Series
Beyond gaming and tourism, Macau has its own contemporary creators. This series gathers the filmmakers, visual artists and writers active today — from the Cannes-selected director Soi Cheang to the painter Mio Pang Fei who founded "Neo-Orientalism", the artist-administrator Ung Vai Meng, the snow-field photographer Season Lao, and the internationally published poet Un Sio San.
Say "Macau" and most people think first of casinos and souvenirs — yet the small city keeps producing its own contemporary creators. Soi Cheang moved from Macau into Hong Kong cinema and took genre films such as Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In to Cannes and Berlin; lived in Macau for nearly four decades after moving from Shanghai, founding the East-meets-West "Neo-Orientalism" and representing Macau at the 2015 Venice Biennale.
Soi Cheang
A Macau-born Hong Kong film director known for stylish, hard-edged genre cinema. His films include Accident, Motorway, SPL II, Limbo, Mad Fate and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, with selections at Cannes, Berlin and Venice, and two Hong Kong Film Award wins for Best Director.
Clara Law
A Macau-born film director and screenwriter, a leading figure of the Hong Kong New Wave's second generation who later settled in Australia. Her Autumn Moon won the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 1992, Floating Life was Australia's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and she won Best Director at the 2021 Golden Horse Awards for Drifting Petals — among the most internationally recognised filmmakers from Macau.
Stephen Shin
A Macau-born Hong Kong film director and producer. He directed films such as The Black Cat and the epic The Great Conqueror's Concubine (with Gong Li), and produced Jackie Chan's Hollywood breakthrough Rumble in the Bronx — an important behind-the-scenes figure of 1980s–90s Hong Kong cinema.
In visual art, Ung Vai Meng is both an award-winning artist and a former founding director of the Macao Museum of Art and President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau — creator and cultural administrator in one; and of a younger generation, Season Lao has built a minimalist visual language on the international scene through his Hokkaido snow and fog photography. In literature, Un Sio San has carried Macau's contemporary poetry from the city to Beijing, Toronto and poetry festivals worldwide.
Placed side by side, these names reveal a cultural depth beyond Macau's gaming economy: a small city that can also raise directors, painters, photographers and poets who reach the world. Drawing on public sources, this series focuses on their Macau roots and creative achievements.
Mio Pang Fei
A modern artist born in Shanghai who put down roots in Macau and is regarded as a pioneer of Macau modern art. After moving to Macau in 1982 he developed "Neo-Orientalism", fusing Eastern tradition with Western contemporary techniques, and in 2015 was chosen by the Macao Museum of Art to represent Macau at the 56th Venice Biennale.
Ung Vai Meng
A Macau-born artist and cultural administrator. An award-winning visual artist, he also served as the founding director of the Macao Museum of Art (1999–2008) and as President of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (2010–2017), shaping Macau's art development and cultural policy; he returned to his own art after retiring.
Season Lao
A Macau-born contemporary photographer known for minimalist images of snow, fog and empty space. A graduate of the Macao Polytechnic, he drew attention in 2009 with work documenting Macau's old buildings, then settled in Hokkaido and Kyoto to make his art, with works held by the Macao Museum of Art and the Asian Art Museum in Nice, among others.
Lio Kuokman
A Macau-born conductor and pianist, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Macao Orchestra and a former Resident Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic. A prizewinner at the 2014 Svetlanov International Conducting Competition in Russia, he was the first Chinese conductor to serve as an assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and is active on the international stage.
Lam Bun-Ching
A Macau-born composer, pianist and conductor based in the United States, among the leading figures of contemporary Chinese-American art music. She won the Prix de Rome in 1991 and held a Guggenheim Fellowship; her work appears on the Grammy-winning Hilary Hahn album In 27 Pieces, and she was the Macao Orchestra's Composer-in-Residence from 2008 to 2016.
Kuok-Wai Lio
A Macau-born classical pianist, a graduate of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia under Gary Graffman. He received the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2013 and has collaborated with leading musicians such as András Schiff, active on the international concert stage.
