C.X. George Wei is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Macau, China.

Introduction Part 1: Faith and the Formation of Macao: Religions and Urban Development 1. Faith and Property: Pressures of Urban Development on Worship in Macao, the Mou Tai -Tin Hau Temple in CheokKa Chun, Macao 2. The Earth God Worship in Macao -- The Transformation of Communal Earth God Worship in Urban Setting Part 2: Western Footprints: The Missionaries in Macao and Their Contributions to the Formation of Macao 3. Darwinism, Freemasonry and Print Culture: The Construction of Identity of the Macanese Colonial Elites in the Late Nineteenth Century 4. The Holy House of Mercy and Its Impact on Macao's Women Part 3: The Impact of Global Forces: The Presence and Competition of Maritime Powers in and around Macao 5. Dutch Attacks against the Goa-Macao-Japan Route, 1603-1618 6. Early British Presence in China: The First Anglo-Portuguese Voyage to Macao 7. The Cushing Mission to Macao and US Imperial Expansion in Nineteenth-Century Asia Part 4: Cosmopolitanism: The Transnational and Transitional Politics, Society and Identity of Macao 8. Macao: An Early Modern Cosmopolis 9. Macao's Urban Identity Quest 1557-1999/2009: Spatialization of Territory 10. State, Market Force, and Building National Identity in China's Hong Kong and Macao 11. The Implications of the Special Administrative Regions for the International System: Macao as a Successful Case Study

Macao, the former Portuguese colony in southeast China, has a long and very interesting history of cultural interaction between China and the West. Held by the Portuguese from the 1550s until its return to China in 1999, Macao was up to the emergence of Hong Kong in the later nineteenth century the principal point of entry into China for all Westerners - Dutch, British and others, as well as Portuguese. The relatively relaxed nature of Portuguese colonial rule, intermarriage, the mixing of Chinese and Western cultures, and the fact that Macao served as a safe haven for many Chinese reformers at odds with the Chinese authorities, including Sun Yat-sen, all combined to make Macao a very different and special place. This book explores how Macao was formed over the centuries. It puts forward substantial new research findings and new thinking, and covers a wide range of issues. It is a companion volume to Macao - Cultural Interaction and Literary Representations.