Macau on Location: Cinematic and Sociospatial Analysis of a Postcolonial City

abstract: The former Portuguese colony of Macau observed the twenty-fifth anniversary of its Handover to the People's Republic of China in 2024. Since the Handover, the gambling enclave has seen an acceleration in urban and infrastructural development, including the reclamation of a landmass known as the Cotai Strip and its integration into the Greater Bay Area. This article presents Macau as a unique case in the postcolonial study of film and space. Blending film interpretation, postcolonial history, and fieldwork spanning over a decade, this article introduces what the author calls the ethnographic drift as a method of cinematic and sociospatial analysis.