Reconciling Nature and Culture in a Global Context? - Rainforest ...

Sandra Pannellfrom the shopping and bustle of Hong Kong, or an opportunity to gamble in the many casinoswhich flank the city. Surrounded by high-rise buildings, non-descript concrete blocks, andflashy hotel complexes, the Historic Centre of Macau “provides a unique testimony to themeeting of aesthetic, cultural, architectural and technological influences from East and West”(UNESCO World Heritage Centre website 2005). In an acknowledgement of its strategicimportance in the development of international trade, the Historic Centre of Macau isidentified as a cultural heritage property of ‘outstanding universal value according to four ofthe Convention’s ten criteria. Inscribed as a location which favoured; (1) “an importantinterchange of human values” (criterion ii), (2) bears a unique testimony to the ‘earliest’ and‘longest-lasting’ encounter between China and a European colonial power, in this casePortugal (criterion iii), and (3) represents an outstanding example of architectural ensemblelinking the original Chinese port with the Portuguese city (criterion iv), the Historic Centre ofMacau is also recognised in terms of its “association with the exchange of a variety ofcultural, spiritual, scientific and technical influences between Western and Chinesecivilisations” (criterion vi) (ICOMOS 2005a: 61-62).The ICOMOS evaluation of the site reiterates the history of the development of the HistoricCentre of Macau presented in the original nomination document (ICOMOS 2005a).According to this document, the site of Macau was a fishing village long before the arrival ofthe Portuguese in 1557. The name of Macau derives from the Ma Kwok temple, built in thefourteenth century. This temple, together with the fifteenth century temple for the GoddessA-Ma, comprised two of the more prominent architectural forms that existed among the smallsettlements of seafaring merchants, fishermen and farmers, prior to the arrival of thePortuguese. The early Portuguese settlers, looking to establish Macau as a ‘bastion ofChristianity’, as well as a trading post, erected timber and clay houses in the Inner Harbourarea of Macau. While none of the original dwellings survive today, some of the Catholicchurches and chapels established in the early colonial period (the 1500s and 1600s) formpart of the Historic Centre of Macau. In the early seventeenth century the Portugueseconstructed a series of forts against other Western powers, notably the Dutch, who attackedMacau in 1622 (Boxer 1969: 111). One of the surviving forts from this period, the MountFortress (constructed in 1626), is enclosed within the central area of the historic settlement ofMacau. In the mid-seventeenth century, the settlement of Macau was divided into aPortuguese sector in the south and a Chinese enclave in the north. In 1849, Portugaldeclared Macau a ‘free port’, enhancing Macau’s role as a trading base and attracting foreigncompanies to the enclave. In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the CatholicChurch built a number of new churches and restored some of the earlier ones. It wastowards the end of the nineteenth century that Macau, unable to compete with Hong Kong asthe region’s finance and trade centre, became a popular recreation destination for foreigners.Some of the buildings constructed at this time, such as the Dom Pedro V Theatre, theMilitary Club, and the Vela Vista Hotel, are listed as part of the architectural ensemble ofhistoric Macau. Apparently, during this time the Chinese built a number of temples (alsoincluded within the World Heritage area) and started the process of land reclamation. In1974, Macau was established as a ‘Chinese territory’ under Portuguese administration, andlater in 1999, it became a ‘Special Administrative Region’ (SAR) under Chinese Sovereignty(ICOMOS 2005a).The World Heritage property consists of two separate ‘core zones’, with buffer zonessurrounding each of these areas (Map 4). The boundaries of these buffer zones areidentified as coinciding with the early nineteenth century limits of the territory of Macau.While these ‘buffer zones’ may play an important role in separating the Historic Centre ofMacau from encroaching development, they are not included within the boundaries of thelisted World Heritage property. A series of architectural forms and urban spaces, includingsquares, churches, chapels, temples, a fort, a lighthouse, gardens, cemetery, ruins, oldwalls, colonial government buildings and residences comprise the World Heritage focus ofthe two core zones (Figure 15). The heritage buildings within these zones, including three52