Foundation

HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION

The idea of taking advantage of and developing Macau's long-standing links with the Romance-language speaking nations of the world was discussed widely among scholars during several regional conferences in Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangdong in the early 1990s. The idea was also endorsed by many scholars in Beijing, and all over China, as well as in Taipei, Singapore, Tokyo, Europe, the US, and Brazil.

Starting in 1993, a special group of international advisors from Hawaii, Tokyo, Spain, Portugal, and Beijing were invited to Macau to carry out a feasibility study. After meeting with a wide range of people from different public and private institutions in Macau, they submitted a report to the Governor in August 1995, which urged the establishment of a "Macau Latin-China Center" or foundation, as a private institution for research and cultural preservation. The report was studied by several prominent community leaders and scholars of Macau, together with two local legal advisors, who worked out the statutes for the Macau Sino-Latin Foundation.

The statutes of the Foundation as a legal entity were gazetted in the Boletim Oficial No. 44, dated 30 October 1996. MSLF was officially recognized as a non-profit and socially beneficial private institution by Macau's Governor, General Vasco Rocha Vieira, in his "Despacho" 91/GM/96, gazetted in the Boletim Oficial No. 46, dated 13 November 1996.

The initial fund of the Foundation was generously donated by the founding members.

OBJECTIVES and MAIN ACTIVITIES

The Foundation aims at intensifying and optimizing the relations between the populations of Macau, China, and of the European Union and other regions of the world where Romance languages are spoken, through the promotion and support of cultural, educational, and research activities.

To achieve this goal, the Foundation may, among other things:

promote research on Arts and Humanities relating to Macau.
strengthen and expand the programs in the instruction of Chinese, as well as Portuguese and other Romance languages.
promote and develop research on the relations between Macau, China, other regions of the Pacific, and communities or territories in which Romance languages are spoken.
coordinate and cooperate with other institutions and associations in organizing debates and symposiums.
publish the results of MSLF's own research projects.
create and maintain an Institute of Advanced Studies, a Reference Library, and a Center of Publications.

WHY MACAU? WHY A FOUNDATION? [excerpted from the Report of the International Advisory Group,1993]

[Beginning of quote] In human terms, Macau has been an experience in human coexistence and cooperation among several cultural traditions. It is now a modern entrepôt with a distinctive history of the blending of Latinate and Sinic cultures, a carrier of high traditions such as Catholicism and Confucianism, as well as a living repository of the rich traditions of religious practices that spring from Daoism (Taoism), Buddhism, and the belief in A-Ma. Present-day Macau is a multicultural environment with a strong international perspective.

After almost 450 years of official Portuguese presence in Macau, the territory returned to Chinese sovereignty on December 20, 1999. Portuguese and Chinese will remain as the official languages after the handover. Such "official" expressions of maintaining the uniqueness of Macau, as embodied in the coexistence of the two languages, no doubt echo a wide range of public sentiment towards Macau's cultural continuities. This convergence of official will and popular sentiment provides the occasion to create an institution that will focus the vision and energies on guaranteeing the longevity of the unique historical personality of Macau in the quickly changing contemporary world. Such an institution must be built upon the Latino-Sinic roots of Macau.

Macau's history and society form a rich lode of transcultural experiences and perspectives. It is in the humanities that the many-faceted identity of Macau will be revealed.

Efforts must be made to attract the world to come to Macau to study its unusual human history, through the humanities disciplines including history, theology, fine arts, performing arts, architecture, archaeology, museology, ethnology and ethnography, jurisprudence and various kinds of anthropology, linguistics, and sociology. In addition to the official languages of Chinese and Portuguese, Macau also has a multilingual environment in which English and other Romance and Asian languages are used. This is a major advantage in terms of attracting the interest of Europeans. Furthermore, Macau is the only place in China where Europeans can find cultural sympathy - an aspect of international commerce which is all-too-often disregarded or downplayed in discussions that focus on strictly financial or technical factors.

As a result, Macau is the place where China and Europe can engage in important dialogues regarding economics, sociology, engineering, urban planning, transoceanic shipping, and business. Macau is also the place where scholars from Europe, China, and Macau can engage in research that shapes and affects their own societies. [End of quote]