Shaping heritage into a cultural economy: policy dynamics, adaptive reuse, and discourse in Macao’s cultural tourism (2016–2025)

This paper analyses the evolution of Macao’s cultural and creative industry policies from 2016 to 2025, examining how heritage conservation, economic diversification, and cultural production intersect within a policy- and discourse-driven landscape. Using Cinematheque Passion as a focal case study, it explores adaptive reuse as a strategy for transforming historic spaces into cultural nodes serving both preservation and the cultural economy. Grounded in a Foucauldian discourse-analytic framework, the study interrogates how language, governance, and institutional practices shape cultural value and legitimate policy under the banners of diversification, soft power, and urban competitiveness. Tracing policy evolution from the 2014 Cultural Heritage Protection Law through the post-pandemic reorientation towards an integrated cultural economy, the findings illustrate the potential and tensions of heritage-led development in a gaming- and tourism-dependent economy, contributing to understanding of how cultural economy discourse reconstitutes the meanings and uses of heritage in Macao.