Macao culture is a part of Chinese culture, and because the Portuguese have lived in Macao for 400 years, it constitutes Macao's unique Macanese culture, and also integrates the unique culture of East and West in terms of language, literature, religion, folk customs, architecture and food. The following follows a walk into Macao's traditional customs, living culture, characteristic culture, opera culture, architectural culture, religious culture, and listen to Nanyin rap; Eat Asian-European-style Macanese cuisine; Learn the culinary skills of Macanese cuisine; Walk the buildings of Macau's historic district... Experience the unique scenery of Macao folk culture.
Macao Living Culture
Dialect culture
Chinese and Portuguese are the current official languages of Macau. Cantonese is commonly used for daily communication, but many residents can also understand Mandarin (Chinese). English is also widely spoken in Macau and can be used in many situations. Macau adopts traditional Chinese Traditional, and because Cantonese dominates society like Hong Kong, the Hong Kong supplementary character set is also adopted by Macau.
Phrases/sayings: Drinking tea - drinking tea? , Monkey Sere - so good, point to understand ——— why, do bleat - what to do, there is a wild ———— is okay, morning - good morning, early call - good night.
Traditional festivals
Macao has a unique festival culture, including traditional Chinese festivals such as Lunar New Year, Land Birthday and Dragon Boat Festival, as well as festivals related to religion and customs, such as Easter, Fatima Icon Parade, Christmas, "Mother's Birthday" and "Drunken Dragon Lion Awakening Festival". For example, setting up a temporary theater studio outdoors to stage Cantonese opera folding plays; Religious masses and iconography outings are held in the church, which fully express the characteristics of the integration of Chinese and Western cultures in the Yanmen. In addition to festivals, Macao hosts a number of large-scale international events every year, such as the Macau Grand Prix, the Macao Arts Festival, the International Fireworks Display Contest and the International Music Festival.
Marriage culture
There are roughly two kinds of marriage ceremonies for Macao people: first, according to the traditional Chinese form, the main connotations of the big gifts such as Na Cai marriage invitation, name blind date, Najib engagement, Na Zheng under appointment, date selection, and catering to relatives are still retained, and the second is that according to the Western form, husband and wife are required to enter the church. Macanese in Macao, some go to the church to hold a Western-style wedding, while others use both Chinese and Western style on the wedding day, first go to the church in the morning to hold a Western-style wedding, and then the groom takes the bride to Coloane Island for a ride in a float, and then sends the bride back to her mother's home; After lunch, the bride changes the white wedding dress into a Chinese dress, while the groom wears a Chinese dress and goes out to take the bride home, and worships heaven and earth, ancestors, and parents in his own hall. After the ceremony, the newlyweds took a car to the restaurant to hold another Chinese-style wedding banquet. It can be said that it is happy and everyone is happy.
Food culture
Macao cuisine incorporates the cooking methods and ingredients of the Guangdong region, as well as the characteristics of Hong Kong, Portugal, India, Africa and Southeast Asia. It combines Asian and European flavors and shows the essence of Eastern and Western cuisine. Using seafood, meat, poultry, fruits and vegetables as raw materials, using a variety of cooking methods such as roasting, roasting, frying and boiling, Macao's unique dishes are cooked, such as Portuguese chicken, green vegetable soup, African chicken, Portuguese fried clams, curry crab and Ma Jiexiu, etc., in addition to Macao's che zai noodles, toast, pork chop full, coffee, milk tea, Portuguese tarts and other snacks are also unique Asian and European cuisine.
Funeral culture
In the 40s of the 20th century and before, the funerals of Chinese in Macao mostly followed traditional Chinese funeral customs. Including burial, funeral funeral entertainment; The custom sacrifice uses seven, that is, seven days after death as a sacrifice, and the sacrifice is seven seven forty-nine days; 100 days is a festival day. On the day of the funeral, the coffin is carried by a bricklayer with drums and bracing, starting from the funeral home, passing through Tiandu Road or Holland Garden Road, must bypass the new road and the deceased family's business or door, and then send to the cemetery. The funeral procession was huge, the mumbles opened the way, and the gongs and drums were noisy. Now the funeral is much simplified, the mine gong has changed to a hearse to carry the coffin, and the family, relatives and friends send the funeral by car, generally holding a memorial ceremony in the funeral home, and then leaving the funeral to the cemetery or cremation.
Traditional Macao drama
Opera
Cantonese opera is a opera sung and chanted in Cantonese, popular in Cantonese dialect areas (mainly including Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macao and other places). Cantonese opera interprets the storyline through the artistic means of singing, doing, reading and fighting, with makeup, costumes, props and gongs and drums, and its expression forms are a combination of literature, drama, quart, dance and martial arts, and its singing, trade, makeup, body and music score are all rich in artistic value. In addition to its pure performing arts, Cantonese opera has social and cultural value as a "divine gong opera" for local religious activities such as paying tribute to the gods and beating the spirits. Cantonese opera was inscribed on the first national representative list of intangible cultural heritage in 2006 and on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009.
