The Chinese City That Defeated EVERYONE In WWII | Dr. Helena Lopes

While the entire world plunged into global war in the mid-20th century, there was ONE Chinese city that remained free and prosperous against all odds. Meet Macau, and the story of a neutral territory in the midsts of a brutal war for power and resources.

Today I'm talking to the brilliant WWII historian, Dr. Helena Lopes, who is a lecturer in Modern Asian History at Cardiff University, in Wales. Originally haling from Portugal, Helena researched the South China enclave of Macau, which was the first and last European colonial settlement in East Asia. Her study entitled “Neutrality and Collaboration in South China: Macau during the Second World War” focuses on the experience of this tiny plot of land which at the time was controlled by the Portuguese colonial state. Since Portugal declared neutrality in WWII and remained free, its neutrality also extended to Macau, which the Japanese, Chinese, Americans and other belligerents actually respected. Although the Japanese did invade Hong Kong — which was under the British — they didn’t touch Macau. Now that constellation of a neutral territory in East Asia led to some very interesting constellations.

[deanzaZZR]

As someone who has read widely in East Asian history I had no idea that Macau remained neutral and unoccupied during WW2. Bravo for your unique contribution.

[lisbondiaries]

I am an older Portuguese PhD student. Although my studies aren’t in the same discipline, I am very impressed by Dr. Lopes’ work. Our colonial history was complex and unfortunate. This study of Macau during WWII is fascinating. Good work Dra!

[MariaMMCardoso]

It's a widely unknown fact that Portugal remained neutral during the WWII. At the time and until the revolution by design. Salazar was a very closed person that went to the extreme to stay unnoticed and after the revolution because it was a good thing he did for the country and it was not desirable to say anything good about the former dictator. Believing that every single person and situation has plus and minus, even being very happy that we now have a democracy, I wish that this particular lesson from the past had been learned...

[Salisboury]

Not long ago I was reading Bertil Lintner’s book “Blood Brothers” which tells the story of organized crime in East Asia, and one of the chapters was about Macau. He also explained in detail how Macau remained neutral and capitalized off of it during WW2.

[lindahockham]

Sounds like the leaders in Macau could have written the book “the art of the deal”. Rather than principled neutrality, they found a way to benefit by capitalizing on everyone’s interests. Very similar to the role Turkey plays on the global stage.

[DorJinTan]

interesting. D Portuguese r an interesting ppl. They took melaka all those years ago and today thrs a unique community of them here in Malaysia. Cristang culture.

[carlduplessis]

A very interesting discussion. I will definitely get Dr Lopes’ book and am looking forward to reading it .

[blackwolfemperor]

There are books written about Macao just not in English.

[fabiodeoliveiraribeiro]

There are strong regimes that flaunt their strength, strong regimes that prefer to appear weak, weak regimes that believe they are strong, and weak regimes that take advantage of their own weakness. Macau exemplifies the latter case.

[antoniop]

It wasn’t a Chinese city at that time (otherwise wouldn’t be neutral)

[Arimaquinador]

A podcast with the story of Edward VIII stay in Lisbon is being published. It's a great story and also neutrality driven - his stay was a big headache for the Portuguese government to manage.

[RaufMohammed-rfus]

Thank you professor for the good work doing
I will soon join your community

[pedroferrr]

The Portuguese landed in Macau between 1553 and 1554, under the pretext of drying their cargo. The Chinese authorities, in 1557, finally authorized the Portuguese to settle permanently in Macau and also granted a considerable degree of self-governance to them. So, it was not a COLONY, at least for me, because China gave us the control of it!

[mgxrtzm]

It was NOT A COLONY it was PART OF PORTUGAL
we did not and never had same approach of other european countries to their oversees territories and this lady as portuguese should know that. Shameful someone that reneges its own people