While Macau is best known for its casinos, which attract flocks of gamblers every year, it also boasts five centuries of rich history and traditions, which are largely overlooked by those who come to visit. Funded by a 1.6 percent levy on the gross profit of the city’s colossal gaming industry, the Macau Foundation aims to redress this balance. Set up in 2001, according to its charter, it aims to ‘promote, develop and research cultural, social, economic, educational, scientific, academic and philanthropic activities, as well as activities that promote Macau.’

Wu Zhiliang, president of the foundation, talked to The Report Company about the foundation’s work in presenting culture as an alternative form of tourism to the city, as well as the development of ‘Macaology’, the study of Macau, by funding research by Chinese and foreign scholars.

The Report Company: June 2013 marks the third anniversary of your tenure as head of the Macau Foundation. What have been the most significant decisions made during the past three years?

Wu Zhiliang: We have repositioned the direction of the Macau Foundation, with a greater emphasis on enhancing the well-being of the community, fostering talent and professionals in partnership with local associations. For Macau and China, we have been promoting social progress and stimulating social cohesion. While working to increase community sponsorships, we have also organised more than a dozen initiatives of our own that aim to promote our local cultural resources and values, to enable young people to become future pillars of the community and to allow the population at large to genuinely feel the benefits of our work.

Although we have consistently been a major actor in the community for decades, our work over the past three years has been significantly more visible than previously. Our engagement with the community now goes right down to the grassroots level, which has made us more aware of, and therefore more responsive to, the needs of the community when deciding how our resources should be distributed.

TRC: What role does the foundation play in bringing together the Chinese and Portuguese aspects of Macau’s history?

WZ: We have engaged in research and publication projects regarding the roles of China and Portugal on the history of Macau since the 1990s. In particular, we have compiled Chinese and Portuguese archival resources into publications which have made Macau studies more accessible. In recent years, in response to demand from the local academic community, we have been building ‘Macaology’ by organising international conferences with various local, Chinese and Portuguese institutions. We also collaborate with and sponsor reputable Chinese and Portuguese institutions in publishing works directly related to the history and culture of Macau. We aim to expand our distribution network from local markets to international markets, especially through the university libraries network.

After over 20 years of effort, we can now safely say that no-one will ever regard Macau as a “cultural desert”. The instrumental role of Macau in intercultural dialogue has been internationally recognised; not only within the academic community, but also in public opinion.

TRC: Macau bears a unique testimony to the first and longest-lasting encounter between the West and China, and its inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site attests to this fact. What role does Macau play today in the meeting of East and West, and how do you work to strengthen this bridge?

WZ: The historical role of Macau as a platform to promote cultural exchange between China and the West is indisputable. The fundamental reason for this is that Macau provided a public space for cultural encounter and dialogue at that time. The multiple social identities possessed by Macau also promoted mutual understanding. Because of these multiple social identities, Macau continues to play a vital role in the process of China’s outreach to the world.

As for the role of the Macau Foundation, we provide scholarships to students of Portuguese-speaking countries to come to study in Macau, which enables them to form a link from a young age with Macau and China. The same applies to local students, who receive scholarships from us to study in Portugal and other locations worldwide through a variety of schemes. The networking activities of these young people will eventually lead to relationships at an unofficial level between China and their home countries.

TRC: How do you manage international perceptions in the context of Macau’s widespread association with gambling? How would you like Macau to be perceived internationally?

WZ: Our thick cultural sediment can be regarded as a powerful response to the international perceptions of Macau’s association with gaming. The successful inscription of the Historic Centre of Macau as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage does not merely attest to its tangible architectural aspects, but also to the intangible aspects of the lives and the attitude of the community, such as the tolerance of different cultures and the peaceful co-existence of different ethnicities. These are universal values that should be cherished by the international community. In fact, the Historic Centre of Macau has attracted many visitors from abroad who do not wish to gamble, but rather wish to see for themselves the tangible and intangible aspects of our cultural heritage. They will eventually help Macau to rid itself of the perceptions related to its association with gaming.

