Zhidong Hao's book uses the past as a method to explain Macau's present as well as to suggest ways the enclave can create a better future. Hao makes use of Chinese historical material along with the growing Chinese language literature that has appeared since the early 1990s but does not use Portuguese sources that are helpful for understanding Portuguese views and myths surrounding Macau. Still, Hao has been able to put together a valuable work using the Chinese and English literature.
The book is composed of an introduction, eight substantive chapters, a brief chronicle of events in Macau's history, and a bibliography. The initial chapter mentions K. C. Fok's “Macau formula”: the Chinese decision to confine foreigners' activities to a small area on the southern frontier which allowed some Chinese, Portuguese, and eventually other Westerners to derive a profit. This solution was able to take root in Macau because Portuguese power was never strong enough to seriously upset this balance. Hao does not completely view Fok's idea as something new but more as a sort of rewording of the idea “using barbarians to control barbarians” (yiyi zhiyi). Parenthetically, this solution has parallels with early Western contact in Nagasaki, Japan. As time went by, the positions of the Chinese and the Portuguese did vacillate but overall remained in relative balance in Macau. This idea, which in various forms has been discussed by scholars at least as early as C. R. Boxer, becomes an organizing principal of Hao's book.
Other chapters deal with Macau's politics, economy, social interactions, religion, literature and the arts. Each tries to look at the impact of history on contemporary Macau. Hao addresses the idea of separation of political sovereignty from administration in Macau – a concept he sees as a straw horse employed at times by both the Chinese and the Portuguese to explain the vague shared power relationship until 1999. He describes how limited democracy grew slowly over the centuries in Macau, concluding that this Special Autonomous Region still has a long, long way to go. Macau's earlier economic history is discussed in terms of guns and cannon, opium, and the coolie trade while the post-Opium War section concentrates on fishing, the rise of capitalist class, and gambling. The division is somewhat artificial as many activities transcend both periods. Most of the contemporary discussion talks only of the gambling industry.
When discussing social interaction, Hao puts his arguments in the context of Samuel P. Huntington's clash of civilizations. Hao uses the writings of individual Chinese to show an ambivalent view of admiration for technology and culture of the West along with distrust and xenophobia. Quoting many British, American and French writers, Hao sees the Western view of Chinese as a mirror imagine. His discussion of Chinese views of the West goes well beyond Chinese in Macau. This is not unreasonable as the Chinese population grew proportionately over the centuries and Macau was constantly being replenished by new in-migrants from inland China. The Macanese community is explored, although not really much is new that cannot be found in existing literature. In the end, Hao argues, the Macau model failed and the ways to cross social barriers are to find commonalities, preserve some differences and yet be integrated into a new common culture. This is easier said than done.
Chinese religious impact is dealt with largely through architecture whereas Western religions are discussed both in terms of architectural and intellectual legacy for all China. The discussion of literature and the arts continues Hao's themes of clash, the Macau model, and their roles in the transformation of Macau society. The text concentrates on Chinese literature of Macau from the Ming and Qing, the Chinese literature and arts of Macau, as well as Portuguese, English, German and French poems and paintings in and about Macau. Again, the Opium Wars are seen as a divide with a bitterness arising in Chinese writing on Macau that further increased during the Republican period. In sum, Hao finds that artistic skills have not been interchanged much between Chinese and Westerners in Macau.
The last two chapters focus on contemporary Macau. Gender problems, class inequalities, gambling addiction, lack of an overall education policy, and labour relations dominate – all problems with a considerable history. Low wages for menial jobs, lack of protection for workers, employee dissatisfaction with levels of Mandarin, Portuguese and English still plague the society after a decade of Chinese rule. The various education systems continue to fragment Macau society. Environmental problems seem to increase with prosperity as well as due to irrational choices such as neglect of public transit and rapid increase of automobiles. Pollution of the Zhu River delta is not helping. The political culture, moreover, continues to be one of myths such as the idea that Macau society is more tolerant than Hong Kong. Hao mentions surveys that show Macau people are less likely to support free expression of radical views than Hong Kongers.
In the end, Hao wishes the Macau SAR would promote itself as a place of cultural exchange. Yet much of his evidence of the last 400 years suggests that Macau's cultural exchange is a façade like the remains of the São Paulo church. The São Paulo façade is typically described as a merging of Chinese and Portuguese cultures but it was designed by an Italian in an Italianate design with much of the labour undertaken by Japanese. The façade itself is a mix of Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Chinese imagery. Rather than building its own new culture as Hao advocates, more likely Macau will continue to be buffeted by the winds of power that surround it.
