ABSTRACT
Boundaries, particularly cultural boundaries, are more than lines sharply drawn on a map. They hold symbolic meanings for the worlds they separate, defining the limits of each while remaining porous to influences from either side. The Aomen peninsula was of little consequence to Xiangshan before the middle of the sixteenth century. That soon changed after the Portuguese settled there and the town and its trade began to grow. As the political and economic focus of Xiangshan and the Guangdong hinterland shifted southward toward Macau in the eighteenth century, a broader orientation to the coastal periphery and the West was also emerging. In Macau, an elaborate structure was created to handle the export of contract laborers. Chinese from the villages throughout the delta were often duped or coerced by various means to sign contracts from which they could not escape. However much the influence of Macau pervaded the region surrounding it, affecting economic and political life, a cultural boundary remained.
