Speaking without speaking: cultural reinvention and identity transformation in Macau’s Lusophone community in postcolonial China

Language and culture have long been understood as mutually constitutive, does the decline of linguistic practice necessarily lead to cultural erosion? This article challenges that assumption through a study of Macau, a former Portuguese colony with an atypical postcolonial trajectory. Drawing on metrolinguistics and Anderson’s concept of imagined communities, this study examines how language practices and cultural identities are reconfigured among Macanese youth of Portuguese descent born between 2000 and 2010. Based on in-depth interviews and participant observation, the study reveals a paradox: while everyday use and intergenerational transmission of Portuguese have declined, the language has gained renewed symbolic significance as a marker of heritage and local belonging.This transformation is shaped by Macau’s multilingual environment, shifting language hierarchies, and the commodification of Portuguese culture. The findings challenge linguistic determinism and offer a framework for understanding symbolic identity formation amid language shift in postcolonial societies.