Sitting in his office in Zape, Prof. Lei Heong Iok opens what he calls his “treasure” – a dog-eared Portuguese-Chinese dictionary, its velvet cover worn and frayed.
Lei’s decades-long love for the language has turned him into a campaigner for its survival in the city where Portuguese seafarers started to settle in the mid-16th century.
Learning Portuguese fell out of fashion in Macau after Lisbon handed it back to Chinese administration in 1999, becoming a special administrative region and growing into the world’s biggest gambling destination.
Although Portuguese remained an official language and street signage continues to be bilingual, many in the predominantly Cantonese-speaking territory switched their study focus to Putonghua.
Prof. Lei Heong Iok holds what he calls his “treasure”, a Portuguese-Chinese dictionary, on the balcony of his office at the Macau Polytechnic Institute (IPM) in Zape early this month. – AFP
