PAINTING A NEW SCENE

From the Monte Carlo of the east to an aspiring art city: here's how Macau is navigating its new identity

- Zabrina Lo

Macau has been one of the biggest gambling meccas in the world since the Portuguese government legalised gaming there in the 1850s. Over the past few months, however, signs of a different industry have been proliferating around the lavish casinos and maze-like shopping malls: a giant, inflatable Bearbrick (styled Be@rbrick) figure stood in front of Galaxy Macau; giant Mickey Mouse-inspired statues lurked at The Venetian Macao, The Londoner Macao and Le Jardin, the park at The Parisian Macao; planetary installations that celebrate Chinese ink art master Hsiao Chin hung at the entrance to MGM Cotai’s theatre.

This is just a tiny fraction of Art Macao, an international art event initiated by Macau’s Cultural Affairs Bureau in 2019, the main agenda of which is to rebrand the city as the World Centre of Tourism and Leisure through city-wide art and cultural exhibitions, activities and workshops.

This move came after Beijing’s 2014 direction that Macau accelerate economic diversification from the casino industry. Since then, efforts have been made to steer the city towards developing its cultural, heritage and tourism sectors. In 2022, chief executive Ho Lat Seng officially announced the city’s adoption of the “1+4” policy, a five-year blueprint to develop the city as the “one centre” of integrated tourism and leisure with four nascent non-gambling industries, including culture and sport, which are expected to contribute 60 per cent of the city’s GDP. As for the gambling sector, when the Macau government in 2022 renewed casino operators’ licensing agreements from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2033, the final six winning bidders were chosen based on a scoring system in which non-gaming commitments, such as investments in art events, were a key deciding factor.