Yet like many hybrid populations, Macanese tend to emphasize their European rather than their Asian roots.
Around the world a dozen Macanese associations hold regular events to promote their cultural legacy.
As the handover approaches, more and more Macanese are trying to defy that prediction.
"You can always tell when a group of Macanese get together, " says Cristina Santos, a Macau civil servant.
The Macanese--largely the descendants of intermarriage between Portuguese settlers and local Cantonese--account for fewer than 5% of the enclave's half-million residents.
Ironically, even Macanese have a hard time defining what sets them apart.
There are 16th-century maps, reconstructed streets made up of typical Chinese and Portuguese houses and cultural items such as puppets that shine a light on old Macanese life.
Last month a worldwide reunion attracted 1, 300 members of the Macanese diaspora, many wanting to have one last look at the city before Beijing assumes control.
To Jorge Forjaz, author of a three-volume history entitled Macanese Families, the people are inseparable from their city's status as a colony--a meeting ground for East and West.
Miguel Senna Fernandes, a lawyer and member of the local legislative assembly, has written plays for a theater troupe that performs in the original Macanese patois, an archaic blend of Portuguese and Cantonese.
The implication--that Macanese think best in Portuguese--is telling.
Already their numbers have been decimated by marriage and migration. (Some 40, 000 Macanese now live abroad.) They and their once-graceful port at the mouth of the Pearl River will have a hard time maintaining a distinct identity under mainland rule.
And while only 4, 000 self-described Macanese now remain among a population of 450, 000, the racial mixing that distinguished the Portuguese in their empire from, say, the British in theirs has bequeathed the onetime colony an air of acceptance, and of variousness.
In fact, Macau draws so many punters that casinos are literally rising from the sea: the Venetian and the Plaza anchor a development known as the Cotai Strip, built on a five-kilometre piece of reclaimed land that links the two Macanese islands of Coloane and Taipa.
ECONOMIST: Macau is only the start: all Asia is coming out to play
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