Traditional Macao opera art
Macanese Portuguese
The Macanese language of Macao is a language system formed by the Macanese who have settled in Macao for more than 400 years, and its basic vocabulary is based on Portuguese, mixed with Malay, Cantonese, English and Spanish, which can be regarded as a great collection of languages. Through the expression of stage art, the characteristics of multi-language mixing and multilingual structure of this drama are used to make use of cultural differences, intonation, different words and changes in tone, ridicule and satirize in the form of comedy. It is loved and sought after by many Macanese and local Chinese, and maintains the Macao sentiment of Macanese people.
Nanyin raps
"Nanyin rap" is a type of music sung by blind storytellers, which was once popularized in Macao in the 50s of the 20th century and penetrated into the people. Nanyin is generally divided into two categories: "Dishui Nanyin" and "Xitai Nanyin". "Earth water" is a Bu trigram term, and Guangdong refers to the blind as "A Shui", so the Nanyin sung by the blind is called "Earth Water Nanyin". Dishui Nanyin was absorbed into Cantonese opera and Cantonese opera music, becoming "Xitai Nanyin" or "Cantonese Opera Nanyin". "Nanyin Rap" was inscribed on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Macao in 2009 and the List of National Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2011.
Macao folk crafts
Herbal tea preparation
Herbal tea is a popular tea in Guangdong, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and even subtropical regions such as Malaysia and Singapore, often derived from a variety of herbs. In addition to various healing and health care effects, herbal tea can also clear heat and remove humidity, which is very helpful for people living in southern China with humid and hot climate, so herbal tea is mainly spread in southern China. There are many varieties of herbal tea, each with its own unique recipe, so many herbal tea shops that have been in business for many years are operated in a hereditary form, passed down from generation to generation. Common ones are "Twenty Four Flavors", "Five Flowers Tea", "Sydney Tea", "Chicken Bone Grass", "Summer Mulberry Ju", "Honeysuckle", "Silver Ju Snow", "Sour Plum Soup", "Bamboo Cane Mao Root Water" and so on.
Statue carving
The carving of Macao statues has culturally inherited and carried forward the traditional carving and marking of statues of gods in the mainland, and after improvement and development, the overall technology has reached an outstanding level, and it is an excellent folk art in Macao over the past century. The carving of Macao gods has a long and uninterrupted history in Macao and is closely related to local folklore. From simple and simple puppets to today's large-scale Buddha statues, Macao statue carving has gone through different stages of development, while preserving the fine traditions of local carving craftsmanship, such as ancient lacquer art and gold leaf craftsmanship, and absorbing other statue design and joining methods, so that the product has developed from basic "wood carving dolls" to international standards close to wood carved Buddha statues, Buddhist tools and the wooden carved Buddha of Myofa Temple weighing more than 10 tons.
Scaffolding process
Shacking, also known as "scaffolding", is one of the "three elements" (muddy, carpentry and scaffolding) industries, which is often used as a working platform for building construction and repair, and is an indispensable part of traditional construction projects in Macao. The materials used include bamboo (fence bamboo and hairy bamboo), fir, bamboo fence strips, sunflower leaves, and wand (nylon fence, canvas and nylon mesh are now used). The bamboo tent square is the basic form of the scaffold, the straight rod or pole in the square is called "needle" in the row, the crossbar is called "xuan" or "pull", and the oblique bar or diagonal brace is called "initiative". Due to its flexibility, different types of bamboo sheds have been derived in Macao, such as working platforms for buildings with dozens of floors, small as celebration plaques or archways, as well as grandstands, swimming sheds, theaters, etc., reflecting the exquisite architectural wisdom and creativity of the Chinese nation.
Macanese cooking skills
The Macanese cuisine is based on Portuguese cuisine by the Macanese people, incorporating African, Indian, Southeast Asian and Macao Chinese spices and ingredients, which is Macao's unique food culture. The Macanese cuisine is mostly stewed, grilled, tobacco, fried, simmered, stir-fried and steamed, blending Eurasian ingredients and cooking methods, creating Macao's unique Macanese cuisine, which is the embodiment of Macao's East-West cultural exchanges and diversified food culture. The culinary skills of Macanese cuisine are the cultural heritage formed by the Portuguese in the Age of Exploration, the identity of the Macanese people, and an important way to study the family lineage, food culture and language development of the Macanese people.
Macao's intangible cultural heritage
Overview of intangible cultural heritage
Macao has a long history and has given birth to cultural heritage with Chinese and Western cultural characteristics, which are not only the fruits of its predecessors, but also an important part of Macao's historical and cultural city, showing Macao's urban personality and closely related to the daily life of its citizens. At present, there are 15 items inscribed on the list of intangible cultural heritage of Macao, including Cantonese opera, herbal tea preparation, wood carving-statue carving, Taoist ritual music, Nanyin rap, fish walking drunken dragon festival, Mazu beliefs and customs, Nezha beliefs and customs, Macanese cuisine and cooking skills, Macanese drama, land beliefs and customs, Zhu Tai Sin beliefs and customs, scaffolding crafts, Elephant outings of the Good Jesus of Suffering and Icons of Our Lady of Fatima.
