Macau and China in Fernanda Dias’s poetry: entangled memories

Abstract

This study investigates the singular interweaving of Macau’s memories and classical Chinese culture in the poetry of Fernanda Dias. Living in Macau between 1986 and 2005, a period of profound political, administrative, and economic transformations, the poet registers the gradual erasure of cultural legacies under the city’s accelerated modernization. In response, her work turns to the depth of ancient Chinese culture and its classics, mobilizing modalities of memory – invented, heard, collected, and reawakened – that articulate individual, cultural, and collective dimensions. These range from the creation of a Chinese lover to the rereading and renewal of canonical texts such as the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) and the Àomén Jìlüè (Monograph of Macau). The analysis culminates in a close reading of a poem fundamental to Sino-Macau historiography: “Guo Lingdingyang” by Wen Tianxiang (1236-1283), whose evocation illuminates the dialogue between historical and poetic memory in Dias’s creation.