View source for Macanese people

{{Short description|Mixed-race ethnic group originating in Macau}}
{{About|the ethnic group|[[Macau Resident Identity Card|any permanent resident of Macau]]|Macau people}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{More citations needed|date=March 2024}}
{{Original research|date=March 2024}}
}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| image            = 
| group            = Macanese people<br />土生葡人<br>Maquista<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/macau/mofamous.htm|title=Famous People From Macau Famous Natives|website=Worldatlas.com|access-date=17 August 2018|archive-date=18 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818052145/https://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/asia/macau/mofamous.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| total            = {{circa}} '''42,000'''
| popplace         = {{flagcountry|Macau}} 8,000<ref name="DSEC1">{{Cite web |url=http://www.dsec.gov.mo/getAttachment/087215da-a7c9-4bb6-91af-1fea59886b15/P_ICEN_PUB_2006_Y.aspx |title=Archived copy |access-date=2016-10-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170717034102/http://www.dsec.gov.mo/getAttachment/087215da-a7c9-4bb6-91af-1fea59886b15/P_ICEN_PUB_2006_Y.aspx |archive-date=2017-07-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| region1          = {{flagcountry|Hong Kong SAR}}
| pop1             = 74,000<ref name=MPI>{{cite web|title=Immigrant and Emigrant Populations by Country of Origin and Destination|url=https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/immigrant-and-emigrant-populations-country-origin-and-destination|date=10 February 2014}}</ref>
| region2          = {{flagcountry|Singapore}}
| pop2             = 22,000<ref name=MPI>{{cite web|title=Immigrant and Emigrant Populations by Country of Origin and Destination|url=https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/immigrant-and-emigrant-populations-country-origin-and-destination|date=10 February 2014}}</ref>
| region3          = {{flagcountry|Mainland China}}
| pop3             = 19,000<ref name=MPI>{{cite web|title=Immigrant and Emigrant Populations by Country of Origin and Destination|url=https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/immigrant-and-emigrant-populations-country-origin-and-destination|date=10 February 2014}}</ref>
| region4          = {{flagcountry|United States}}
| pop4             = 15,000<ref name="clarimmac1" />
| region5          = {{flagcountry|Canada}}
| pop5             = 12,000<ref name="josecordeiro">[http://cronicasmacaenses.com/tag/diaspora-macaense-no-canada/ Entrevista a José Cordeiro, no programa televisivo ''RCP Rescaldos da Comunidade Portuguesa'' Canadá, 10 de Março de 2012] – na entrevista filmada, ir ao minuto 8, ondo José Cordeiro, fundador da associação macaense ''Amigu di Macau'', fez uma estimativa da população macaense residente em Toronto.</ref>
| region6          = {{flagcountry|Portugal}}
| pop6             = 5,000<ref name="clarimmac1">{{cite web|url=http://www.oclarim.com.mo/j101203/local3.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903141945/http://www.oclarim.com.mo/j101203/local3.shtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=3 September 2014 |title=Encontro para não esquecer – Comunidades macaenses reunidas até domingo |publisher=Jornal O Clarim |access-date=26 May 2017 }}</ref>
| region7          = {{flagcountry|Australia}}
| pop7             = 3,000<ref name=MPI>{{cite web|title=Immigrant and Emigrant Populations by Country of Origin and Destination|url=https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/immigrant-and-emigrant-populations-country-origin-and-destination|date=10 February 2014}}</ref>
| region8          = {{flagcountry|Brazil}}
| pop8             = 300<ref>{{cite web|title=Uma comunidade cheia de vida e tradição no Brasil|url=http://www.revistamacau.com/2013/06/16/uma-comunidade-cheia-de-vida-e-tradicao-no-brasil/|website=Revista Macau|date=16 June 2013 |access-date=2 May 2017|language=pt}}</ref>
| ref6             = 
| languages        = [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]{{·}}[[Cantonese]]{{·}}[[Macanese Patois|Macanese]]
| religions        = [[Roman Catholicism]]{{·}}[[File:Dharma_Wheel_(2).svg|15px]][[Buddhism]]{{·}}[[Evangelicalism|Evangelical Church]]{{•}}[[File:Star and Crescent.svg|15px]] [[Islam]]
| related          = [[Portuguese diaspora]]{{·}}[[Cantonese people]]{{·}}[[Hongkongers|Hong Kong people]]{{·}}[[Macau people]]{{·}}[[Tanka people]]{{·}}[[Sinhalese people]]{{·}}[[Japanese people]]{{·}}[[Malays (ethnic group)|Malay people]]{{·}}[[Indian diaspora]]{{·}}[[Chinese Brazilian]]{{•}}[[Kristang people]]
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
| title = Macanese people
| collapse = No
<!-- Chinese name -->| name1 = 
| c = 土生葡人
| l = Native-born Portuguese people
| y = tóu-saāng pòuh-yàhn
| j = tou2 saang1 pou4 jan4
| ci = {{IPAc-yue|t|ou|2|-|s|aang|1|-|p|ou|4|-|j|an|4}}
<!-- First alternative name -->| altname = 
| c2 = 土生澳門人
| l2 = Native-born Macau people
| j2 = tou2 saang1 ou3 mun2 jan4
| ci2 = {{IPAc-yue|t|ou|2|-|s|aang|1|-|ou|3|-|m|un|2|-|j|an|4}}
<!-- Second alternative name -->| altname3 = 
| c3 = 麥境士
| l3 = Cantonese Homophonic Translation of Macanese
| j3 = mak6 ging2 si6
| ci3 = {{IPAc-yue|m|ak|6|-|g|ing|2|-|s|i|6}}
}}

