Macau

The specificity of Macau's statute has created a press with peculiar characteristics. Whoever may want to weigh it, should also know something about (apart from its own annals i.e.), the history of Portugal and of Goa, territory to which Macau was dependent until 1845, and the history of China, which was always present since the beginning. This political and cultural corner displayed evident contradictions, for many interests and different perspectives upon the world were questioned.

Regarding politics, many different subjects have enrolled in the pages of Macanese newspapers: the relations between the Chinese and the Portuguese communities, the confrontation among critical journalists and censorship – which was, many times, nullified in courts or had as result blind repression – the two Opium Wars, the genesis and evolution of the city of Hong Kong, the interaction of Macau with Goa's authorities and with Portugal's authorities, the creation of newspapers with the sole purpose of electing people for official positions, the late decision of making Macau a free port, the matter of the coolies, the implementation of republican ideology and the Second World War.

As for the economic matters, we are confronted with news about the legislation in force, the imported and exported goods, as well as their prices, the claims of workers, the advent of credit institutions and insurance companies. Cultural news often appear in every newspaper: literature and linguistics with its greatest creators highlighted (for instance, Camões, Camilo Pessanha, Wenceslau de Moraes, Robert Morrison and Samuel Wells Williams), the complex matters of philosophy and Chinese ethnography, theatre, music, art, history of Macau, China and Portugal, religion, sciences, the many transformations of typographical industry, among other subjects. Education was also a recurrent subject, from its official steps towards its evolution within the Macanese region.

We highlight as well the English-written newspapers, which were published in the 19th century and always in different places: Macau, Hong Kong and Canton. Such happened because editors and publishers only had permission to stay in each city every six months per year: The Canton Register, The Canton Miscellany, The Chinese Courier and Canton Gazette, The Evangelist and Miscellanea Sinica and The Canton Press. Exempt of censorship – statute which was reason for many protests and claims from publishers of Macanese newspapers –, these newspapers are extremely rare to find, for they do not take part of the estates of Portuguese and Macanese libraries and archives.

Daniel Pires: presentation text and notes about the newspapers.