There is a kind of love called nostalgia

I got to know Pedro Barreiros and Graça Pacheco Jorge when we edited together the biography of their grandfather Jose Vincente Jorge, mother side. The Jorge family is a very old Macanese family in Macao, with a history dating back to 1570. Pedro and Graça are cousins. Born in Macau, both of them moved to Portugal with their families when they were young kids.

However, they always left their hearts in Macau, a hometown they crave. They do their utmost to preserve the family heritage items, such as furniture, porcelain, books, photographs, newspaper clippings, family recipes, and continuously hold exhibitions and publish books featuring such items – a way for them to get closer to the perfect homeland of their hearts, Macau.

When editing the biography of Jose Vincente Jorge, almost everyone involved would always be drawn by his distinguished social status, well-educatedness and his rich collection of exquisite antique treasures. Yet I preferred to discover stories behind the photos of his two youngest daughters, Henriqueta and her eight years younger sister Marie. Their carefree childhood and flowering youth were spent in Macau. Look at the two sisters in the photos and one will know at once that their beauty and elegance is beyond description – no matter how vivid words are used.

Henriqueta and Marie are respectively the mother of Pedro Barreiros and Graça Pacheco Jorge, therefore I often had the opportunity to listen to stories about them: some happened in Macau and others in Portugal. Life, apart from joy and happiness, is filled with pains and sorrows. One of these stories is unforgettable for me: in the 1940s, three generations of the Jorge family immigrated to Portugal to avoid the chaos of war, settling down in Lisbon; once Henriqueta’s husband invited local celebrities to home for a dinner banquet. When the lady brought to the table the Macanese dishes the Jorge family so proud of, the reaction she got was: these dishes smelled like yellow fever!

Additionally, a few years ago in Portugal I met Marie, already over 95 years old. Graça and I went to the elders care home to visit her. She sat in a chair in the garden, the traces of her beauty in youth still visible. Although this was the first time I met Marie, I knew well all the important stages of her life and her images in photos kept emerging on my mind: at the age of seven, she sat in the big living room full of her father’s antique porcelain, looking out of the window; her playful Indian looks at a masquerade ball, her blooming smiles at the carnival dance party, and the slightly nervous-looking bride in the wedding...

Marie might be a bit disoriented because of aging, which on the contrary accentuated her demeanor and educatedness as a noble lady. At first she spoke Portuguese with her daughter, but when Graça introduced me as one coming from Macau who does not speak Portuguese and who would talk to her in English, Marie immediately switched from Portuguese to English, even converting from Portuguese to English the name of her son-in-law. At the end, when we were about to leave, she made a request to her then nearly 70-year-old daughter: "I want to go home." Graça said: "Mom, no one at home can take care of you 24 hours, how if you fall again?" But Marie just reiterated in a tone sounding a little childish, "I want to go back to Macau, the home in Macau."

The next day, the nurse of the elders' care home called Graça, telling her that after we left, Marie talked a lot about Macau and taught them to speak Cantonese, such as phrases like ‘chou sun’ (good morning). But the nurse said it was too complicated for them to learn.

The original residence of Jorge is located at No. 20, Rua da Penha, Macau. It may be due to a magical serendipity that this exhibition is held in this art space not far from his home. Well knowing that time cannot be ticked back, I still hope that the untimely exhibition would make Marie’s home returning dream come true, while at the same time comforting other people who have nostalgia too.

Joey Ho Chong I
Curator