By Augusto Villalon
Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines–Macau is a place of many contradictory realities, all happening simultaneously and almost independently of each other. Confined within a total area of around 25 sq km, the Chinese fishing village and former Portuguese colony is established today as the 21st-century gaming capital of Asia, its future anchored on the massive numbers of visitors attracted by its booming casinos.

Macau is a city in perpetual motion. Las Vegas-type casinos continually pump cash throughout the day and night into already fully loaded city coffers. Money, lots of it, and everything that newly earned wealth can buy is everywhere in abundant Macau today.

“The more the better” is the feeling that new Macau generates, and Macau definitely keeps gathering up more and more of everything.

Once confined to small peninsula and its two adjoining islands, land reclamation has continually expanded Macau boundaries. Never has reclamation been carried out as in today’s grand, massive and absolutely obsessive scale, it seems that the hunger for more land cannot be sated.

Aggressive reclamation rapidly opens new areas, giving the feeling of incessantly feeding Macau’s compulsion to construct more shimmering architectural trophies and casinos, while improving existing public facilities and housing for local residents.

Macau is clearly on a roll.

Reclamation

The reclamation centerpiece is the Cotai Strip where huge casinos and high-rise hotels, some already under construction, stand side by side on wide boulevards, planned as an Asian Las Vegas, an improved version of the original Strip.

New Cotai casinos play the game of architecturally one-upping the neighboring competition with flamboyant super “glitz-and-glitter” structures that follow the dictum that “bigger is always best.” So think of what Las Vegas looks like today as Macau leaves it behind in the dust. Macau will just be bigger and best.

Once Cotai is fully developed, Macau improves its present image of being a vibrant, pulsating city with money coming and going into its many casinos and shops, a strong tourism magnet for China and the region.

On the opposite spectrum of “bigger and better” and “glitz-and-glitter” architecture, Macau pays special attention to its old buildings and streetscapes, recognizing heritage as another resource to add to the tourism picture.

Macau heritage is unique in the region. Centuries of Chinese-Portuguese interaction is so evident in every phase of Macau life, from language to religion, arts, cuisine and urbanscapes, that make it stand out in the region as the only city with this type of cultural fusion.

Outstanding program

With the goal of inscribing the center of Macau in the prestigious Unesco World Heritage List, the government established an outstanding program to recuperate its decaying Chinese and colonial heritage.

The heritage values of structures were studied, documented, categorized. Finally significant structures illustrating the “Macau story” were grouped together.

Since it was discovered that most structures were located along a tight road network running through the central Macau area, distinctive street paving was laid out, linking most heritage monuments on a spine of pedestrianized streets, an ingenious and effective urban-planning scheme.

Not only were heritage structures conserved, their urban surroundings were cleaned up and improved to make them stand out better. Parking lots, tourist stalls, badly paved streets and sidewalks around pre-conservation heritage structures were removed, redesigned or replaced with landscaped open spaces, and in some instances existing plazas in front of heritage structures were framed with newly constructed colonnades that hid tourist stalls while allowing them to continue business.

The detailed methods followed by the Macau Cultural Institute satisfied the most exacting internationally upheld requirements of heritage conservation, leading to the inscription of the Historic Center of Macau in the World Heritage List in 2005.

Sophisticated

Very sophisticated is the reuse of Macau heritage structures. Heritage buildings have been converted into offices, shops, boutique hotels and museums.

Also very sophisticated is the way that totally modern structures are grafted onto heritage structures, as seen in the addition at the rear of the landmark Sir Robert Hotung Library. Macau’s reuse program shows an understanding of using heritage to enhance contemporary living.

But if authentic heritage is not enough, Macau has plenty of instant heritage. It is also a heritage fantasyland. New hotels allude to European royalty: a replica of Queen Elizabeth’s carriage is parked outside the front door of one hotel; and in full view of the oversized pseudo monarchial portraits hanging in its mirrored, gilt-encrusted lobby, a pair of Buckingham Palace Guards in full costume march back and forth.

Equally instant and absolute fantasy is Fisherman’s Wharf. On an esplanade jutting out into the water, an enormous development of convention facilities, restaurants, bars, shops all spread around an amusement park with replicas of Vesuvius (which erupts every hour on the hour, spewing fake fire and real smoke with lots of sound effects!), Lhasa’s Potala Palace, Colosseo of Rome, Eiffel Tower of course, and Tower of London.

There are Moorish, Tudor, Portuguese and Chinese Villages, a Wild West area and the Latin Quarter of New Orleans. It’s a place where one can “travel” around an encapsulated world, taste all kinds of “local” cuisine depending on which quarter of Fisherman’s Wharf he is in, and shop away in the tempting collection of high-priced boutiques. A great diversion, Fisherman’s Wharf, and a perfect destination for those looking for that kind of reality.

Too perfect?

On the other hand, the conservation of authentic Macau heritage returns old structures to a state of near perfection, making them appear as if they were constructed yesterday rather than being centuries-old. With most of the patina removed, the conserved structures sometimes appear as brand new as Fisherman’s Wharf recreations.

Do the realities of “new” and “old” and “fantasy and authentic” overlap in Macau?

There is no overlap with continuing traditions in everyday Macau life. Away from the tourist tracks and despite overnight modernization, parents still walk their children to school, shop for supplies in markets, corner shops, or street stalls for fresh produce, slurp bowls of hot noodles on sidewalk stands for a quick lunch, pick up laundry after returning from work, and later, back in their flats, watch television in the evenings.

Buildings in areas like these are not grand, nor are they sparkling clean or new, but they have the character of life. They tell the other half of the Macau story not seen in the casino strip or the heritage walk, the story that behind all the glitz the everyday life of Macau goes on.

Young and old still gather in public parks. Children play while adults do tai chi or practice Chinese opera arias singing under the open air in full voice. I am told that shops specializing in traditional paper lanterns for seasonal Chinese festivals still exist. Craftsmen still fashion birdcages in the old way. Men bring their caged birds to tea shops where birds sing to each other from the safety of their cages while their masters noisily exchange the new gossip of the day.

The other face of Macau is what I want to see next time I go, to experience the personal reality instead of the official tourist version of Macau. On the other hand, there’s a reality check here: walking into personal Macau may be straying off limits, intruding into someone’s home without an invitation.

Where is the demarcation between tourism and community privacy?

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