Saving Macau’s dying language

Macau is best known today for its casinos, but 20 years ago, it was a colony governed by the Portuguese, who had been there for over 400 years. Many of the Portuguese traders married Chinese women, and their children developed their own distinct food, culture, and language.

But now this mixed-race group, known as the Macanese, makes up less than 1 percent of Macau’s population, and their language, Patuá, is dying.

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Written, Produced, and Voiced by: Venus Wu
Shot by: Mario Chui
Edited by: Mario Chui and Nicholas Ko
Animated by: Ray Ngan
Mastered by: Victor Peña

Music: Audio Network

#macanese #macau #dyinglanguage

Meet Aida de Jesus.

She's 103 years old.

Aida: I don't like to feel so old.

I like to feel only 80.

(Laughing)

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.

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.

To 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.

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 more.

Young people don't speak much Patuà.

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: It's a hidden population
because it's scattered.

With the rise of social media,

many have maintained their ties.

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: For me, every single day,
almost I get people "Wow,

(Cantonese) you speak
Cantonese really well!"

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.

Sergio: 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.

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.

Aida: You're going to do your nails?

Sonia: She's going to do her nails.

Thanks for watching.

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Subtitles by barb_emm
Review by Carol Wang