
Lost language: how Macau gambled away its past - lnguyen
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/10/macau-city-losing-language-china-portuguese-macanese
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eggy
I lived in Macau for over 7 years, and it is a small country you can walk
North to South in a casual morning or afternoon. Other ex-pats would say how
bored they were and go to the ex-pat pubs. I would walk the city, and read of
the history of the place. There are so many nooks and crannies to see a statue
above a portal, some old Portuguese tilework at your feet, small temples
sandwiched between other buildings and on and on. The casinos and other
housing development have pushed out some of the old for the new, and the
influx of mainland Chinese to gamble for a day or two has made the city grow
for better or worse, but certainly worse for culture. The fake Eiffel Tower,
and the Venetian are a sign of things to come. When it is fully absorbed by
China in 2049, it will be interesting to see if the Chinese government
maintains the 'one country, two systems' manner of government it seems to have
now. They did build a big military base, or expand the one that was already
there, so the plans are in motion. I have a fond memory of my years in Macau,
and the friends I have made there. I hope the best for this little peninsular
and its islands.

~~~
pm90
> fake Eiffel Tower, and the Venetian

I never understood this wholesale copying (Its not just China, look at Las
Vegas). Do people actually like being in a fake Eiffel Tower? Wouldn't it be
much better for a city with history like Macau to emphasize that instead?

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pwaai
So in China, lot of people don't have the luxury of travelling to the actual
place, so they just build it within China because of the demand.

This is what I've been told but in reality it seems a bit like GDP fudging,
with endless construction projects.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3XfpYxHKCo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3XfpYxHKCo)

~~~
FabHK
Over in Shenzhen, there's the "Window of the world", a theme park that
features smaller reproductions of sights worldwide such as the pyramids, Taj
Mahal, Angkor Wat, Eiffel tower, Mount Rushmore, etc.

It's quite entertaining, and pretty expensive for Chinese standards (180 CNY,
about 28 USD).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_of_the_World](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_of_the_World)

~~~
subway
Sounds an awful lot like Epcot.

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pjmlp
> Êle tudo-óra tâ buscâ sarna pa cuçâ.

Lovely, taken from the linked blog.
[https://belamaquista.wordpress.com/](https://belamaquista.wordpress.com/)

~~~
scardine
Not too hard to understand for someone familiar with Brazilian Portuguese
where this would be "Ele toda hora busca sarna pra se coçar". Literally
meaning "He constantly seeks mange to scratch himself" \- a popular saying for
someone always seeking for trouble.

~~~
atilaneves
I read that as easily as "proper" Portuguese. Native Brazilian Portuguese
speaker here.

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a_c
Similar is happening to many chinese cities. 20 years ago cantonese were
wildly spoken in shenzhen. Now, with so many mandarin speakers rushing into
the rapidly developing city, cantonese seems a minority. I doubt if shanghai,
or maybe sichuan is the same.

~~~
stone-monkey
Shenzhen losing Cantonese somewhat makes sense due to the sheer number of
migrants moving in from different regions of China. They likely outnumber the
population several-fold now. It was only declared a special economic zone back
in the 80's - Before that, it was a relatively small town. Now it has a
population of about 20 million.

Compare that with Guangzhou, which also has a ton of migrant inflow from other
provinces but with a large local populace - if you walk down any given street
you'll still hear Cantonese spoken pretty often, though Mandarin is more
frequently used (since it's the common tongue.)

~~~
eggy
I still have bias in my heart for Cantonese having heard it growing up in
Brooklyn, and visiting NYC Chinatown. That and all of the kung fu movies I
used to go see at the Coliseum theater back in Sunset Park Brooklyn and Times
Square when I was a kid in the 70s. I learned some Cantonese living over in
Macau for over 7 years. Not as much as I would have liked compared to my other
languages when living for less time in other places. I wound up learning
Indonesian more than Cantonese.

I love the HK 80s movies - cop dramas, ro-coms, etc... I like to make the
completely silly comparisoin that Cantonese is like Brooklyn english compared
to Mandarin which is like British english. It's got so much flavor. I love HK
and Macau for that, and I wish I has spent more time in Guangzhou where some
of my buddies were from and Cantonese is spoken.

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gandutraveler
We face something similar in Goa,India which was a Portuguese colony. My
grandfather used to speak a version of Konkani blended with Portuguese.

