Policy and Cultural Infrastructures: a Strategy for Western and Chinese Music in Macau (1980-1999)

In this paper I will explore the reasons behind Macau's significant cultural development in the last two decades of the 20th century. In that period, the Portuguese administration implemented a series of different policies in sectors of the Macau society, specifically in the cultural way. In the early 1980s, Macau had no cultural infrastructures: no music conservatory, concert hall, orchestras, music festival, and no Western or Chinese arts festival. However, we must not overlook the work of the Academia de Música São Pio X, which taught piano and violin, or that of some Chinese music associations which performed different genres of Chinese music. Finally, I will show how Macau was able to transform its cultural life in just two decades.