The '''Macanese people''' ({{langx|pt|Macaense}}, {{lang|mzs|Maquista}}) are a [[Multiracial people|multiracial]] [[East Asia]]n [[ethnic group]] that originated in [[Macau]] in the 16th century, consisting of people of predominantly mixed [[Cantonese people|Cantonese]] and [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] as well as [[Malays (ethnic group)|Malay]],<ref name="Macanese">{{Cite book |title=Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia |last=Minahan |first=James B |publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]  |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-61069-017-1 |pages=169}}</ref> [[Japanese people|Japanese]],<ref name="Macanese"/> [[Sinhalese people|Sinhalese]],<ref name="Macanese"/> and [[Indian people|Indian]]<ref name=":1">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H2twAAAAMAAJ&q=macanese+japanese|title=Macau, the imaginary city: culture and society, 1557 to the present |work=WestviewPress |page=78|isbn=9780813328362 |last1=Porter |first1=Jonathan |year=1996 |publisher=Avalon }}</ref> ancestry.<ref name=teix65>Teixeira, Manuel (1965),''Os Macaenses'', Macau: Imprensa Nacional; Amaro, Ana Maria (1988), ''Filhos da Terra'', Macau: Instituto Cultural de Macau, pp.&nbsp;4–7; and Pina-Cabral, João de and Nelson Lourenço (1993), ''Em Terra de Tufões: Dinâmicas da Etnicidade Macaense'', Macau: Instituto Cultural de Macau, for three varying, yet converging discussions on the definition of the term Macanese. Also particularly helpful is ''Review of Culture'' No. 20 July/September (English Edition) 1994, which is devoted to the ethnography of the Macanese.</ref><ref name=marr94>Marreiros, Carlos (1994), "Alliances for the Future" in ''Review of Culture'', No. 20 July/September (English Edition), pp.&nbsp;162–172.</ref>

After World War II, many Macanese migrated out of Macau and dispersed all over the globe, causing their history and culture to become at risk of being lost.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Macau |url=https://www.macaneselibrary.org/pub/english/index.htm |access-date=2024-02-13 |website=www.macaneselibrary.org}}</ref>

==Name==
In [[Cantonese]], the [[lingua franca]] of Macau, the terms {{zhc|c=澳門人|l=Macanese}} and {{zhc|c=土生葡人|l=native-born Portuguese}} refer to the [[Macau people]] and the Macanese people, respectively. Although there were attempts by the [[Portuguese Macau|colonial]] government during the mid-1990s to redefine the term "Macanese" as simply meaning a [[Macau Resident Identity Card|permanent resident]], or as referring to anyone born in Macau regardless of ethnicity in accordance with Cantonese usage in, this did not succeed.<ref>{{cite book |title=[[Sovereignty at the Edge: Macau & the Question of Chineseness]]|first= Cathryn H. |last=Clayton |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=2alTUjb6SX8C&pg=PA110 110]-[https://books.google.com/books?id=2alTUjb6SX8C&pg=PA113 113] |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=2010|isbn=978-0674035454 }}</ref> 

Consequently, the term "Macanese" is neither a term referring to the indigenous [[Tanka people]] of Macau, nor simply the [[demonym]] of Macau, but it instead refers to a specific minority ethnic group comprising approximately 1.2% of Macau's population. Due to the rise of localism among Macau people, following the 1999 handover "Macanese" is properly used to refer to people that were born in or live in Macau.{{clarification needed|date=March 2024}}

==Culture==
{{Unreferenced section|date=July 2022}}
Modern Macanese culture can be best described as a Sino-Latin culture. Historically, many ethnic Macanese spoke [[Macanese language|Patuá]], which is a [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]]-based [[creole language|creole]] and now nearly extinct. Many are fluent in both [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] and Cantonese. The Macanese have preserved a distinctive [[Macanese cuisine]].

