Prof Tang Kaijian from the Department of History, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Macau (UM), recently published a pioneering book on Macaology, A Touch of Alienation in the Celestial Empire: Western Civilization in Macau, 16-19 Centuries, via the Jinan University Press. The book is the fruit of Prof Tang’s previous multi-year research project, titled ‘Western Culture in Macau, 16th - 19th Century: Diffusion and Influence’. The two-volume tome, consisting of nearly two million words, is the most pioneering work on Macaology ever published.

The book gives a comprehensive account of Western civilisation in Macao between the 16th and the 19th centuries. The author used a new methodology that combined traditional historical textual research with quantitative analysis, in order to determine the numbers and nationalities of Westerners travelling to and leaving Macao over a span of more than 300 years. The book explores how the influence of Western civilisation permeated various spheres of life in the Macao society, including political and judicial affairs, military affairs, city development, religion, science and technology, education, health and medicine, language and literature, arts and sport, and local customs.

A noteworthy feature of the book is the diversity of the source material, which includes not only first-hand historical data in Chinese and Portuguese, but also those in foreign languages, such as French, Spanish, German, Russian, Latin, Dutch, Italian, Japanese, and English.

The book is the fruit of Prof Tang’s work on Macaology for more than 20 years. It also represents UM’s greatest contribution to Macaology research over the past decade.