Public Lecture | Baccarat, Biopolitics and Casino Capitalism in Macau

The Xavier Research Centre for Memory and Identity will hold a Public Lecture “Baccarat, Biopolitics and Casino Capitalism in Macau” on 28 October 2022.

Portuguese explorers founded Macau in 1557 to serve as a port of trade between Europe and China at the origins of the global capitalist system. In 1999, Portugal returned Macau to the People’s Republic of China after nearly five centuries of colonial administration. At the time of the handover, Macau was the last remaining European territory in Asia, with a moribund economy and lethargic ambiance. Over the next two decades, however, Macau was transformed into the most lucrative site of casino gaming in global history, and (for a brief period) one of the wealthiest territories in the world. This talk explores Macau’s indigenous regime of casino capitalism and the city’s function in an emergent era of Sino-capitalism. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of the apparatus, I focus on the megacity, the integrated resort, and the baccarat machine, in order to understand Macau’s pedagogical role in producing citizen-consumers for China’s reform-era economy.

Date: Friday, 28 October 2022
Time: 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m (Macau)
Location: Classroom 302, USJ Ilha Verde Campus
Organised by: Xavier Research Centre for Memory and Identity (USJ) 
Moderated by: Prof. Denis Zuev, Director of the Xavier Research Centre for Memory and Identity
Contact:  denis.zuev@usj.edu.mo

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89907663203?pwd=eEl6dm1xWWF6Q0dkVXlxU3R5eHFwZz09

Meeting ID: 899 0766 3203
Password: 856973