Macao Polytechnic Institute: Bridging the Community and Let the Beauty of Macao be Seen

One can typically only think of almond cookies and jerk beef when friends and family abroad ask for gifts from Macao. But Hsu Hsiu-Chu, Director of School of Arts(the School) and Director of Cultural and Creative Industries Teaching and Research Centre (the Research Centre) of the Macao Polytechnic Institute believes that Macao’s own designer brands and products can become the must-buy items from the city. To achieve such goal, education is of paramount importance.

To stay in tandem with the economic and industry development and to groom new creative talents for Macao, Macao Polytechnic Institute established the Research Centre in March last year. Hsiu pointed out that the School has groomed hundreds of talents in design, music, visual arts for Macao, and the Research Centre will further expand the outreach to bridge resources and community needs. For instances, holding workshops, talks and short courses are some flexible ways to respond to the community needs.

The Midsummer Art Camp held last year was to try to turn this vision into reality. The demolition of the dockyard in Lai Chi Vun in Coloane has become a hot topic in town. In April last year, the Research Centre dispatched a team of teachers and students of the School to the site to inspect it. The historical site was the theme of the three-day Art Camp and secondary school students were welcome to join. In the end, participants created various types of creative products related to Lai Chi Vun, such as photography, illustrations and pottery. All products were sold in a market.

“Creative education needs to be entrenched locally. When kids are nurtured in such culture they may choose an art-related career when they grow up, or become supporters of creative products, because they all love this place.” Hsiu drew an analogy between creative education and a pyramid. The most fundamental is to nurture a group of people to be interested in art so that they can become supporters of creative products. The second stage is to nurture a group of people to be interested in design and they can promote it to the public. The top level consists of design professionals and management.

Apart from doing the foundation work to nurture high school students their aesthetic sense, Macao Polytechnic Institute has collaborated with Taiwan University of Arts to co-offer Master’s in Interdisciplinary Arts programme so as to provide more postgraduate training in art and culture and nurture more talents for the sector. She expressed that at present the School’s undergraduate programmes require student to major in a specialised discipline such as design, music or visual arts. But the global trend is to blur the line between disciplines and integrate them. Macao, therefore, needs more interdisciplinary talents. The School has planned to run graduate programmes in creativity studies so as to meet the needs of the development in Macao.

Hsiu emphasised repeatedly that community is vital to creative education. “Community is of paramount importance. It’s where we live and where we have bonding with. Our Research Centre and the school have to be grounded in the community as every community has its uniqueness and its story to tell.” Hsiu originally hails from Taiwan, but when it comes to the community culture in Macao, you see sparkle in her eye. Hsiu took the area around Avenida do Conselheiro Ferreira de Almeida as an example. To her that area is significant because it is embedded with both Chinese and western cultures and is a repository of stories. She believes that there is something culturally valuable yet to be uncovered in the area.

The Research Centre has launched “A Study on Macao’s Community Creativity”. Cases on development of community creativity overseas and in Macao will be studied and the strength of each community in Macao will be examined. Moreover, the institute is going to launch courses on community creativity and teachers will be encouraged to teach with a focus on connecting with the community.

Also from Taiwan, Yu Kuo-Hua, Visiting Associate Professor, Cultural and Creative Industries Teaching and Research Centre, has been researching community creativity. Since the 1990s, Taiwan has been advocating the concept of community construction and proactively constructed each community’s identity so as to promote the local cultural industry. When it comes to the successful cases in Taiwan, Yu stressed: “Communities and rural areas in Taiwan eventually developed their own unique cultural industry. While Macao’s size is smaller and population is less than Taiwan, opportunities are still there. The key is to discover its own core values.” But it’s not about simply printing images of the St Paul’s Ruins on T-shirts or turning graphics of Lai Chi Vun dockyard to a pattern on a mug. The most important is to uncover the stories and culture behind icons, like the elaborate craftsmanship of boat building in Lai Chi Vun.

“Community creativity is to allow ‘Macao’ to become the subject matter of Macao’s creative industry, and to let Macao to be seen.” This is the vision Yu has with regards to the job he is going to do.

Grooming Design Talent for the Future

Looking back at school days, three graduates of Macao Polytechnic Institute said in unison “Time flew by so fast.”

“In the past I saw some senior students pulled an all-nighter in the campus to finish their assignments. I used to think that they were last minute fighters. After when I started studying 3D animation, I realised that there is never enough time to do what you want to do,” said Kimberly Choi Lei Kei, who studied multimedia in Macao Polytechnic Institute. She explained that when there were deadlines to multiple assignments at once, the workload was so heavy that some students had to stay in the campus for three days to get their work done. But when one loves his or her job, all the work is worth it, even when it gets crazy. Choi admitted: “When I was studying in secondary school, I did not like studying at all. But when I was in the university, my mother once said to me that I spent more time in the school than when I was a high school student. What she said really matters to me.”

After studying graphic design, Grateril Sit Ka Ma has begun to be curious about everything around her. When she saw an advertising banner on the street, she would start thinking whether the design, such as the number of words, line spacing or layout, is appropriate. This is like what the proverb says: “Everything in life is inspiration.” Her classmate Libby Lei Pou Kin once made smartphone cases for sale. She is positive about the development of the creative industries in Macao because they government is very supportive of young entrepreneurs. When it comes to employment, Lei hopes to work for a design firm so as to get more experiences of the industry before establishing her own brand. As to the upcoming internship in this summer, she hopes that she can get an internship in a creative company in Taiwan to get relevant experiences, broaden her horizons and finally bring different elements back to Macao to stimulate her creativity.