Wherever you went in the East, people talked about Macao as a place of sin and revelry, but you didn’t really start hearing the facts until you reached Hong Kong. They were fabulous, all right, the stories you heard. During the war one way to escape to Free China was to get smuggled to Macao first, and then make arrangements with the local pirates for the rest of the trip. The pirates figured heavily in most of the tales. But it wasn’t until you got to Macao yourself and the initial impact of its old European charm wore off that you realized what it was. I remember the Governor’s secretary in the marble house used both as an office and a residence. He was very cordial and took great pains to emphasize the sense of the order in the colony. When I spoke about the press he was full of patience for my lack of comprehension. “We have our own conception, and we find it more successful. Who can say which one of us is right?”


以上引自Robert Shaplen, “A Corner of the World”, 載於Donald Pittis and Suasn J. Henders編 Macao: Mysterious Deacay and Romance, Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1997.

澳門是個罪惡和狂歡的城市，澳門的故事都是充滿驚喜和奇情的，這是美國記者在二戰時為我們留給世界的註釋。那時，「要在戰爭期間進入自由中國，必須先偷渡到澳門，到了澳門，當地的海盜會替你安排好其他行程。」在所有故事裡，海盜都是吃重的角色。所以，奇情和驚喜，罪惡與狂歡，還有海盜，仍然不能讓你明白這是一個怎樣的城市；所以，只有來到澳門，親歷古歐洲魅力漸減的衝擊，你才會知道這是一個怎樣的城市。澳督的秘書，在他起居和工作的大屋中，向外來的記者，誠懇又努力的解釋，這個殖民地城市，還有正常的秩序，可是，記者的心裡，還有在聞名的《紐約人雜誌》（New Yorker Magazine）上，記錄下來的，只有大家對秩序的不同認識。「我們有自己的觀念，而且，我們覺得這樣更成功。有誰能說我們當中誰是對的？」（“We have our own conception, and we find it more successful. Who can say which one of us is right?”）澳門在世界的一個角落，有著自己的觀念，原來我們對秩序，對罪惡，對狂歡，還有對海盜，都有自己的觀念，自己的價值。這，到底是自欺欺人，仰或真有奇事？在狂歡中我們有秩序，在罪惡中我們很正常，這究竟是一個城市的成功，抑或失敗？沒有人能說得清楚。