Narrator: Meet Aida de Jesus.
She's 103 years old.
Aida de Jesus: I don't like to feel so old.
I like to feel only 80.
(Laughing)
Narrator: Aida is from Macau,
a Chinese city that was formerly colonized by Portugal for 400 years.
She and her daughter Sonia are among the few people
who still speak Patuà,
a critically endangered language that is unique to Macau.
[Preserving a fading identity]
Here's a local music video with subtitles in four languages:
Patuà, Cantonese, Portuguese and English.
You can see how Patuà mixes the languages of places
along the Portuguese trade route in the 16th century.
(Patua)(Singing)
[Marathi]
[Malay&Portuguese]
[Cantonese]
Sonia: So, in school in our days,
they kind of didn't like us to speak Patuà,
because they used to say that it is not the real Portuguese.
Narrator: Aida and Sonia are Macau locals of mixed Portuguese-Chinese ancestry.
They are the Macanese,
and they make up less than 1% of the city
that is over 90% Chinese.
Sonia: You can say it's a dying race.
NarratorTo understand Aida's community,
we first have to understand her city, Macau,
which is an hour's ferry ride away from Hong Kong.
It has rapidly developed over the last few decades,
and is now known as the world's largest casino town,
raking in five times as much money as Las Vegas.
This is thanks, in part,
to the Portuguese legalizing gambling in the 1800s.
So when Portugal returned Macau to China 20 years ago,
it became the only place in the country where gambling was legal.
Many Portuguese left after World War II
and an anti-Portuguese riot in the '60s,
but you can still spot signs of portuguese influence all over the city.
Chinese and Portuguese are the official languages,
and colonial buildings are protected Unesco heritage sites.
And just outside the city center
is Aida and Sonia's traditional Macanese restaurant.
Sonia: When the Portuguese married the Chinese wives
they tried to cook as close as possible to the Portuguese food.
But in those days, they didn't have so much Portuguese ingredients,
so they tried to put some Chinese ingredients into it,
and that's how the Macanese food started.
In our restaurant, our signature dish is minchi.
It's a very simple dish.
It's made of minced pork.
Another signature dish is pato cabidela.
Of course, in Portugal they also have cabidela.
It's made of duck blood mixed with vinegar.
Narrator: Unesco calls Macau "the home of the first fusion food",
and also recognizes the Macanese language, Patuà, as a dying language,
with only 50 speakers left.
Aida: Patuà, before, my grandmother spoke it more.
Young people don't speak much Patuà.
Narrator: Although there are only 4,000 Macanese left in Macau,
one study suggests there could be over 1.5 million of them around the world.
Roy Xavier: It's a hidden population because it's scattered.
With the rise of social media,
many of them have maintained their ties.
Narrator: The diaspora is even invited to visit Macau every three years.
But those who remain in Macau feel
they have to fight to preserve their culture and identity.
They have been in Macau for generations,
but they are often mistaken for foreigners in their own land.
Sergio Perez: For me, every single day, almost I get people "Wow,
(Cantonese) you speak Cantonese really well!"
Narrator: That's Sergio Perez, a 39-year-old Macanese filmmaker
who made the music video you saw earlier.
That music video features an amateur theatre troupe
that's trying to preserve the language
by staging a Patuà play every year.
SP: Old Macau people, they definitely know about Macanese.
Sometimes, they might think I'm a foreigner,
but the moment I start speaking,
they really know "Okay, this guy is Macanese."
I do feel the younger generation, they don't know much about the Macanese.
N: Sonia, who co-funded the theatre troupe in the '90s, says she'll keep it going.
Sonia: I think we are doing something good.
Although it's a dying language, we kind of preserve it for 25 years,
and we hope to continue.
AJ: You're going to do your nails?
Sonia: She's going to do her nails.
N: Thanks for watching.
If you like this video,
We have more stories about culture and identity.
Check them out and subscribe to Goldthread.
Subtitles by barb_emm Review by Carol Wang