Essay Wow!

Ana Margarida is a Macanese. She is 20 years old. She was born and lives in Macau. Her father works as a civil servant in the post office. Her mother is a businesswoman. As Ana’s father is a Portuguese, she learned to speak Portuguese from her father when she was very small already. However, she also knows how to speaks fluent Cantonese in order to communicate well with her mother. But, above all, she says, she is Chinese. “I consider myself not a Chinese although almost all the people surround me are Chinese and I speak Cantonese in most of my time.” Ana said she seldom eat Portuguese food. It’s mainly because her mother is a Chinese. Actually, Ana said that she was somehow puzzled by her own nationality. “I agree that my lifestyle is like the local Chinese. It is hardly for me to see any Portuguese culture in myself, except the fact that I can speak Portuguese,” she says. “However, I don’t feel and believe that I am Chinese. I think I still have something different from the local Chinese, but of course I don’t think that I am superior to them!” The difference between Ana and most local Chinese is their religion. Ana is a Catholic. Ana goes to the church on every Sunday. She also hopes to have her wedding ceremony in the church in the future. Ana’s boyfriend, Luis, is also a Macanese. “I will choose Macanese as my boyfriend because I think that he will understand me well because we are in the same situation,” she says. “I have never thought of choosing local Chinese as my boyfriend until now.” In addition, Ana thinks that she belongs to Macau more than Portugal. She loves the buildings and food of mix-culture in Macau. “I love Macau, this multicultural Macau. I have gone to Portugal for several times only. I don’t even have much impression about Portugal,” she says. “However, my father thinks he belongs to Portugal but not Macau. I think it is because he is a pure Portuguese. He also wants me to have this feeling but I don’t have any!”

From this interview, we can learn that Portuguese take up most of the civil-service jobs in Macau through Ana’s father occupation. While Chinese, like Ana’s mother, will mostly do businesses. There are more and more Macanese like Ana knows to speak Cantonese. They learn the language when they are young; as a result, most of them know both Portuguese and Cantonese. There is a trend that the interracial marriages are between Portuguese men and Chinese women. Therefore, the food that the Macanese eat is mostly towards the Chinese style. Macanese tend to have a tendency to get along with other Macanese rather than the local Chinese. The differences between the Macanese and Chinese become fewer and fewer, the main difference between them now is their religion. Macanese also do not have a sense of belongings towards Portugal. We can see that there is a barrier between these three parties: Portuguese, Macanese and Chinese. It is because these three groups seldom interact with each other. Macanese seems too reluctant to interact with other ethnic groups. In addition, the Macanese are becoming more Chinese in different ways in this local Chinese society. There is a chance that the differences between them will soon disappear between them if the Macanese do not try to find a way to preserve their culture. In conclusion, the boundaries between different ethnic groups prevent us from fighting prejudice and racism. However, the disappearance of these boundaries will also mean the disappearance of different cultures and characteristics of different ethnic groups. So we must we must learn how to find a way that we can live together peacefully and preserve our own culture. We can also learn from other people’s culture and improve ourselves. It is a very good sign that we can live together peacefully; learn from each other in the same world.