Macau people


Macau people are people who originate from or live in Macau.
Besides their use to refer to Macau residents, these terms may also be used more loosely to refer to those who may not be residents, but have lived in the city for an extensive period of time or have a strong cultural connection with Macau. Macau people do not comprise one particular ethnicity, and people that live in Macau are independent of Chinese citizenship and residency status. The majority of Macau people are of Chinese descent and are ethnic Han Chinese. A group of Macau people with some Portuguese ancestry are known as the Macanese.

Name

The term "澳門人" and "土生葡人" in Chinese, the lingua franca of Macau, refers to the Macau people and the Macanese people, respectively. Although there have been attempts by the Portuguese Macau government in the mid-1990s to redefine the Portuguese and English term "Macanese" as Macau Permanent Resident, in accordance with the Chinese usage, it didn't succeed. Consequently, the Portuguese and English term "Macanese" refers neither to the indigenous people of Macau nor to the demonym of Macau, but to a distinctive minority culture.