Early Descriptions of Daily Life in Macau
We often forget that elements of Macau’s culture in the 21st century were evident in the 16th and 17th century descriptions of visitors and residents. For example, the lavishness of the Venetian Macau and the Studio City casinos is in many ways reminiscent of the sumptuous palaces, the exotic cuisine, and vast gardens of old Macau. The educational systems, both Chinese and Portuguese, owe much to the standards first established by the Jesuit community. Even recreational activities on Taipa and Coloane, and street life on the narrow streets of the old quarter, can be compared to early examples that Peter Mundy and others observed. To see these parallels, we continue with Mundy’s 1637 descriptions of life in Macau.
Later in the article we shall see the first attempts to set up trading communities outside Macau, a response to changes that appeared shortly after English ships left the Pearl River delta.
Food, Architecture, and Jesuit Dedication
A few days after Peter Mundy’s official dinner in October 1637, he and other members of Weddell’s crew were invited to the Jesuit quarters attached to St. Paul’s Church, also called Iglesia de Madre de Deus, where they were feasted at a banquet with “sweet Meats” and fruit. One of Mundy’s favorites was a fruit he named the “Leicheea”, which the Chinese called leechi. He described it as big as a walnut, ruddy brown and crusty, with a skin like a raspberry or mulberry, and hard. The Englishman found that the skin of the fruit came off easily, revealing within “a Cleare white … hard palpy substance”, tasting similar to Spanish grapes. Told the fruit was native to China, Mundy called them the “prettiest and pleasantest Fruit that ever I saw or tasted”. Mundy sampled other fruit as well, including one which the Englishman compared to a small crab apple, and locally grown grapes, figs, and pears comparable to those found in Europe.
Mundy’s powers of observation were evident once more in his description of the Iglesia de Madre de Deus’ architecture. He was impressed by the excellent workmanship of local Chinese artisans on the structure’s interior arch, which he described as finely carved wood, guilded in gold and painted in exquisite colors of vermillion and blue. The roof itself was divided into quadrants, and at each joint were painted large roses of many folded petals, each ending in a square “Knobbe” measuring nearly a meter in diameter and brilliantly painted in the reds and blues. To this interior, Mundy also described a new front for the Cathedral’s fascade, which we see today, noting that a spacious (and now famous) ascent of many steps of hewn stone recently had been added.
The Jesuit proprietors of St. Paul’s described themselves to Mundy as “Paulists”, disciples of the Roman St. Paul of Tarsus, who they imitated by having dialogues with local people in the process of converting them to Christianity. Mundy observed that the Jesuits spared neither cost, labor, nor danger to attain this purpose, suggesting the religious order had civil support to complete the task.
Children and Education
One November evening Mundy attended plays at the Church acted by children under the instruction of Jesuits priests. One involved a dance performed by some in Chinese dress. A second play involved children dancing in groups were costumed as a local delicacy called “Stoole Crabbes”. Another depicted a battle between Portuguese and Dutch forces, which Mundy noted was neither reproachful nor critical of this well-known enemy. Yet another performance involved children playing drums, which were tossed and twirled in the air “…with such exceeding quickness, withal keeping touch and stroke with the music …”
Mundy was especially impressed by the care taken by the children’s parents and their Jesuits teachers, which suggested that a bond had already formed between the Macanese community and the Roman Church. He wrote that it was to the parents’ credit to set them on this path, as it was commendable for the Jesuits to instruct them not only in cultural activities, but in all other manner of education in order to elevate the youth of Macau, especially those of the merchant class.
Street Life
Mundy also wrote about different social classes and ethnic communities. He noticed that Chinese officials, who the Portuguese called “Mandareenes”, wore long gowns adorned with external girdles. The gowns were embroidered with a Lion insignia on the front and back, a designation of Ming authority. Each official donned different styles of headwear according to rank. Local men and women of the town, on the other hand, tied their hair in buns, with netting secured from behind. The poorest, whom Mundy identified as “common boatmen”, wore short one-piece cloaks made of cane or coconut leaves to protect them from the rain.
Mundy also noticed that many Chinese interacted with high ranking Mandarins who presided as judges in official stations, as agreed by the Macanese and Imperial authorities in Canton. At each station the judges sat at tables covered in damask or silk fastened at the corners with buttons. To each side of the table stood retainers: one on the left holding a parasol over the official to protect him from the sun; the other holding a pennant attached to a long pole declaring the official’s commission and authority granted by the Emperor. Petitioners and criminals alike argued their cases before the Mandarin in the same manner: on their knees and touching their foreheads to the ground three times in a declaration of piety before petitioning their cases.
