“Macau people ruling Macau”

Following Macau’s handover to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1999, the city became a Special Administrative Region (SAR), being “released” from nearly a century and a half of Portuguese colonial rule. With Macau under autonomous government for a period of 50 years, the liberalization of gambling in 2002 has marked the continuity of the city’s main economic activity, aiding in shaping the place of Macau within national China through the logic of a neoliberal exception. Whereas entailing a rupture in political dominance, Macau’s transition has been normalized within an agenda of national reunion, eventually captured by the Chinese central authorities in the slogan “Macau people ruling Macau,” in particular, as an appeal to the Chineseness of Macau residents.