Macau History and Society illuminates the early Portuguese maritime exploration along China's south coast, political and economic development in Macau, and current social problems. The book makes significant contributions to a political sociology of Macau, emphasizing how different civilizations and cultures interacted with one another, and explores how a new Macau identity can be constructed. Democratization has been a never-ending process in Macau since the 1500s. Macau's experience indicates that sovereignty has been shared rather than exclusive. Although civilizations and cultures do clash, they also cooperate. But the Macau model is deeply flawed — Hao contends that Macau needs to build a new multicultural identity, and a cosmopolitan political and economic identity.

Zhidong Hao is professor of sociology at the University of Macau. He is the author and editor of the following books: Civil Society in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan (edited in Chinese); Whither Taiwan and Mainland China: National Identity, the State, and Intellectuals; Xijiao Cun: The Historical Transformation of a Village in Northern China (co-authored in Chinese); Toward Democracy and Harmony: Difficulties in Social Progress in Macao, Taiwan, and Mainland China (in Chinese); National Identity and the Future Cross-Strait Relations (edited in Chinese); A Comparative Study of Rural Governance across the Taiwan Strait (co-edited in Chinese); and Intellectuals at a Crossroads: The Changing Politics of China’s Knowledge Workers.