With its blend of Sino-Iberian exoticism, Macau has provided inspiration for poems, travelogues and even some action-packed Bond and Carter tomes
Macau has not been served well by Western literature, which is puzzling given how captivating the enclave has always been for visiting writers and other creative types.
Luis Vaz de Camoes, considered Portugal's greatest poet, wrote one of his most famous poems, the epic Os Lusiadas, while on his Macau sojourn in the 1570s. But remarkably few others have been similarly inspired in this magical town of church spires, Taoist deities, and temples of mammon.
Perhaps the most notable writer to have made a high-profile visit was novelist, ex-spy and James Bond creator, Ian Fleming in 1959. In this year he had included tiny Macau in his 'Thrilling Cities' itinerary, which also took in: Hong Kong, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago and New York.
All these locales featured in serialised travelogues that ran in The Times newspaper, with Fleming providing for many in Britain the first glimpses of a backwater that most had never heard of. Later these accounts were collected into the book Thrilling Cities.
Fleming thoroughly enjoyed Macau's blend of Sino-Iberian exoticism and the city subsequently made it into the James Bond novel Thunderball, albeit indirectly, through a fictional Macanese gangster, who we learn is the head of the Red Lightning Tong triad.