Social Activities
During the days Mundy occasionally ventured into the streets of Macau, watching Chinese plays performed, and sampling the meats, fish and fruits of the markets, noting the rich grapes and figs that were similar to those in Europe. He noticed many homes with terraces adorned with small trees, plants, and flowers in pots. One particular plant, identified as “Shui-sin-fa” (water fairy flower), was grown from a stone with its roots set in water and could reach over one meter tall.
On a few occasions Mundy was invited by his hosts on outdoor excursions, noting that the Portuguese in Macau took special delight in leisure activities. He described equestrian sports, including a game called “gymkhana” involving rings, probably adapted from India, and another that resembled a form of mounted cricket. Another game on horseback, called “Juego de Alcanzias” from Spain, involved two teams, one representing “Moors” and the other “Christians”, who tossed earthen balls at each other.
Mundy also attended picnics on Taipa and Coloane, sailing to each on small recreational vessels, and dining on the beaches under large tents. Many of the boats, which he described as “… resembling little Frigatts”, had carvings and were painted in bright colors. Macanese families, Mundy noted, often took the boats to small bays and creeks on the islands where they could find fresh water, and stayed for up to ten days.
Tranquility Disrupted: A New Era Begins
The calm that Mundy described in these passages contrasted sharply with events soon occurring outside Macau. In December 1637, with no agreement to trade in hand, Admiral Weddell’s squadron forced its way up the Pearl River to Canton. Along the way Weddell engaged in naval battles with Chinese forces and was soon forced to turn back. The Portuguese, fearing the loss of the Emperor’s support for this affront, refused to resupply the ships in Macau and expelled the British fleet. As a result, Weddell returned home in disgrace. Meanwhile, Macau and the rest of China remained closed to English trade for another century.
Mundy’s departure marked a new phase in Macau’s development, however. Less than two years after Weddell’s ships departed, Japan closed Nagasaki to Portuguese traders, destroyed churches, and expelled the remaining Christian converts, many of whom had been persecuted since 1614. Consequently, Macau’s principal supply of silver, a major item of exchange for Chinese silk, was cut off, just as the Dutch threatened Portuguese shipping by blockading the Malaccan Straits, and captured the peninsula in 1641. In the process Macau’s traders were separated from Goa, the capital of Portugal’s overseas empire, and without military protection.
Desperate to offset losses in the Japan trade, Portuguese merchants unsuccessfully attempted to obtain Japanese silver from Manila through Chinese merchants, a violation of a treaty with Spain which had unified with Portugal in 1583. But Macanese traders, no longer restricted by Goa and Lisbon, sent more ships to regions beyond their control, including Madras and Calcutta in Bengal, Siam (Thailand), Java, the Moluccas (Indonesia), Cochin (Vietnam), Cambodia, and Timor. This activity encouraged Macanese to establish local factories and small expatriate communities in each new location. There the traders encountered Japanese merchants, also operating outside the control of their government, who were willing to exchange silver for other commodities. Many began frequenting Macau in place of Malacca to trade for goods from Canton, using the remaining Portuguese colony as a new entry point to the mainland.
It was during this period that different elements of Macau’s culture became more recognizable. A significant development were more contacts with different ethnic groups across Southeast Asia, which helped diversify Macau’s daily life and its commercial offerings. Another related effect was increased use of a “hybrid” language, a creole mix of Portuguese, Malay, and Chinese, which allowed traders and others to communicate in a common idiom. Yet another change was the arrival in Macau of mixed-race Portuguese and indigenous people from India and Malaysia, a direct result of Goa’s decline, and the persecution of non-Europeans and New Christians by the Inquisition.
Next time we will discuss these early migrations and the effects on Macau and the Macanese diaspora. Please stay tuned. (Back to the Articles)
Sources:
The Travels of Peter Mundy in India and Asia, 1608-1667, The Hakluyt Society, 1907, based on his chronicle of 1637.
George Bryan Sousa, The Survival of Empires: Portuguese Trade and Society in China and the South China Sea 1630-1754, Cambridge University. Press, 1986
James C. Boyajian, Portuguese Trade in Asia under the Hapsburgs, 1580-1640, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993
John Villiers, Silk and Silver: Macau, Manila and Trade in the China Seas in the Sixteenth Century, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Vol. 20, 1980: 66-80.
Lucio Sousa, Legal and Clandestine Trade in the History of Early Macao: Captain Landeiro, the Jewish “King of the Portuguese” from Macao, Kanagawa Prefectural International Language and Culture Academia Bulletin (2), 49-63, 2013-03