== History ==
===Portuguese colonial period===
[[File:The Macanese, Miguel António de Cortela.jpg|thumb|''The Macanese, Miguel António de Cortela''. Attributed to [[Lam Qua]], early to mid-19th century.]]
Macau was founded circa 1557 by Portuguese merchants with permission of the Chinese Canton governor and later the emperor. Since its beginning, Macau has not been conquered and until the attacks of the Dutch in 1604, it didn't have a military garrison. Portuguese culture dominates the Macanese, but Chinese cultural patterns are also significant. The community acted as the interface between Portuguese merchant settlers or ruling [[Colonialism|colonial]] government – Portuguese who knew little about the Chinese – and the Chinese majority (90% of population) who knew equally little about the Portuguese. Some were Portuguese men stationed in Macau as part of their military service. Many stayed in Macau after the expiration of their military service, marrying Macanese women.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}

Rarely did Chinese women marry Portuguese; initially, mostly [[Goans]], [[Sinhalese people|Ceylonese/Sinhalese]] (from Sri Lanka), Indochina, Malay (from [[Malacca]]), and Japanese women were the wives of the Portuguese men in Macau.<ref>{{cite book|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|year=2003|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kwZwFh1aqFUC&pg=PR10|page=x|title=Taste of Macau: Portuguese Cuisine on the China Coast|isbn=962-209-638-7|author=Annabel Jackson|edition=illustrated|access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=João de Pina-Cabral|title=Between China and Europe: person, culture and emotion in Macao|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GglrUksvCUcC&pg=PA39|access-date=2012-03-01 |edition=illustrated|volume=74 of London School of Economics monographs on social anthropology|year=2002|publisher=Berg|isbn=0-8264-5749-5|page=39 |quote=To be a Macanese is fundamentally to be from Macao with Portuguese ancestors, but not necessarily to be of Sino-Portuguese descent. The local community was born from Portuguese men.&nbsp;... but in the beginning the woman was Goanese, Siamese, Indo-Chinese, Malay – they came to Macao in our boats. Sporadically it was a Chinese woman.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=Kelly & Walsh, Limited|year=1902|url=https://archive.org/details/historicmacao00jesugoog|quote=macao Japanese women.|page=[https://archive.org/details/historicmacao00jesugoog/page/n69 41]|title=Historic Macao|author=C. A. Montalto de Jesus|edition=2|access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|year=2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rE-6AgAAQBAJ&q=macao+Japanese+women&pg=PA44|volume=1 of Echoes: Classics of Hong Kong Culture and History|page=44|title=A Macao Narrative|isbn=978-962-209-077-4|author=Austin Coates|access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref> Slave women of Indian, Indonesian, Malay, and Japanese origin were used as partners by Portuguese men.<ref>{{cite book|publisher= Walter de Gruyter|year=1996|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lFW1BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA323|page=323|title= Atlas of Languages of Intercultural Communication in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas: Vol I: Maps. Vol II: Texts|editor1= Stephen A. Wurm|editor2=Peter Mühlhäusler|editor3=Darrell T. Tryon|isbn= 3110819724|access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref> Japanese girls would be [[Slavery in Japan#Portuguese trade in Japanese slaves|purchased in Japan]] by Portuguese men.<ref>{{cite book|publisher=The Center|year=1989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZPoWAQAAMAAJ&q=and+they+usually+managed+to+get+enough+money+to+buy+Japanese+girls+and+take+them+back+to+Macau+as+concubines.|volume=1 of Echoes: Classics of Hong Kong Culture and History|page=29|title=Camões Center Quarterly, Volume 1|author=Camões Center (Columbia University. Research Institute on International Change)|access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref> 

Macau received an influx of African slaves, Japanese slaves as well as [[Catholic Church in South Korea|Christian Korean slaves]] who were [[Nanban trade#Portuguese trade in Japanese slaves|bought by the Portuguese from the Japanese]] after they were taken prisoner during the [[Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–98)]] in the era of [[Hideyoshi]].<ref>{{cite book|publisher=BRILL|year=2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A3HsCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 |page=93|title=Setting Off from Macau: Essays on Jesuit History during the Ming and Qing Dynasties|author=Kaijian Tang|isbn=978-9004305526|access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref> From 1555 onwards, Macau received slave women of Timorese origin as well as women of African origin, and from Malacca and India.<ref>{{cite book|publisher= Oxford University Press|year=2015|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ZpGMCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|page=11|title= The Discourse of Race in Modern China|author= Frank Dikötter|isbn= 978-0190231132|access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=Hong Kong University Press|year=1992|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qSjxAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA17|page=17|title= The Discourse of Race in Modern China: Hong Kong Memoirs|author= Frank Dikotter|isbn= 9622093043|access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref> Macau was permitted by [[Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquess of Pombal|Pombal]] to receive an influx of Timorese women.<ref>{{cite book|publisher= Princeton University Press|year=2014|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_fSKAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA209|page=209|title= Racisms: From the Crusades to the Twentieth Century|author= Francisco Bethencourt|isbn=978-1400848416|access-date=2014-02-02}}</ref> 

