Macau History And Heritage Series | Cross-border Funeral and Refugee Issues in Macau during the Mid-20th Century
Macau History And Heritage Series | Cross-border Funeral and Refugee Issues in Macau during the Mid-20th Century
10
Dec
The Macau History And Heritage Series “Cross-border Funeral and Refugee Issues in Macau during the Mid-20th Century” will take place on Wednesday, 10 December, from 7PM – 8PM, at Rui Cunha Foundation.
About the Talk:
From the mid-19th century onwards, due to repeated coercive measures imposed by the Portuguese authorities in Macao, Chinese residents were prohibited from burying their dead on the Macao Peninsula. As modern systems such as public cemeteries, medical certificates of death, and burial applications gradually matured, the Portuguese authorities formally authorised Macao’s Kiang Wu Hospital in 1881 to oversee Chinese burials and operate the Chinese Cemetery. This established a unique Cross-border burial pattern between Macao and Xiangshan County (this area is present-day southern Zhuhai), a practice that persists to this day. By the mid-20th century, Japan’s invasion of China triggered mass migration to Macao, exacerbating burial space shortages. The critical lack of burial plots led to the emergence of mass graves in the border area. Following the conclusion of the Second World War, Macau’s Chinese community actively collaborated with neighbouring regions to re-establish the collaboration of Cross-border funeral.
About the Speaker:
Dr Carlos Ka Nok Lo
Dr Carlos Ka Nok Lo is the Research Assistant Professor in University of Macau. He has been engaged nine years of extensive research in Global Demography History, Socio-economic History, Sino–Western Cultural Exchange and Social History of Death.
Lo has published over twenty journal articles and conference papers. His doctoral thesis critically examines the use of population census by the Macao-Portuguese colonial government, exploring its impact on colonial administration. Recently he has been conducting research on Funeral Practice, Modern Cemeteries and Urban Management in 18-20 Centuries.
Moderator: Prof. Priscilla Roberts
Details:
Date: Wednesday, 10 December 2025
Time: 19:00 – 20:00
Location: Rui Cunha Foundation, Av. da Praia Grande, Nº749-R/C, Macau
Language: This conference will be held in English, with Cantonese and Mandarin as supplementary languages
Organisers: Department of History and Heritage at th Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Saint Joseph Macao; Research Laboratory for Cultural Sustainability; and Rui Cunha Foundation
*This is a free event and open to the general public
