The Nuttiest Little Place in Macau
Not in the guide books
Macau is by any standards a strange place.
It’s most famous landmark is not a building, but the remains of a building.
It is a predominantly Chinese city famous for its Portuguese cuisine.
Portugal once tried to hand it back to China, in the 1970s, but the People’s Republic said, in effect, hang on, we’ll get to it.
Macau is almost overloaded with churches, but it is equally famous for its enormous casinos; it has seven of the ten largest in the world, and at times has outgrossed Las Vegas in gambling revenue by many times.
But I think we found the nuttiest place in Macau the other day.
It’s just inside the Teatro Dom Pedro V.
If you look up the building, you’ll see that it was one of the first Western-style theatres in Asia. Built in 1860, it is now a Unesco world heritage site. They were advertising a concert of Portuguese fado the day we visited.
However, you will find nothing on the internet or in the guide books about the rooms to the left of the entrance.
The first is called the Society of Pigs and consists of tables and chairs adorned with stuffed toy pigs which you are advised not to touch.
Around the corner from the room with the pigs is a selection of cutouts of ethnic Chinese beauty queens.
This is not far from the shrine to Mao Zedong and other leaders of the early Chinese Communist Party.
Near to Mao is this Mickey Mouse display, enhanced with Chinese dragons.
But it’s not all fun and games. Thanks to my sister-in-law, Adelina, for translating the commemorative banner held by the penguin here. In case, you hadn’t figured it out yourself, this is a tribute to the heroes of the COVID pandemic.
But the pièce de résistance is this display, which celebrates the “glorious” handover of Macau by Portugal to the People’s Republic of China in 1999.
Yes, that is indeed a young Mao portrayed in the centre. And Disney princesses dancing in celebration. I wonder whether the actual handover could have been this moving.
I am not in a position to unpack the semiotics of the exhibit. The lady with the live parrot sitting drinking tea in the middle of it all did not seem interested in communicating with me.
I have a great fondness for Macau. In the early- to mid-2010s I went there 4 times in as many years. One of the reasons is the quirks like the one you've written this update about. The city's full of them!
That is very quirky!