Many Chinese became Macanese simply by converting to Catholicism, and they had no ancestry from the Portuguese, having assimilated into the Macanese people since they were rejected by non-Christian Chinese.<ref>{{cite book |author=João de Pina-Cabral|title=Between China and Europe: person, culture and emotion in Macao|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GglrUksvCUcC&pg=PA39|access-date=2012-03-01 |edition=illustrated|volume=74 of London School of Economics monographs on social anthropology|year=2002|publisher=Berg|isbn=0-8264-5749-5|page=39}}</ref> The majority of marriages between Portuguese and natives were between Portuguese men and women of [[Tanka people|Tanka]] origin, who were considered the lowest class of people in China and had relations with Portuguese settlers and sailors.<ref>{{cite book |author=João de Pina-Cabral|title=Between China and Europe: person, culture and emotion in Macao|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GglrUksvCUcC&pg=PA165|access-date=2012-03-01 |edition=illustrated|volume=74 of London School of Economics monographs on social anthropology|year=2002|publisher=Berg|isbn=0-8264-5749-5|page=164 }}</ref> 

Western men like the Portuguese were refused by high class Chinese women, who did not marry foreigners.<ref>{{cite book |author=João de Pina-Cabral|title=Between China and Europe: person, culture and emotion in Macao|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GglrUksvCUcC&pg=PA165|access-date=2012-03-01 |edition=illustrated|volume=74 of London School of Economics monographs on social anthropology|year=2002|publisher=Berg|isbn=0-8264-5749-5|page=165 }}</ref> Literature in Macau was written about love affairs and marriage between the Tanka women and Portuguese men, like "A-Chan, A Tancareira", by Henrique de Senna Fernandes.<ref>{{cite book |author=João de Pina-Cabral|title=Between China and Europe: person, culture and emotion in Macao|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GglrUksvCUcC&pg=PA165|access-date=2012-03-01 |edition=illustrated|volume=74 of London School of Economics monographs on social anthropology|year=2002|publisher=Berg|isbn=0-8264-5749-5|page=164 |quote=Henrique de Senna Fernandes, another Macanese author, wrote a short story about a tanka girl who has an affair with a Portuguese sailor. In the end, the man returns to his native country and takes their little girl with him, leaving the mother abandoned and broken-hearted. As her sailorman picks up the child, A-Chan's words are: 'Cuidadinho&nbsp;... cuidadinho' ('Careful&nbsp;... careful'). She resigns herself to her fate, much as she may never have recovered from the blow (1978).}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Christina Miu Bing Cheng|title=Macau: a cultural Janus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Gr51C1eS1oC&q=portuguese+slave+tanka&pg=PA173|access-date=2012-03-01 |edition=illustrated |year=1999 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press|isbn=962-209-486-4 |page=173 |quote=Her slave-like submissiveness is her only attraction to him. A-Chan thus becomes his slave/mistress, an outlet for suppressed sexual urges. The story is an archetypical tragedy of miscegenation. Just as the Tanka community despises A-Chan's cohabitation with a foreign barbarian, Manuel's colleagues mock his 'bad taste' ('gosto degenerado') (Senna Fernandes, 1978: 15) in having a tryst with a boat girl.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Christina Miu Bing Cheng|title=Macau: a cultural Janus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Gr51C1eS1oC&q=portuguese+slave+tanka&pg=PA173|access-date=2012-03-01 |edition=illustrated |year=1999 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press|isbn=962-209-486-4 |page=173 |quote=As such, the Tanka girl is nonchalantly reified and dehumanized as a thing ( coisa). Manuel reduces human relations to mere consumption not even of her physical beauty (which has been denied in the description of A-Chan), but her 'Orientalness' of being slave-like and submissive. }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Christina Miu Bing Cheng|title=Macau: a cultural Janus|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Gr51C1eS1oC&q=portuguese+poem+tanka+girl&pg=PA170|access-date=2012-03-01 |edition=illustrated |year=1999 |publisher=Hong Kong University Press|isbn=962-209-486-4 |page=170 |quote=We can trace this fleeting and shallow relationship in Henrique de Senna Fernandes' short story, A-Chan, A Tancareira, (Ah Chan, the Tanka Girl) (1978). Senna Fernandes (1923-), a Macanese, had written a series of novels set against the context of Macau and some of which were made into films.}}</ref> 