On the other hand, gaming is not at all a bad thing for Macau, or even a taboo to be avoided. I recall that before gaming was liberalised in 2002, the total government budget was only equivalent to that of a small private hospital in Hong Kong. Without the liberalisation of gaming, we would not have the ample resources that are distributed to improve our infrastructure, education and social welfare. And without the statutory contribution from the gaming concessionaires, the Macau Foundation would not be able to conduct its activities that bring substantial benefits to the local population and help to build up a new image of Macau.

TRC: You have said in the past that one of your objectives was to bring the foundation closer to local academic institutions. How has progress been on this front?

WZ: Our collaboration with local academic institutions has been enhanced. Apart from increasing the amount of sponsorships we offer to these institutions, we have also launched a number of major projects, such as the Macau volume of the Collection of Chinese Ethnic and Civil Arts, and international conferences on Macaology. We also have organised awards for outstanding achievements of research in the social sciences and humanities of Macau, and have invited local academics to contribute to our collections of publications, such as the Collection of Macau Studies, Collection of the Laws of the Macau Special Administrative Region, Macau Knowledge Collection, etc. One of our next steps would be to enhance the exchanges and connections between local academics and those abroad.

TRC: What is your assessment of the potential for cooperation with British academic institutions?

WZ: The United Kingdom has a long history of existence in Macau. Macau served as a platform for its initial contacts with China before the focus was shifted to neighbouring Hong Kong. We are always open to collaborations with institutions worldwide, including those from the United Kingdom, for projects that are relevant to Macau.

TRC: In what areas of society does the foundation work most? What current CSR programmes does the foundation have, and what are its main objectives?

WZ: Our engagement with the community is at the grassroots level, which has made us more aware of, and therefore more responsive to, the needs of the community when deciding how our resources should be distributed. About 72 percent of our sponsorships have been allocated to projects related to social welfare and education since the new Macau Foundation was established in 2001. From medical care to education to elderly welfare, the majority of the population benefit from the projects we sponsor.

Apart from sponsorships, we have also begun distributing gift bags which contain daily essentials to disadvantaged groups. We do this during the two Chinese traditional festivals, Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival. More than 30,000 people have benefited from this scheme. More recently, we resumed our participation to the annual Walk for a Million, a community-wide event.

TRC: In what ways is the foundation promoting Macau as a tourism destination and how would you define Macau’s cultural life?

WZ: We collaborate with the Macau Government Tourism Office, the Institute of Tourism Studies, and the Macau Grand Prix Commission in various kinds of projects that promote Macau not only as a tourism destination, but also a city of culture.

In my opinion, Macau has a booming cultural life, thanks to a supportive government policy in developing cultural and creative industries. The Macau Foundation is also honoured to take part in enriching this colourful cultural life, not only by providing over 100 million Macau Patacas (£8 million) in sponsorship to a variety of cultural institutions, but also by organising initiatives such as our Local Artists Promotion Programme and Performance for Citizens. These two activities have successfully created the necessary platform for local individual artists and art organisations to enhance their visibility in the community.

We see that the public is now willing to purchase tickets to see the shows put on by Performance for Citizens, which differs from the practice, common a decade ago, of receiving free tickets as incentives for participation.

TRC: What is your vision for the foundation’s development in the medium to long term?

WZ: The principal role of the Macau Foundation is to maintain a smooth channel of communication between the Administration and the community, to support a healthy growth of the civil society and to build up an image of Macau as a city of culture. Bearing this role in mind, we aim to improve the quality of our organisation’s activities, while continuing to push forward the institution-building capacity of the associations which receive sponsorship from the foundation.

In a long term, we will continue to listen to the needs and demands of the community, and we will continue to work within government policies to launch more new initiatives which are responsive to the ever-changing requirements of the Macau Special Administrative Region.