What happens in Macau?

How a Tiny Gambling City in China is linked to the World

When?

Wednesday 16 May 2012, 14:00 to 15:30

Where?

19AC03

Open to:

Staff, Students, Public

Speaker:

Dr Lam, University of Macau (China)

Abstract
When Macau appeared on the front page of an April issue of The New Yorker as the future Las Vegas of China, people from Macau were busy with the political system reform consultation which later turned into a big social controversial issue. The political system reform debates at the local level focused on the distribution of seats in the Legislative Assembly. The major argument was how many of seats should be allocated through indirect election via functional constituencies. The involvement of these special interests groups   was inherited from Portugal before the reversion of Macau from Portuguese to Chinese governance in 1999. It is election system that has long disappeared in Europe, but somehow survived in the 21st Century China under a different regime.

Macao is a city with ​​less than 30 square kilometers and five hundred thousand of population. How and why this city was associated with the "New Yorker", Las Vegas, Portugal, and China? Should the reason be that it is liked to its close neighbour Hong Kong, that it is also a Special Administrative Region of China? Or that it is the only Chinese territory where it is legal to gamble? Is it because its GDP per capita is the number one in Asia? Or is it because Macao is the first colony of Europeans in Far East and the last European colony in the area – hence the Portuguese withdrawal marked the end of colonial history? What happened and what is happening in Macau?? If you are interesting in Macau, China, Sino-US relationship or Sino-European relationship, world history or colonial and post-colonial politics, all these questions would matter.

澳門發生了什麼事?

一個小小的中國的賭城和世界有何關聯

澳門大學　林玉鳳

四月初《紐約客》雜誌封面，標出了一個以澳門為主題的報導，內容描述美國的賭城拉斯維加斯為什麼正在遷往澳門。同一時間，澳門人無暇理會這些外來者對賭城前途的判斷，他們忙於回應政府開展的政制發展諮詢。澳門人在這次諮詢當中，最關心的是將來本地立法會的議席分配，社會對其中一種議席──間接選舉議席有很大的分歧，間接選舉議席是1999年澳門回歸中國時直接從原來葡萄牙管治澳門的一種制度中沿襲過來的，這種制度在歐洲早已消失，卻在廿一世紀以另一種面貌寄存於一個東方的政治體制當中。

澳門這個面積不到三十平方公里，人口只有五十萬的城市，是如何跟《紐約客》，拉斯維加斯和葡萄牙以及中國扯上關係的？是因為她和香港一樣，是中國的一個特別行政區？她是中國唯一可以合法經營博彩的地方？她的人均GDP是亞洲之首？她是歐洲人在遠東的第一個殖民地，也是歐洲最後撤走、殖民管治歷史終結的地方？澳門究竟發生了什麼事？這個小小的中國賭城，是如何何和世界聯繫在一起的？如果你對澳門，中國，中美關係，中歐關係以至世界歷史和殖民政府都有興趣，上述的問題，其實都是有關係的。