In the midst of the [[Manila Galleon]] trade, a small number of Latinos settled in the ports of Macau in China and [[Ternate]] in Indonesia which were secondary connecting trade nodes to the primary trade-route between [[Manila, Philippines]] and [[Acapulco, Mexico]]. They intermarried with the Portuguese settlers and Asian settlers. The first Latin American Asians were mostly [[Mexicans]] and to a lesser extent, [[Colombians]] and [[Peruvians]] who made their way to Asia, mainly the Philippines, in the 16th century. The Latin-Americans who were sent to the Philippines and Macau from the Spanish colonies in America were often [[Mulattoes]], [[Mestizos]] and Indios ([[Amerindians]]).<ref>[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16086/16086-h/16086-h.htm Letter from Fajardo to Felipe III From Manila, August 15 1620.(From the Spanish Archives of the Indies)]</ref> 

Following the [[Shimabara Rebellion]] in 1638, about 400 Japanese Christians were officially deported to Macau or to the Spanish Philippines, and thousands more were pressured into voluntary exile. Among those Japanese Catholic refugees, many were fluent in Portuguese, even intermarried with Portuguese settlers & already existing Macanese settlers.

{{Main|Women in Vietnam#European rule}}

Much of the business conducted with foreign men in Vietnam was done by the local Vietnamese women, who engaged in both sexual and mercantile intercourse with foreign male traders. A Portuguese and Malay-speaking Vietnamese woman who lived in Macao for an extensive period of time interpreted for the first diplomatic meeting between Cochin-China and a Dutch delegation. She served as an interpreter for three decades in the Cochin-China court, with an old woman who had been married to three husbands, one Vietnamese and two Portuguese.<ref>{{cite book |last=Reid |first=Anthony |date=1990 |title=Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680: The lands below the winds |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lqyJViWXkVsC&pg=PA165 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |edition=illustrated, reprint, revised |volume=1 of Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce, 1450–1680 |page=165 |isbn=978-0-300-04750-9 |access-date=10 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=MacLeod |editor1-first=Murdo J. |editor2-last=Rawski |editor2-first=Evelyn Sakakida|date=1998 |title=European Intruders and Changes in Behaviour and Customs in Africa, America, and Asia Before 1800 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-CmAAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Ashgate |edition=illustrated, reprint |volume=30 of An Expanding World, the European Impact on World History, 1450–1800, Vol 30 |issue=Issue 30 of An expanding world |page=636 |isbn=978-0-86078-522-4 |access-date=10 December 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Hughes |editor1-first=Sarah S.|editor2-last=Hughes |editor2-first=Brady |date=1995 |title=Women in World History: Readings from prehistory to 1500 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05WyAAAAIAAJ |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |edition=illustrated |volume=1 of Sources and studies in world history |page=219 |isbn=978-1-56324-311-0 |access-date=10 December 2014}}</ref> The cosmopolitan exchange was facilitated by the marriage of Vietnamese women to Portuguese merchants. Those Vietnamese women were married to Portuguese men and lived in Macao, which is how they became fluent in Malay and Portuguese.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tingley |first=Nancy |editor=Asia Society. Museum |others=Andreas Reinecke, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |date=2009 |title=Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=G6M0AQAAIAAJ |publisher=Asia Society |edition=illustrated |page=249 |isbn=978-0-300-14696-7 |access-date=10 December 2014 }}</ref>

[[File:Macanese senhora.jpg|thumb|A Macanese ''senhora'' in her traditional attire, the dó, early 20th century]]
During the late-nineteenth century, and increasingly during [[António de Oliveira Salazar|Salazar]]'s fascist [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Estado Novo]] regime, the upbringing of most Macanese fell along the lines of the continental Portuguese – attending Portuguese schools, participating in mandatory military service (some fought in Africa) and practising the [[Catholic]] faith. As recently as the 1980s, most Macanese had not received formal Chinese schooling and could speak but not read or write Chinese.  Spoken [[Cantonese]] was largely familiar, and some spoke the language with a regional accent (鄉下話) – acquired largely from their mothers or amahs.<ref>Of interest is the role that the amah plays in Macanese society. It is well known that local Cantonese women were often hired by the Catholic Church in Macau to act as wet-nurses for orphans in the Church's charge. These women were also hired by Macanese families to clean their houses, cook meals and care for their children. It is in these early encounters that Macanese children are first introduced to the Cantonese language and culture. Families are known to keep long-standing friendships with their amahs and in the past, young brides would sometimes bring them along with them to their new home. Nowadays Filipinas fill the role. cf. Soares, José Caetano (1950), ''Macau e a Assistência (Panorama médico-social)'', Lisbon, Agência Geral das Colónias Divisão de Publicações e Biblioteca, and Jorge, Edith de (1993), ''The Wind Amongst the Ruins: A childhood in Macao'', New York: Vantage Press.</ref>

Since Portuguese settlement in Macau – dating from 1557 – included a strong Catholic presence, a number of Chinese converted to Catholicism. A large number of Macanese can trace their roots to these New Christians. Many of these Chinese were assimilated into the Macanese community, dropping their Chinese surnames and adopting Portuguese surnames.  In the collective Macanese folk memory, there is a little ditty about the parish of St. Lazarus Parish, called 進教圍, where these Chinese converts lived: 進教圍, 割辮仔, 唔係姓念珠 (Rosário)　就係姓玫瑰 (Rosa). 

