CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN MACAU

Usually, in Macau, the installed inertia is interrupted by the launch of some initiatives, such as the anti-smoking campaign, or ideas, such as the creative industries.

If the anti-smoking campaign went ahead, because prohibiting is easier and always allows the dedicated anti-smoking fighters to show their dedication to the cause, the rest has not been so successful.

It has long been known that the P.R. OF China wants the Government of the Macau Special Administrative Region to find an alternative to the Gaming Industry. 
In 2011, the United Kingdom, through trade with the world, made a modest sum of 15.5 billion pounds, something like 198.28 billion patacas, in services and products of the said Creative Industries.

And perhaps so, in the field of hypotheses, the solution to an alternative economy would have been found. The Creative Industries would be one of the segments of the Macao Economy that would compete with the billions generated by the gaming industry.

And, in the manner of Genesis from the Bible, everyone tried to elaborate what would Creative Industries be. In the distinguished Legislative Assembly some of the most paradigmatic interventions on the subject were heard, deserving records for future memory of comedy.

Of course, it has not been explained to the different members that the Creative Industries are, above all, a Concept. A concept that is based on the profitability of activities linked to the generation and exploitation of knowledge and information from traditional activities with an artistic component, that existed previously to the concept itself, activities as traditional as (according to Hawkins Creative Economy), Advertising, Architecture, Art, Handicraft, Graphic Design, Fashion Design, Cinema, Music, Performing or Stage Arts, Paper publications, Computer games, Television, Radio to quote the classic definitions and that need not be labeled or grouped to work.

However, those who  hold power face a crossroads of choices: will you want the proceeds of the Game to continue to fill your coffers, or will there be strong investments to promote a truly alternative Economy? And this economy has real possibilities to be successful?

This question seems to me to be pertinent, as enthusiasm for the multiplication of souvenirs has certainly been seen as an economic alternative.

The lessons to be drawn from this type of action come from what is conventionally called culture, to which I would like to add the desirable word "basic" as in basic culture.

THE CONTEXTS

Briefly, even with all the goodwill of power, it is not possible to see the architects of Macao being able to have a launching ramp on the customers, all the more so because the big projects linked to COTAI are replicas of others, or else, products of international firms, which means the lack of protection for local authors. That is, there is no condition of protection for local architects for mega projects. So, as far as architecture is concerned, things are clear.

Advertising, something that requires great quality and synthesis of communication, are taken care by the Casinos, while some official organisms resort to the most unimaginable childlike at the level of the advertisement of television and posters, and ... well, of saunas . The second category in Hawkins' list, therefore, does not seem to have a bright future, because taste and knowledge, which are gains in a world of global communication, where at least two languages are required, seems to find in those who can, even a tiny bit, a kind  of blockage for the ability to even see what Hong Kong does or take advantage of local authors capable of producing quality images and messages.

As far as Art is concerned, there are official galleries that do not allow the sale of exhibits and the private galleries, in addition to scarce, do not even create a market. Thus, in a simplistic way, there is no market and the artists who work abroad are counted by the fingers of one hand. Perhaps because there is still no real School of Arts of international quality, but also because it does not coexist with Difference. Thus, the chapter of the Arts is closed with another negative.

Nowadays Craft is defined as an intellectual and physical activity, where the author explores the immense possibilities of materials and processes for the production of unique objects. This is another reason why craftwork differs from the industry. What matters in the craftsman is the care, love and joy that the author places in what he does, whether it is a suitcase, a dress or a piece of woodwork, without excluding other forms of craft expression where the workshop part is of fundamental importance. However, it is clear that, with very few exceptions, there is no longer a tailor or carpenter worthy of the name.

The free economy we have, swept almost the entire traditional, craft professions. Is there anyone who still knows how to lacquer? Or embroider by hand with silk thread? What future is reserved for the scarce artisans and for the craft itself? The question already contains the answer.

Has Graphic Design, for its part, broken borders? The question I ask is not in the sense of its promotion, but as creative industry etiquette. Do not know. But I have my doubts that, overall, Macau is a "Graphic Design Hub". Even because (again) the largest industry of M.E.A. Region has its own graphics designers. There will also be few who work abroad, even because a fundamental condition is necessary: that all designers working abroad be bilingual and have the exact notion that this so-called creative industries is once again just a concept.

