[MUSIC]
Meet Aida de Jesus. She's 103 years old.
I don't like to feel so old. I like to feel only 80.
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.
[MUSIC]
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.
[MUSIC]
When I was in school, in our days
they didn't like us to speak Patuà,
because they used to say that it is not real Portuguese.
Aida and Sonia are Macau locals
of mixed Portuguese-Chinese ancestry.
They are the Macanese, and they make up
less than 1% of a city that is over 90% Chinese.
You can say it's a dying race.
To understand Aida's community, we first have to understand her city, Macau,
which is an hour 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 sfter 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.
When the Portuguese married Chinese wives
they tried to cook as close as possible to 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 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.
Unesco calls Macau "the home of the first fusion food",
and also recognizes the Macabese language, Patuà, as a dying language,
with only 50 speakers left.
Patuà, before, my grandmother spoke it more.
Young people don't speak much Patuà.