Macaenses, or Macanese as they are known today, are the descendants of the Portuguese who settled in Macau in 1557. Their Luso-Asiatic heritage, which evolved from the very outset of the settlement of Macau, is unique in its global timeframe, the very beginning of what is today commonplace in the multinational societies of the Western world. They are an integral part of the Portuguese people and their history in Macau, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and the Treaty Ports along the Chinese coast must be recognized. Little has been written in English or Chinese about this very people who lived and participated in the dynamics of colonialism during the establishment of Western trade along the shores of China, particularly those who were born, or whose ancestors were born, in Macau, and who left to live and work in other coastal cities in China. Therefore, this book is intended to communicate the comprehensive history of the people of Macau and also the descendants of the Portuguese. It tells of their complex multi-racial, multilingual and multidimensional lives that evolved through four and half centuries in the secluded and tiny Portuguese enclave of Macau, then Hong Kong and Shanghai.
The Portuguese in China 1513-1999 - Courage, Endurance and Adaptation is a revised second edition of the book Macaenses - the Portuguese in China, published in 2015, adapting the revisions made for the Chinese translation with new material added and further revising the original text.