Hence, it is surmised that many Macanese with surnames of [[Rosario (surname)|Rosario]] or [[Rosa (surname)|Rosa]] probably were of Chinese ancestry.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}  Because of this, there are many Eurasians carrying Portuguese surnames Rosario, Rosa, and others that are not Portuguese-blooded may be mistaken by others as Portuguese-blooded, and Eurasians of Portuguese blood carrying Portuguese surnames trace their Portuguese blood on their maternal side.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} 

A visit to the St Michael the Archangel Cemetery (Cemitério São Miguel Arcanjo), the main Catholic cemetery near the St. Lazarus Parish, would reveal gravestones with a whole spectrum of Chinese and Portuguese heritage: Chinese with Portuguese baptised names with or without Portuguese surnames, Portuguese married with Chinese Catholics, and so on.

The mid-twentieth century, with the outbreak of the Second World War in the Pacific and the retreat of the Republic of China to Taiwan, saw the Macanese population surge through the re-integration of two disparate Macanese communities: the Hong Kong Macanese and the Shanghai Macanese.  With the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in 1941, the Macanese population, escaping the occupation, made its way to Macau as refugees. These Macanese, including many skilled workers and civil servants, were fluent in English and Portuguese and brought valuable commercial and technical skills to the colony. 

Another distinct group within the Macanese community is the 上海葡僑; the descendants of Portuguese settlers from Shanghai that acted as middlemen between other foreigners and the Chinese in the "Paris of the Orient". They emigrated from Shanghai to Macau in 1949 with the coming of the communist forces. Many spoke little Portuguese and were several generations removed from Portugal, speaking primarily English and Shanghainese, and/or Mandarin. The Shanghai Macanese carved a niche by teaching English in Macau. Only the children and grandchildren of Shanghainese settlers who were born and raised in Macau have the ability to speak Portuguese.

A number of Macanese also emigrated during the [[Carnation Revolution]] and Macau's handover to the People's Republic of China, respectively. Most potential emigrants looked to Brazil, Portugal's African territories, and Australia.

===Post-colonial period ===
Beginning with the post-1974 independence of other Portuguese colonies and hastened by Macau's return to China, the Macanese community began to lose its Portuguese heritage. Many Portuguese, Eurasians and Chinese who were loyal to the Portuguese left after its return to China. Of those that remained, many children – including those of pure Chinese descent – switched from Portuguese- to English-medium high school education, particularly as many of parents recognised the diminishing value of Portuguese schooling. Many Macanese people of mixed ancestry since Portuguese time never speak Portuguese and speak only Cantonese as their first language; if other Macanese people of mixed ancestry speak Portuguese, they speak it as a second language, affected by a Cantonese accent.<ref>An example of these is Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes:<br>{{cite magazine|author=Crowell, Todd|url=http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/99/1224/sr.macanese.html|title=A Proud People|magazine=[[Asia Week]]|date=1999-12-24|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010128202000/http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/99/1224/sr.macanese.html|archive-date=2001-01-28|quote=Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Julie's 33-year-old niece, is perhaps more typical of the younger generation. Her father was Macanese and her mother Chinese. "I grew up more in contact with the Chinese than the Portuguese community," she says. Indeed, a major family decision was whether to send Fernandes, above, to a Portuguese-speaking school or an English one; her parents decided that the latter would give her more advantages. Fernandes didn't even learn to speak Portuguese until she was an adult and went to work for the government, where she is currently deputy director of the Macau Tourist Office. She then took private lessons to bring her Portuguese up to speed, though she probably finds her fluency in Mandarin and Cantonese more useful. The Macanese dialect? "I don't feel the urge to learn patúa," she says. Maria's husband is Chinese, which means that her children will be even further removed from their Portuguese ancestry. That doesn't bother her. "A lot of people look on me as Chinese; I blend in." For her, she says, the handover means business as usual.}}</ref> 

