The Script Road kicks off

The Script Road, the first ever Literary Festival organized in the Special Administrative Region of Macau, started this Sunday with Lusophone writers asking for a new beginning in the relationship between the Portuguese speaking countries and China.“I think this initiative of inviting lusophone writers to Macau has to be echoed somehow in Brazil. I will make a point to do that. We have to exchange more than iron, petrol and soya with China,” said Brazilian writer João Paulo Cuenca, during the first session of the festival, entitled “Portuguese-speaking countries and China: A Romance” (Portuguese word with double meaning: romantic liaison and novel).The idea was supported by the Portuguese writer and journalist Rui Cardoso Martins, who defended that “the new relationship between East and West has to be based on words.” “It’s good to arrive from Portugal where everyone speaks about nothing but the crisis, to Macau, where the money seems to go up in the sky.”Portuguese awarded journalist and best-selling writer José Rodrigues dos Santos reminded the audience that the current Chinese economic prowess led to the recent acquisition of the Portuguese Electric Group EDP, “the first relevant Chinese deal in Europe, not surprisingly in Portugal”, the first Western country to established a solid relationship with China, he added.

“The Chinese language is great, with many millions speaking it, but the Portuguese language is also great, because is our motherland is our language (like Portuguese Poet Fernando Pessoa said), then we are all Brazilians, Cape-Verdeans, Mozambicans and Macanese,” dos Santos stressed.Mozambican filmmaker Yara Costa, who recently produced a documentary about Chinese immigrants living in Africa, explained that beyond all the Chinese investment on infrastructures, which is welcomed by African governments, there’s a deep misunderstanding (based on stereotypes), between the local population and the immigrants. “The Mozambicans think for instance that many Chinese newcomers are ex-prisoners looking for a new break whereas the Chinese immigrants are convinced that Mozambicans carry the HIV virus and should therefore never approach them more than necessary,” she revealed.Literature can therefore break prejudices, open new doors and create links. 2009 Man Asian Literary prize Su Tong explained how the reading of late Portuguese Nobel Laureate José Saramago awakened in him “an emotional attachment to Portugal, a country that I never visited and yet, I long for it.”

The weeklong festival, which ends on February 4th, includes debates, workshops, movie screenings, art exhibitions and musical shows. But the literary debate is king. “The objective of the literary festival is to reignite the pleasure of reading and writing and I am sure that many in Macau will be inspired by these visiting authors,” said the director of the Script Road, Ricardo Pinto.

The festival started in fact with a master class and workshop led by Hong Kong writer Xu Xi. The author also presented her latest novel, “Habit of a Foreign Sky,” which was shortlisted for the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize.

The Script Road kicks off

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