, (Bottom) Becky Leong, President of UMCF

“MAD COW” which stands for

“Make a Difference, Change Our World”

William thinks that the economy of Macao is growing rapidly; however, teenagers attend social activities are not in the same scale, so there are needs to help teenagers to develop themselves and to care about the world. Rotaract Club provides a channel and opportunities for teenagers to develop themselves, to hold some courses like photography, ice-skating or dancing courses to equip the teenagers; so that teenagers could grow up in a more balancing social life.

William recalled once when he went to Guangxi with his friend, Chester Chou, who has visited Guangxi for several times. A student there recognized Chester and told Chester that he was one of the students in Guangxi that had received the help from Rotaract Club of Macau. The student met Chester some years before but Chester could not remember the student, Chester found this was so amazing and unforgettable to help someone in need. As a matter of fact, the student encouraged the whole Rotaract team. William said, “Something we do not consider as very important to us might mean a lot to the others, they maybe will remember for the whole life.” The smile from these people is the most important motivation for them to keep their heart on fire, to keep working, and keep staying in Rotaract to help those who in needs.

Becky also said that Macao teenagers grow in a so-called “politi-cal indifferent ambience” city that teenagers do not care much about the political system of Macao; very few of them are voters; and teenagers would rarely fight for their own rights compared to other neighbor cities like Hong Kong. As a citizen, we should care about what the world is happening. Although in recent years more teen-agers are conscious of the social affair, it still has a long way to go.

Nowadays, psychological growth seems more in need than physical growth for teenagers in a rapid developing city like Macao. Apart from the two mentioned organizations, there are others organization which care about the youth development in Macao, like the Rotaract Club of Macau.

Thorough the camp, participants were encouraged to recall and reflect their life, what their dreams were and set a dream achieving schedule to check how they could achieve their dream step by step.

Andy Chan, who loves singing and playing guitar very much, was one of the participants of the camp, said the camp recalled his dream of being a singer,

“With the help from UMCF, Andy divided his dream into three steps, first was to finish his intermediated guitar course in three months; second was to practice his singing through karaoke, to sing in front of people; and third was to join various singing contests so that he could gain more experience on performance and it was a way to become famous.

Becky Leong, president of UMCF, said she did not worry about

Good Will Ambassador The value of a smile

William Kuan, president of Rotaract Club of Macau, started joining Rotaract Club since three years before, by the Good Will Ambassador Program. William was the winner of the program so he got an opportunity to visit Mumbai, India, he was then linked to Rotaract Club. Good Will Ambassador Pro-gram is one of the two main projects of Rotaract Club, aims to promote different aspects of Macao through sharing, visiting commercial businesses, schools, national and NGO organiza-tions and sightseeing. Another project is the “Charity Trip to Guangxi”, which is a charity project started by the mother club of Rotaract Club – Rotary Clubs – by visiting schools, bringing materials and love to students. There are four main perspec-tives of Rotaract Club: Local Community Service, Professional Development, International Relationship and Club Service.

“One day, I will have my own concert and it will grander than those concerts in Hong

Kong Coliseum!”

teenagers dreaming too big but instead not dare to dream. She also mentioned that through the planning of the activities like the regulated topical gatherings, camps, talks, seminars or international exchange, members of UMCF need to prepare the related information well and think carefully about every little steps of the function. This is a platform to help students to apply what they have learnt. University education is somewhat retrogressed like high school recently, some university students would ask for tips from professors about the exams, some would ask their peers about which course can get a good grade. However, what is the truth meaning of university studies? Becky added, “‘University’ is from

‘Universe’, students should gain various knowledge in various field. This is what we want university students to be aware of.” As university students, who are highly educated, should have the abilities of independent and critical thinking. This is the main aspect of UMCF – helps university students development in Macao.

59

Katy Lai

John Julian Pun

Carmen Sze To Juliana Madeira de Carvalho

Sophia Mak Michelle Sou

Raymond Lai

Jessie Tai

Gigi Ung

Jessie Rong

Patrick VanMandy Lam

Tracy Chang

Tracy Ma Natalie Chan Queenie Lam

Ruby Lei Kristy Chan

Helen

Lee

Julia Yuan Annie Yao

Oliva Leong Kelsey Wilhelm

Paola Shayne Reyes

Grace Liu

UMac Bridges Spring 2012

Editorial Group

Kelsey WilhelmJohn Julian Pun

Natalie ChanKristy Chan

Carmen Sze ToJessie TaiRuby leiGigi Ung

Oliva leongMandy Lam

Katy LaiPatrick VanJulia YuanGrace LiuHelen LeeAnnie Yao

Layout Group

Tracy Chang

Sophia Mak

Queenie Lam

Juliana Madeira de Carvalho

Tracy Ma

Michelle Sou

Jessie Rong

Event Management Group Natalie Chan

John Julian PunKristy Chan

Queenie Lam Carmen Sze To

Juliana Madeira de Carvalho Jessie Tai

Michelle SouMandy Lam

Katy LaiPatrick VanJulia Yuan Grace LiuHelen Lee

Jessie Rong

Web Authoring and Design Group

Oliva Leong

Sophia Mak

Natalie Chan

Tracy Chang

Ruby lei

Gigi Ung

Crew

Disapperaing

Appearing

Disappeared

63

Disapperaing

Appearing

Disappeared

63

SPECIAL THANKS

Tim Simpson, Huailin Chen, Mei Wu, Benjamin Hodges,

Hugo Lok, Jenny Lou, Winnie Cheong, Raymond Lai,

Information and Communication Technology Office (ICTO),

Welfare Printing Ltd. & All the interviewees.

2012: DISAPPEARED::DISAPPEARING::APPEARING.

Produced by Beegin Production,Umac Bridges,

Printed in Spring 2012,

The Department of Communication

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities

University of Macau