Henrique de Senna Fernandes (1923–2010) was a Macanese writer and lawyer. He studied law at the University of Coimbra in Portugal and wrote in Portuguese, setting much of his work in the Macau of the 1930s and 1940s and portraying the lives of the territory's mixed-race community. His novels A Trança Feiticeira (The Bewitching Braid) and Amor e Dedinhos de Pé were both adapted into films. Regarded as a guardian of Macau's memory, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Macau in 2006.
A Macanese lawyer who used Portuguese-language fiction to keep old Macau — its lanes, its sea breeze, the fate of its mixed-race community — alive in literature.
Henrique de Senna Fernandes was a Macanese writer and lawyer. Writing in Portuguese, he set most of his work in the Macau of the mid-twentieth century and is regarded as one of the guardians of the city's memory.
Profile
- Chinese Name: 飛歷奇
- Portuguese Name: Henrique de Senna Fernandes
- Born: 15 October 1923 (Macau)
- Died: 4 October 2010 (Macau)
- Region: Macao
- Domains: Culture (Literature)
- Subject type: Macanese · Writer · Lawyer
Background
The Macanese (土生葡人, Macaense) are a community that took root in Macau over centuries, blending Portuguese and Chinese ancestry and culture. Senna Fernandes was born in 1923 into an old Macanese family long settled in Macau, growing up steeped in that bicultural world. He went to the University of Coimbra in Portugal to study law and later practised as a lawyer, while literature became his lifelong calling.
Work & Career
I. Lawyer and writer
After returning to Macau, Senna Fernandes practised law while writing continuously in Portuguese. His work was set mostly in the Macau of the 1930s and 1940s, focusing on the lives, emotions, and identity of the mixed-race community and offering a distinctive Macau viewpoint.
II. Principal works
His books include the short-story collection Nam Van — Contos de Macau (1978) and the novels A Trança Feiticeira (The Bewitching Braid), Amor e Dedinhos de Pé (1986), and Mong Há (1998). A Trança Feiticeira and Amor e Dedinhos de Pé were both adapted into films, carrying his old Macau to the screen.
Connection to Macau
Senna Fernandes's literary world rests almost entirely on Macau. Through fiction he preserved the lanes, sea breeze, and human warmth of the old city and portrayed the lives of the Macanese community, leading many critics to call him a guardian of Macau's memory.