Macau Metropolis and Mental Life: Interior Urbanism and the Chinese Imaginary

Abstract This article investigates the tendency towards an interiorized and encapsulated urbanity in M acau and the functional role of this phenomenon in the ‘mental life’ of C hinese consumers. A Portuguese territory for half a millennium, M acau was returned to the People's Republic of C hina ( PRC ) in 1999; the postcolonial, semi‐autonomous M acau S pecial A dministrative R egion has subsequently become the most lucrative casino gaming site in the world, far surpassing casino revenues earned in L as V egas. This article investigates the manner in which the local government of the city‐state and the central government of the PRC have colluded with transnational capital to effect a remarkable enclosure of the urban commons in M acau. The entire city today may be understood as a biopolitical laboratory of consumption, where the PRC uses a preferential exit visa policy to allow tourists from select, relatively affluent provinces access to M acau. The new built environment of the city naturalizes a radical urban imaginary and corresponding post‐socialist ‘quality’ consumer subject; that subject is crucial to the macroeconomic goals of the PRC and the sustainability of global capitalism.