At the same time, Macanese of pure Portuguese descent are also learning Cantonese and Mandarin to be able to communicate to non-Portuguese-speaking Chinese. Today, most Macanese – if they are still young enough – would go back to study to read and write Chinese.{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}} Many see a niche role for fluent speakers of [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Cantonese]] and [[Standard Mandarin|Mandarin]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2009}} [[Code-switching]] between Portuguese, Cantonese, and Mandarin among native speakers is common. In the 1980s, Macanese or Portuguese women began to marry men who identified themselves as Chinese.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SDvOJRO7qu8C&pg=PA165|title=InteBetween China and Europe: person, culture and emotion in Macao|author=Gary João de Pina-Cabral|year=2002|publisher=Berg Publishers|page=165|isbn=0-8264-5749-5|access-date=2010-07-14}}</ref>

== Macanese identity dispute ==
There is some dispute around the exact meaning of "Macanese". An essay by Marreiros offers a broad spectrum of "Macanese types", ranging from Chinese Christian converts who live among the Portuguese to the descendants of old-established families of Portuguese lineage; all groups are integrated into this historically legitimated group.<ref name=marr94/> 

As a general rule, it is not a point of reference for ethnic Chinese living and raised in Macau. They often identify themselves as Chinese or Chinese from Macau. "Macanese" is applied to those people who have been acculturated through Western education and religion and are recognized by the Macanese community as being Macanese.<ref>There are many pretenders who have claimed to be Macanese. Although one's ethnic identity is a personal project, ultimately, any claim to a Macanese identity is either accepted or refuted by the already existing Macanese community on criteria dependent upon shared cultural heritage and collective notions (these criteria shift with each emerging generation). As Turner and later Bhabka suggest, identity is a layering of experiences unraveled through contact with others and is only decipherable within the social sphere. There are limits to a Macanese identity, and Pina-Cabral and Lourenço (op. cit.), offer a broad-based definition delineated by family and community acceptance as two basic denominators for a tentative definition of the Macanese.</ref>

Traditionally, the basis for Macanese ethnic affiliation has been the use of the Portuguese language at home or some alliances with Portuguese cultural patterns and not solely determined along hereditary lines. Pina-Cabral and Lourenço suggest that this goal is reached "namely through the Portuguese-language school-system".<ref>Pina-Cabral and Lourenço (1993). Tentatively, language is not so much a key determinant to Macanese identity, but rather the alliance with the Portuguese cultural system that knowing Portuguese entails. A great number of Macanese families of Hong Kong only speak English but are still considered Macanese. Along these lines, knowledge of Portuguese is preferably – but not absolutely necessary – for a Macanese identity. It should be mentioned, however, that Portuguese language use is only one of several criteria that are used by other Macaense to determine other Macanese, not the sole determinant.</ref> Often, due to the close proximity to the Portuguese, the Macanese closely identify themselves with Portuguese nationals as opposed to Chinese in the bi-cultural and bi-racial equation. In practice, being Macanese is left up to how individuals categorize themselves.

In the mid-1990s, there had been attempts by the Macau government to redefine the Macanese to be everyone born in Macau regardless of ethnicity, language or nationality.<ref>{{cite book |title=[[Sovereignty at the Edge: Macau & the Question of Chineseness]]|first= Cathryn H. |last=Clayton |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=2alTUjb6SX8C&pg=PA110 110]–[https://books.google.com/books?id=2alTUjb6SX8C&pg=PA113 113] |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |date=2010|isbn=978-0674035454 }}</ref>  Since the re-integration of Macau with the People's Republic of China in late 1999, the traditional definitions are in a state of re-formulation.<ref>Shifting, not in the sense of deconstruction of the identity definition, but a re-formulation of the definition as each rising generation dictates. The current generation is looking toward the transition and finding themselves deciding upon their cultural/identity alignments. However, as Pina-Cabral and Lourenço explain, this is the nature of the Macanese community.</ref> Given the shifting political climate of Macau, some Macanese are coming to recognize and identify closer with a Chinese heritage.

This ambiguity might be reduced by the further adjective [[Creole peoples|crioulo]].

==Prominent Macanese==
{{see also|Category:Macanese people|Category:Hong Kong people of Portuguese descent}}

===Arts and letters===
* [[José dos Santos Ferreira]] – poet
* 江道蓮 [[Deolinda da Conceição]] – journalist/writer
* 飛歷奇 [[Henrique de Senna Fernandes]] – lawyer/writer

===Entertainment and sports===
* 李嘉欣 [[Michelle Reis|Michelle Monique Reis]] – [[Miss Hong Kong Pageant|Miss Hong Kong]] 1988, socialite and actress
* 肥媽 [[Maria Cordero]] – singer/actress
* [[Alexander Lee (entertainer)|Alexander Lee]], [[U-KISS]] former member and now a solo artist.
* 羅利期 [[Joe Junior]] (actual name: Jose Maria Rodrigues Jr.) – veteran singer & TV actor
* 梁洛施 [[Isabella Leong|Luísa Isabella Nolasco da Silva Leong Lok-yau]] – Hong Kong-based actress, singer, and model
* [[Issy Wong|Isabelle Eleanor Chih Ming Wong]] - British-Macanese Cricketer.

