ABSTRACT
Macau was always a place apart. It was connected to the mainland by a single road through the barrier gate straddling the narrow bar of the isthmus. Although this connection was not unimportant historically and has become more significant, the principal way to Macau was nonetheless the more tenuous sea route. Not only in this geographical sense but in a historical sense, too, Macau was isolated. Its historical culture cut it off from the world as much as its marginal location did. But the isolation of Macau is now only an illusion or at most a temporary condition that soon will finally pass. Macau's function as a cultural threshold between two worlds always depended on its marginality—a threshold by definition exists on the margins of adjoining spaces. In late May 1985, Portugal and China jointly announced that discussions would soon begin to plan the return of Macau to Chinese sovereignty.
