Memories of Macau

Remembring Henrique de Senna Fernandes (1923-2010)

Abstract

Commemorating the 100th anniversary of Henrique de Senna Fernandes (1923-2023), by this article I intend to pay a homage to the “most representative Macao writers” (José Carlos Seabra Pereira), as well as to stimulate Luso-Chinese readers’ interest in Macanese literature, which it so deeply deserves. Through an analysis of examples taken (mainly) from the masterpiece – Love and Toes: Romance of Macao (1986), I seek to illustrate three peculiar elements that appear to me to be fundamental in understanding Senna Fernandes’s literary imaginaire, as well as the idiosyncrasy of Macanese culture. These elements are: firstly, love and blood ties that tend to transcend the boundaries between identity and alterity; secondly, the interesting attitude of the Macanese community towards traditional Chinese medicine; thirdly, the cosmopolitanism and pragmatic wisdom of the Macanese elite. In my opinion, Chinese and Portuguese readers inn general, and cultural agents in particular, can and should benefit from a more in-depth study of Henrique de Senna Fernandes’s works, not only for their aesthetic value, but above all for the valuable Macanese experience (well reflected in the author’s writing) in keeping lively the communication between Portuguese and Asian cultures. In the delicate moment we live today, perhaps it is more urgent than ever to learn this cross-cultural lesson which Macao still richly provides us.