What are the cultures in Macao?

Macau, located on the west side of the Pearl River Delta in the southeast coast of China, is one of the two special administrative regions of People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of Macau Peninsula, Macau Island, Macau Island and Lucheng.

Macao has a total area of 32.8 square kilometers, but there are more than 500,000 people living here, making Macao one of the most densely populated cities in the world.

Macao is not only one of the "four largest gambling cities in the world", but also one of the richest cities in the world because of its famous textiles, toys, tourism, hotels and casinos.

Macau has been the territory of China since the Qin Dynasty in China, and the navy of China Yuan Dynasty patrolled the Pearl River Delta for a long time. Macao was occupied by Portugal on 1 887 65438+February1day, and began to be forcibly leased, becoming the first territory of European countries in East Asia. On February 20th, Macao's sovereignty returned to People's Republic of China (PRC). The following small series will take you to see.

Social culture

Macao's social culture is a multicultural mixed culture with China's traditional culture as the main body and Portuguese culture as the main body. Due to its special geographical location and historical experience, Macao has created a Chinese culture with far-reaching traditional connotations and a parallel culture formed by western culture and Portuguese culture. It can be said that Macao is the intersection of eastern and western cultures. After 16 and 17 centuries, Macao became the center of trade and missionary work, which promoted the cultural exchange between the East and the West, and made the traditional culture of China collide, communicate, converge and merge with the cultures from Europe and Southeast Asia for 400 years. Nowadays, there are still many Chinese and Western cultural relics or buildings in Macao, most of which have the characteristics of "focusing on China and combining China with Portugal".

Religious culture

With the development of history, many Chinese mainland residents moved to Macau, and the traditional culture of China was brought here, gradually forming the main culture of Macau. For example, Mazu culture, which is the most widely spread in Macao, has more than a dozen temples dedicated to Tianhou. Later, Mazu belief, as a folk belief, was integrated into Buddhism and Taoism and became a pluralistic belief now. The diversity of religious culture has been fully reflected in Macao, and beliefs such as Catholicism, Buddhism, Taoism and Mazu still exist. For example, the St. Paul archway is a masterpiece of the integration of eastern and western religious cultures, which embodies the essence of eastern and western architecture.

Gambling culture

The gambling industry in Macao has existed for more than 100 years and has been legalized since 1847. Macau's gambling industry is a diversified existence, mainly composed of lucky gambling, running dogs or boomerang, horse racing and lottery. All kinds of gambling methods are a combination of Chinese and western, very diverse. Macao is one of the four largest gambling cities in the world, and its gambling industry is regarded as the leading industry in Macao's economic system by the SAR government. Therefore, if you want to understand Macao's culture, you must understand Macao's gambling industry. After years of historical precipitation, Macao's gambling industry has already penetrated into Macao's social, economic, political and other aspects and become a special social culture.

Traditional architecture

Macau Fort, also known as Sao Paulo Fort, Central Fort or Sao Paulo Fort, is one of the most famous landmark historical buildings in Macau. Built in Ming Shenzong in A.D. 16 16, the fort was originally owned by the church to prevent pirates and protect the pastor of St. Paul's church, and later became a military stronghold in Macau. There are many cultural relics and historical buildings on the battery, such as the ancient pagoda on the battery, which was one of the meeting places of Jesus Church at that time. For a long time, this fort was the core of Macao's defense system at that time, forming a broad defense system covering the east and west coasts. Among them, from 1623 to 1740, it has always been the residence of the Yugoslav capital commander and the governor of Macao.