04 FOCUS

People-to-people exchange helps Sino-Lusophone cultural de-bordering

By FRANCISCO JOSé LEANDRO

Since the retrocession, especially after 2003, Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) has been exploring mutually reinforcing paths to de-border the culture, defined by Dutch social psychologist Geert Hofstede in 1994 as “the collective programming of the mind.” The idea is to expand existing mutual trust for pragmatic cooperation between China and all Portuguese-speaking countries, taking into account the potential of the Greater Bay Area (GBA) and the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative frameworks. As clearly stated by the National Development and Reform Commission, people-to-people bonds are vital to an initiative of such scale as the B&R. Thus, the creation of people-to-people bonds begins by taking steps to overcoming barriers preventing the development of mutual interest while fostering other levels of shared knowledge and understanding. People-to-people bonds de-border the cultural barriers in people’s minds. Similarly, President Xi Jinping mentioned in 2015 during the BOAO Forum for Asia that it is necessary to “promote inter-civilizational exchanges to build bridges of friendship.”

Currently, the SAR’s role reinforces high-level bilateral people-to-people bonds, pushing formal relations, boosting the operation of informal mechanisms of proximity, and therefore giving a closer sense of hardheaded interplay among new networks of Sino-Lusophone private economic agents. SAR has been building a Sino-Lusophone grid of exchange for mutual advancement, based on three equally harmonizing people-to-people dimensions: one, the frames of exchange; two, the instruments of exchange; and, three, the characteristics of exchange.

Firstly, the SAR has identified a set of people-to-people frames of exchange, where the operation is multi-sectorial and inter-sectorial, often departing from the empiric shared interests of China and the Portuguese-speaking countries. Among these frames stand the professional and entrepreneurial sector; the education-academic and knowledge-skills transfer sector; the opposition of overlapping social identities and the emotional intelligence of key leadership; the horizontal and vertical dimensions of the governmental and non-governmental relations sector; and the clear vision of the purpose of exchange. Particular emphasis is on continuing investment in the people-to-people education-academic sector, fostering another level of interplay with international standards.

Secondly, the SAR has shaped people-to-people instruments of exchange, functioning to generate purposeful networks for permanent dialogue and interplay, which can be perceived to be of two types: institutions and policies.

It involves such institutions as the Office of the Secretary for Economy and Finance; the Office of the Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture; the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries; the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute; the Macao Foundation; the SAR external commercial delegations; the University of Macao; the Polytechnic Institute of Macao.

As for policies, there is the concept of Macao as a “one platform” and “three centers”; the SAR as a center for yuan settlement; the functional planning of the GBA; the establishment of the Macao Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement; the dynamism of the industries of meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions and the rejuvenation of local creative industries; the Macao International Film Festival; the recognition of academic degrees between the SAR and Portugal; the consistent endeavor for benchmarking for financial, gaming and tourism sectors; the promotion of sports to an international level; and finally the high number of events conceived specifically to support the China and Portuguese-speaking countries cultural relationship, namely the Script Road Festival, the Lusophony Festival, the International Parade, the Annual Fireworks Display Contest, Macao Food Festival, the International Trade & Investment Fair, and the Portuguese Speaking Countries Products and Services Exhibition.

Thirdly, bearing in mind the previous people-to-people dimensions, it is possible to identify the dominant characteristics of these processes of human exchange. Therefore, the SAR has the following characteristics: One, it has clearly identified the main goal of people-to-people exchange as an instrument of mutual advancement through pragmatic and nonpartisan cooperation for entrepreneurship, innovation and growth. Two, it has been capable of presenting a protracted, consensual, inclusive, non-confrontational and progressive people-to-people exchange, involving ad hoc groups, with bilateral, trilateral and multilateral involvement. Three, it has been building people-to-people exchange while being events driven and focused on the enhancement of human social capital. Four, it has undoubtedly promoted a transformational people-to-people exchange, based on non-politicized and secular collaboration, seeking tangible rewards and mutual gratification. Five, it has implemented people-to-people practices, which have raised the level of multiculturalism and inclusion, without attempting to be intercultural.

Political scientist Robert Putnam asserted that “bonding social capital is good for … mobilizing solidarity,” and it has the aptitude to implicitly use emotional intelligence and to establish and develop positive and meaningful relationships. Bonding social capital is, if not an instrument of multiculturalism, at least a path to multicultural coexistence, advancing new frameworks of connectivity. In this vein of reasoning, the SAR is the natural people-to-people exchange mechanism between China and all Portuguese-speaking countries, acting as a contributor and as a facilitator of a national Chinese policy while supplementing sovereign and non-sovereign vertical bilateral relations. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Macao retrocession to the PRC, it seems to be the right time to remind us all that the seemingly immaterial results directly arising from people-to-people relations are the vital blood to energize long term relationships. They are the deciding motivation for the very first step of a thousand mile journey. As Steve Orlins, president of the National Committee on US-China Relations asserted, “if the people-to-people relationship is weak, then there is no foundation for government-to-government relations to stand on.” The SAR has delivered an excellent practical contribution of national policy towards Portuguese-speaking countries, but it has not yet reached its full potential.

Francisco José Leandro is an associate professor and assistant dean of the Institute for Research on Portuguese Speaking Country at City University of Macao.