===Politics, military and business===
* [[Colonel]] [[Vicente Nicolau de Mesquita]], a commander of a group of 36 Portuguese soldiers, who won the [[Baishaling Incident|battle of Passaleão]], which was fought near the [[Portas do Cerco]], against 400 Chinese soldiers, on August 25, 1849.
* 羅保 Sir [[Rogerio Hyndman Lobo|Roger Lobo]], a businessman, former [[Hong Kong Legislative Council]] member and former [[Urban Council]] member, from the well known Macau's Lobo family.
* [[Pedro Nolasco da Silva]], writer, translator, teacher, civil servant and politician.
* 沙利士 [[Arnaldo de Oliveira Sales]], former member and chairman of the [[Urban Council]], former president of the [[Olympic Committee of Hong Kong]] and former president of the Club Lusitano de Hong Kong.
* [[José Pedro Braga]] – manager of the ''[[Hongkong Telegraph]]'' between 1902 and 1910, chairman of [[China Light and Power Company]] in 1934 and 1938 and the first Portuguese member of the [[Legislative Council of Hong Kong]], between 1929 and 1937.
* 黎婉華 Clementina Leitão, deceased wife of [[Stanley Ho]]. Also a member of one of pre-WWII Macau's wealthiest families
* 陳麗敏 [[Florinda da Rosa Silva Chan]], current [[Secretariat for Administration and Justice (Macau)|Secretary for Administration and Justice]]
* 高天賜 [[José Pereira Coutinho]], jurist, Counselor of the Portuguese Communities, President of New Hope a pro-democracy party in Macau, President of Macau Civil Servants Association and Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of Macau
* 羅立文 [[Raimundo Arrais do Rosário]], current [[Secretariat for Transport and Public Works (Macau)|Secretary for Transport and Public Works]]

===Others===
* 畢美娜, 畢嘉寶, 畢嘉麗, 畢美淇 Guilhermina, Geraldina, Isabela and Guiomar Pedruco, four sisters from the Pedruco family who won [[Miss Macau]] beauty pageant in 1989, 1995, 1993 and 1996 respectively.

==See also==
*[[Kristang people]]
*[[Macau people]]
*[[Indian diaspora]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Amaro, Ana Maria (1989). ''O Traje da Mulher Macaense, Da Saraca ao Do das Nhonhonha de Macau''.  Macau: Instituto Cultural de Macau.
* Amaro, Ana Maria (1993).  ''Filhos da Terra''.  Macau:  Instituto Cultural de Macau.
* Dicks, Anthony R. (1984).  "Macao: Legal Fiction and Gunboat Diplomacy" in ''Leadership on the China Coast'', Goran Aijmer (editor), London: Curzon Press, pp.&nbsp;101–102.
* Guedes, João (1991).  ''As seitas: histôrias do crime e da política em Macau''. Macau: Livros do Oriente.
* Marreiros, Carlos (1994).  "Alliances for the Future" in ''Review of Culture'' No. 20 July/September (English Edition), 162–172.
* Pina Cabral, João de (2002).  ''Between China and Europe: Person, Culture and Emotion in Macao''.  New York and London:  Berg (Continuum Books) – London School Monographs in Social Antrhropology 74.
* Pina Cabral, João de, and Nelson Lourenço (1993).  ''Em Terra de Tufões: Dinâmicas da Etnicidade Macaense''. Macau:  Instituto Cultural de Macau.
* Porter, Jonathan (1996). ''Macau, the imaginary city: culture and society, 1557 to the present''.  Boulder: Westview Press.
* Teixeira, Manuel (1965).  ''Os Macaenses''.  Macau: Imprensa Nacional.
* Watts, Ian (1997). "Neither Meat nor Fish: Three Macanse Women in the Transition" in ''Macau and Its Neighbors toward the 21st Century''.  Macau:  University of Macau.

==External links==
*{{cite magazine|author=Crowell, Todd|url=http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/99/1224/sr.macanese.html|title=A Proud People|magazine=[[Asia Week]]|date=1999-12-24|url-status=bot: unknown|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010128202000/http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/magazine/99/1224/sr.macanese.html|archive-date=2001-01-28}}
*{{cite web|author=McGivering, Jill|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/279196.stm|title=Macao: Mediterranean life in the East|work=[[BBC]]|date=1999-02-13}}

{{Han subgroups}}
{{Immigration to the People's Republic of China}}
{{Portuguese diaspora}}
{{Multiethnicity}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Macanese people| ]]
[[Category:Society of Macau]]
[[Category:Multiracial affairs in Asia]]
[[Category:European diaspora in China]]
[[Category:Portuguese colonisation in Asia]]
[[Category:Portuguese diaspora in Asia]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in China]]