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Macao Cultural Centre Sunday 13

In a festive display of Macau’s mixed cultural and national origins, this fortnight The Wind Band of The Macao Philharmonic Orchestra gives a special hybrid concert celebrating three holidays in one: the tenth anniversary of the Macau handover, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and – why not? – Christmas. “This is a special year of anniversaries for Macau,” orchestra director and conductor Lee-Hong Chan told us via email. “Our purpose with this program is to give people three different festival atmospheres to feel in one concert; it’s a special sound that seldom can be heard in Macau.”

For the Chinese anniversary portion of the program, Lee has selected several of the martial marches that were featured in the recent 60th Chinese National Day Parade, including People’s Navy Marching Forward and The March of Military Prowess. For the handover celebration section of show the band performs a few local songs, such as The Song of Seven Sons from China-Macao and The Girl from A-li Mountain, mixed with some nationalist Mainland numbers, like Love my China. Wrapping up the festivities are renditions of Jingle Bell Polka, A Very Merry Christmas, and several other holiday classics.

To us, this sounds like a very odd concert indeed, but to Macanese ears, acclimatised as they are to cultural contrast and identity in transition, perhaps nothing could be more natural than a Chinese military march set to the tune of Jingle Bells.

Steve Cheng