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Yes there are still Portuguese in Macau of course. They didn't all go back to Portugal. Some of them stayed especially the ones who were born there. There are also some Portuguese who left Macau before and came back because of bad economy in Portugal. I have some Portuguese friends who came back to Macau.
The Portuguese language is alive with the Portuguese people and with Brasilians and Portuguese speaking Africans.
Not JUST Portugese who never left, and not JUST those who've come back.
But, NEW arrivals from Portugal, people who have never lived in Macau previously.
The Portuguese I met in Macau, were saying that more Portuguese live in Macau now, than did during Portuguese ownership. Many of them new arrivals. (Still a small percentage compared to Cantonese though).
But, essentially, every year, the increase of new arrivals from Portugual seem to keep outnumbering the arrivals from the year before. I think this has been occurring consistently since Macau has gone to China. When you think about it though, if you were a Portuguese-speaking person interested in Asia, there are few better places to be than Macau. Even moreso since it still operates under Portuguese Law, and will continue to do until 2059.
Not JUST Portugese who never left, and not JUST those who've come back.
But, NEW arrivals from Portugal, people who have never lived in Macau previously.
The Portuguese I met in Macau, were saying that more Portuguese live in Macau now, than did during Portuguese ownership. Many of them new arrivals. (Still a small percentage compared to Cantonese though).
But, essentially, every year, the increase of new arrivals from Portugual seem to keep outnumbering the arrivals from the year before. I think this has been occurring consistently since Macau has gone to China. When you think about it though, if you were a Portuguese-speaking person interested in Asia, there are few better places to be than Macau. Even moreso since it still operates under Portuguese Law, and will continue to do until 2059.
That's an interesting phenomenon. Macau is essentially a small first world enclave in a region of mostly developing countries, so yea, this does make sense. I guess th recession in portugal would have encouraged more emigration. I wonder what the immgration policies for portuguese going to macau is like. For a territory as small as Macau with only half a million people, relatively small surges of immigrants can change the overall composition of the population pretty quickly.
Chinese people are not interested in foreign languages. My parents learned Russian in school but they forget almost everything. After all, it is a country with 1.3 billion people and most of them never talk to any foreigner in their entire life.
They also consider colonial history a shame, absolutely not something to brag about. So there is no motivation for them to maintain a colonial culture.
They are not Chinese, they are Macanese. Nobody asked them if they wanted to be Chinese, the Chicoms forced Portugal to return Portuguese land without consulting the inhabitants.
Likewise the people in Hong Kong do not consider themselves Chinese ... most Hong Kongese would rather return to being British than be Chinese. There is a growing movement for independence from China.
Not JUST Portugese who never left, and not JUST those who've come back.
But, NEW arrivals from Portugal, people who have never lived in Macau previously.
The Portuguese I met in Macau, were saying that more Portuguese live in Macau now, than did during Portuguese ownership. Many of them new arrivals. (Still a small percentage compared to Cantonese though).
But, essentially, every year, the increase of new arrivals from Portugual seem to keep outnumbering the arrivals from the year before. I think this has been occurring consistently since Macau has gone to China. When you think about it though, if you were a Portuguese-speaking person interested in Asia, there are few better places to be than Macau. Even moreso since it still operates under Portuguese Law, and will continue to do until 2059.
Strange because when Portugal was still very poor, they emigrated a lot ( France, Switzerland, Africa, Venezuela and Canada ). There should have been more Portuguese emigrating to Macau before since there was so much emigration before than now and especially because Macau was still Portuguese before, however, Angola and Mocambique are not colonies any more but there are still Portuguese going there up to now. I also heard, there are job vacancies for Portuguese in Timor.
Anyway, I don't know if there will really be more in Macau in the near future, but in the Portuguese Embassy for so many times that I was there, I can say out of 50 people trying to get passports/ ID or other documents, only 3-5 are Portuguese, maybe 3 Africans while the rest are Macanese.
They are not from Portugal and their ethnicity is not Portuguese. They are Indians from Goa and they didn't grow up in Portugal but in Goa. That time when I met them, they also just got there, so it amazed me that they speak fluent Portuguese.
I know about Portuguese people being fluent in their language no matter where they are from.
Thank you for clarifying that. But there will always be a lingering older generation that reflects an earlier cultural attribute, which nearly always diminishes through attrition. Officially, according to the Indian census, fewer than 4% of the population of the State of Goa list Portuguese as their principal language. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goa#Languages
Many, of course, CAN still speak Portuguese, but few do with any regularity. And of course, if they resettle in Portugal, they will resume daily use of the language.
To be sure, there have been a few cases where a language is able to survive in spite of administrative changes. French in Mauritius is a good example -- it remains the principal tongue of the people, even though French colonialism was replaced there by the Brit8sh more than 200 years ago and the majority of the population are of immigrant stock from Asia. But it is unlikely that Macao's Portuguese will follow that model.
They are not Chinese, they are Macanese. Nobody asked them if they wanted to be Chinese, the Chicoms forced Portugal to return Portuguese land without consulting the inhabitants.
Likewise the people in Hong Kong do not consider themselves Chinese ... most Hong Kongese would rather return to being British than be Chinese. There is a growing movement for independence from China.
Not true. Some mainland Chinese want to be Americans/Canadians/British/... too, but that does not represent the population. Many people in Macau and Hong Kong dislike China government, so do people in mainland China. However, most of them consider themselves Chinese.
If you can read Chinese you may visit their local websites. When they bash mainland Chinese, they use the word 大陸人 (mainlanders) or 內地人 (inlanders), but they don't attack 中國人 (Chinese) because they also accept the title, except for some extremists.
During the Olympic games, I visited some Hong Kong forums and all of them support team China, not Britain.
They are not Chinese, they are Macanese. Nobody asked them if they wanted to be Chinese, the Chicoms forced Portugal to return Portuguese land without consulting the inhabitants.
Likewise the people in Hong Kong do not consider themselves Chinese ... most Hong Kongese would rather return to being British than be Chinese. There is a growing movement for independence from China.
They can be in denial all they want... doesn't change the fact that when the sun rises, they're still Chinese.
For what it's worth, from my experience in Macao, more people understand English than Portuguese. Since I knew a bit of Portuguese when I was there, and can't recall ever using it. And maybe even more speak Tagalog.
This chart appears on the Wikipage on Macao:
Residents' usual
language spoken at home
Language Percentage of
population
Cantonese 85.7%
Other forms of Chinese 6.7%
Portuguese 0.6%
Mandarin 3.2%
English 1.5%
Others 2.3%
Macao will just lag a couple of decades behind Goa, in India, where you would be hard pressed to find a single person today who can speak Portuguese.
The older generation speak Portguese quite fluently. The younger generation turned their back on the Portguese language. Fueled by nationalism, the atrocities committed by the Goan Inquisition which lasted 400 yrs, lack of educational support, etc.....all of which contributed to it its lack of interest/demise.
Portuguese language and culture is fading out in macau.
Chinese people in macau dislike the portuguese people. People prefer learning english than learning portuguese. Macau people knows Portugal is a weak country unlike China, US and UK.
Portuguese people visiting macau find the city very Chinese except the history.
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