Within the framework of the 15th Cultural Affairs Bureau’s “Academic Research Grant” programme, two projects by candidates from Mainland China and Hong Kong have been selected.
The Cultural Affairs Bureau has established an “Academic Research Grant” programme with the aim of encouraging advanced and original research projects in the field of Humanities, about Macanese culture or about Macao and East-West cultural exchanges. From the projects submitted between 1 June to 30 November 2013, two have been selected to receive a research grant, namely: Transformations in Macao’s Architecture: a Study of its Western Core Factors by Tang Jian, holder of a PhD in Engineering by the University of Kagoshima (Japan), Associate Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering (College of Science and Engineering) at Jinan University and Senior Engineer; and An Essay on the Modernist Trends in Macao’s Poetry by Au Chung To, holder of a PhD in Philosophy by the Hong Kong University and Assistant Professor at the Department of Literature and Cultural Studies of the Hong Kong Institute of Education.
The first project aims at compiling data on all squares in the city of Macao, “from the 16th century onwards” and statistically evaluate their basic features (such as time coordinates, geographic position and other related data), thus understanding how their features have changed through the aforementioned period. It will also analyse the characteristics of the planning of churches and Western urban spaces led by the Portuguese in the 16th and 17th centuries, providing a systematic explanation of the building process of squares and its relation with the development of the city, suburbs and countryside. The research will also catalogue representative buildings in Macao in the same time period and statistically analyse their building and reconstruction dates as well as their stylistic features, thereby illustrating their transformation through time.
Modernist trends in poetry became evident during the 1980’s in Macao and are an important page in the history of local literature. The second project will adopt as a model the characteristics of Western Modernism for the discussion of the subject, while also referring to the peculiarities of Modernism in Shanghai, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Through an analysis of works by five important modernist poets from Macao (Tao Li, Tao Kongliao, Liu Xingzi, Wei Ming and Yi Ling), this research will outline the features of modernist poetry in Macao, thus establishing a dialogue between these local poetry tendencies and Modernism in other parts of the world and placing them in context.
To access the Academic Research Grant Regulations and other information, please visit the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s website: www.icm.gov.mo.
