How long did it take to put this exhibition together? I started working on this exhibition in July 2016 with the help and dedication of the entire Archives of Macao team. The work was organised into three phases. The first phase focused on document collection. This meant the identification and selection of archive files related to piracy, as well as the transcription of more than 400 documents which we gathered into two volumes for the exhibit. This was followed by the construction of a catalogue to accompany the exhibit. This catalogue – part of what’s called the Document Collection – doesn’t just present the documents but it also includes a study that gives clues for further research on the subject. Finally, the third phase consisted of defining the concept and planning the exhibition which was to be presented to the public, as well as fine-tuning the selection of documents to be displayed. It took us four years of intense and passionate work. Tell us about Macao’s pirates... This exhibition is about a social group that was organised into different communities, each with their own hierarchy, living on Macao’s waterlines and the surrounding islands, scattered throughout the Pearl River Delta region. Despite exclusion, the pirates did not fail to interact with society, from their victims and accomplices to the political and military power that repressed them. It is worth remembering that their actions also
of
our tes y
irates have been romanticised over the years. We love to dress up as swashbuckling adventurers at costume parties and we adore watching certain wildly popular Hollywood blockbusters based on the theme of piracy. But not too long ago, pirates were anything but romantic. They were often seen as menaces, roaming the high seas looking for treasures. But they were also often integral parts of society and thus are now integral parts of history. Macao, in the second half of the 19th century and into the 20th century, was as plagued by these seafaring vagabonds as much as anywhere else in the world which had a coastline and a steady stream of trading ships regularly sailing past with plenty of riches onboard. Many people in Macao probably don’t know about the city’s old battles with piracy. Which is why, after four years of planning, the Archives of Macao has set up a special exhibition to teach locals all about the SAR’s swashbuckling past. The Archives, a treasure trove in St Lazarus’ Parish which collects, processes, protects and makes old records available, has organised ‘Pirates in the Waters of Macao (1854-1935)’, an exhibition that seeks to educate the public as simply as possible on a subject that is actually much more complex than you would think. The exhibition, which opened last month and will be running until 31 January, features a selection of more than 100 preserved documents, maps and photographs documenting piracy in Macao’s waters over many decades. To help us give a better flavour of the exhibition, we speak with the Archives of Macao’s head researcher Alfredo Gomes Dias, who illustrates the significance of pirates in the city’s long history. He says that piracy was a political, economic, social and cultural phenomenon in Macao from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. And, now we’re in the 21st century, this part of history is more than worth learning about as it helped shape the city we know today...
s of Macao hive Arc
Image c
P
e th
GET TO KNOW:
Alfredo Gomes Dias Archives of Macao head researcher Dias, who hails from Lisbon in Portugal, began his studies on Macao history in 1987, visiting the city for the first time in 1994. At the time, his research focused on its modern history, particularly mid-19th century Macao. In 2008, he started visiting Macao once or twice a year as he began his PhD research on the ‘Macanese diaspora’ and the ‘Portuguese from Shanghai’ community. His constant presence as a researcher at the Archives of Macao opened the door to this recent collaboration. Lau Fong, Archives of Macao director, invited Dias in 2013 to begin his research for the ‘Shanghai Portuguese Refugees in Macao (1937-1964)’ exhibition, which was inaugurated in 2015 and was also presented in Portugal, in the cities of Lisbon and Guimarães. Afterwards, he collaborated on the Archives of Macao and National Archives of Torre do Tombo (Lisbon) joint exhibition called the ‘Chapas Sínicas – Stories of Macao in Torre do Tombo’.
45