The same question is put to fashion as design. Fashion is an industry as powerful as cinema. It moves millions and requires a truly organized structure. In order to understand what I mean, I recall that, in the middle of the crisis, Armani Group's 2013 revenues were 2.091 billion Euros, something like 20.910 billion patacas.

Although all the walks begin with the first step, will Macau be able to expand similarly to the Marisfrolg brand coming from Shenzhen? What makes the talent of Zhu Chongyun have been able to create 300 stores in Mainland, Singapore, Seoul and Macau? Surely the funding does not come on the same scale. It was created a pure and hard company, which is how you do Fashion Business. What is known is that Marisfrolg bought the Italian Krizia. Amazing is it not?

Here, business owners know little or nothing. Their strength is land and civil construction. Fashion takes the first steps, with rare exceptions, in launching, projecting and understanding that dressing people requires enough maturity to truly understand the market.

Come now the movies. Macau has a curious feature: it is that living so close to one of the world's largest film producers, Hong Kong, the territory remained untouched by "contagion", keeping away from industries capable of bringing some innovation. Or, in other words, we never managed to start, not even making partnerships. All exceptions confirm the rule.

In 2011, box office receipts for 56 films "made in Hong Kong" (an average of 4.6 films per month) were HK $ 1,379 billion. Hong Kong's film history dates back to the early 20th century and finds a postwar start to Cantonese cinema in the post-Pacific War with the coming of mainland capitals and artists, which will rival the Mandarin films of Shaw Brothers and of its rival Cathay. Later Golden Harvest in the 1960s would produce the Bruce Lee films, which would launch Hong Kong for a link to Hollywood.

There is everything to do in Macau. There is no film industry, full stop.

In terms of television, TDM is, in general, the inheritance of the political will of a governor. Television which, despite some efforts, survives in an archaic state compared to its colleagues in Hong Kong, operates in the Portuguese channel more as a retransmitter of international Portuguese official television, RTP.

Only the paper editions, notably the magazines that capitalize on the gaming world, the product of the private initiative of enterprising journalists, have stirred the local environment.

More would be to say, about Music for example. But with the Macau Music Festival in its 26th edition, no professional recording studios or studios have yet emerged, if an International Rock Festival has not yet been considered, if there is still no venue for the Jazz Club or if the Macao Jazz Festival has been revived, it is because something needs to be done. Yet nothing has been done.

Given the professionalism, efficiency, and efficiency in the way Macao's gaming industry has stood out, I regret to note that I do not see any future for creative calls, even because the city itself has become something that reminds me of science fiction.

It is a city that is turned away from its inhabitants. And since the city is a living organism, if it is intoxicated, with blocked arteries, a bad road circulation with permanent increase of cars, of incomes that invalidate even attempts at sustained launching of said Creative Industries, the question that arises is: is it?

Now that we have taken a little tour without addressing other themes like the more conclusive definition of the creative industries, and looking out into the desert, I would like to say, like the talking cricket: Cre-cre-crea what Industries?

It is imperative that nowadays Macau can hold one of the fastest Internet networks in the world. There is no justification for it not to be so. This indispensable improvement could help to make Macau a hub, a competitive cyber platform, and the acquisition of other instruments that I have been talking about for more than 20 years.

Only the creation of resources will intervene in favour of the globalization of territories with a limited area, such as Macau. Therefore, I repeat that there is no plausible justification that the existing Broadband does not have the potential, the flow it should have. Beyond this flaw and paradox, I wonder why local banks do not offer the population a fundamental product for E-Commerce, more commonly known as Merchant's Account. A factual paradox, because in a city that moves billions we do not look a little further and implement a fundamental instrument for Electronic Commerce. There is not even PayPal.

Hence the long-standing needs are many and the views sparse, perhaps because abundance dazzles. Even when knowledge does not take up space.

It is also not envisaged that the computer games industry will take place in Macao. And it's a pity. The latest data shows that it is making more money than cinema. And, like everything else that is virtual, it does not take up space either.