Architectural features of Macau
Historic Centre of Macau
The Historic Centre of Macao is the oldest, largest, best-preserved and most concentrated collection of buildings in China, including the oldest church ruins and monasteries in China, the oldest Christian cemetery, the oldest Western-style spore terrace, the first Western-style theater, the first modern lighthouse and the first Western-style university. As the first territory established by a European country in East Asia, the urban area has witnessed the history of exchanges and diversified coexistence between Chinese culture and Western culture in Macao for more than 400 years. Because of the integration of Chinese and Western cultures, most of the buildings in the city have the characteristics of combining Chinese and Western cultures. Most of the buildings in the city are still well preserved or maintain their original functions.
Mazu Pavilion
Mazu Pavilion, commonly known as A-Ma Temple, is one of the landmark buildings located in the southwest of the Macau Peninsula and is now the oldest of the three ancient temples in Macau. In 2005, it was inscribed on the World Heritage List as part of the Historic Centre of Macao. A-Ma Temple was built in 1488 during the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the front of the A-Ma Temple was already the coastline of Macao, and it was a place for fishermen living in and around the area to replenish, rest and pray ashore. The temple faces the sea with mountains and cliffs, ancient trees, and beautiful scenery. The whole temple includes four main buildings, including the main hall (also known as the Zhengjue Zen Forest), the stone hall (also known as the first hall of the sacred mountain), the Hongren hall, and the Guanyin Pavilion. Shishi Town Gate and flying eaves are an ancient building rich in Chinese cultural characteristics.
Zheng's Mansion
The Mandarin House, known as the Mandarin House during the Macao and Portuguese periods, is the former residence of the modern Chinese thinker Zheng Guanying, and belongs to the same Lingnan style house as the Lu Family House. Located in Yongtou Left Alley, Macau, with a total land area of 3,997 square meters, it is a Lingnan style residential house. Its architecture combines Chinese and Western characteristics, and the mansion consists of two courtyard-style buildings, which are connected by a large inner courtyard. The building materials are mainly green bricks, and the wall base is made of granite. The characteristics of Chinese architecture are reflected in the architectural pattern and roof of Chinese mansions; The Western characteristics are expressed in the classical architectural decoration style, which can be seen in some indoor ceilings, lintel and lintel patterns, mouth lines and exterior wall criticism. Mandarin Mandarin House is now listed in the Historic Centre of Macau.
Macao's characteristic culture
Gambling culture
Macau's gaming industry began to be legalized under Portuguese rule in 1847, since then, Macau is widely known as "Monte Carlo of the East" and has become an important part of Macau's economy, and in 2006, the total turnover of Macau casinos has surpassed Las Vegas to become the world's first gambling city, and large-scale gaming buildings have been built one after another, forming a "one street, one room" style. Macau's gaming industry can be roughly divided into five categories: casino gambling, horse racing, greyhound racing, lottery and football betting.
City of museums
Macao in addition to the title of "casino city", but also has the reputation of "museum city", Macao has many museums, such as racing museum, wine museum, Macao museum, etc., the whole Macao is like a living East and West cultural diversity coexistence of museum city pavilion, but the prominent gaming image dilutes people's understanding of Macao's cultural connotation, a large number of tourists are inevitably attracted by the gaming culture.
Mazu culture
Macau is the only city in the world named after Mazu and has a deep historical relationship with Mazu culture. Mazu culture is part of Macao's multiculturalism and part of Macao studies or Macao history. Macao is one of the earliest places where the Mazu faith spreads, and the 400-500-year-old Mazu Pavilion is an important cultural symbol of Macao. Guanyin, Mazu and Our Lady are the three goddesses in the minds of the people of Macao. Completed in 2003, Tin Hou Temple is the largest temple in Macao, covering an area of more than 7,000 square meters, echoing the white jade Mazu statue on the top of the mountain, becoming Macao's new Mazu cultural landscape, as well as the Macao Mazu Cultural Tourism Festival, which has become an annual cultural tourism event in Macao.
Macao Religious Culture
Religious beliefs
Macao is a modern city with strong religious colors, with many types of religion, such as "temples everywhere, gods and Buddhas". Macau's law recognizes freedom of religious belief, and all religions can freely preach in Binmun as long as they do not violate the law. The religions now practiced by Macau residents include Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Baha'i, Zoroastrianism, Mormonism and Quishna. Although there are many names for religion, Buddhism, Catholicism, Christianity and Protestantism are the most popular. In addition to religious beliefs, there are also some folk beliefs in Macao, such as the Land Festival, God of Wealth, God of Society, God of Blessing, Tai Sui, Zhu Daxian, God of Sanpo, Hong Shengye, Water Immortal Gu, Yuecheng Dragon Mother, Huaguang the Great, Lu Ban Xianshi and Hua Tuo Xianshi, etc., among which the worship of Mazu is the most important. Main temple fairs: Land Birthday, Mother's Birthday, Huadima Icon Parade, Nezha Birthday, Guan Di's Birthday, Seventh Sister's Birthday, etc.