Mickey Hung is a local Feng Shui expert and gaming consultant. Feng Shui fans know him. He authored an opinion post for the Portuguese-language Jornal Tribuna de Macau headlined “Why are people in Macau dissatisfied and complaining about everything?”
“The reason Macau residents are full of resentment is because the aura of Feng Shui is not smooth, and they feel frustrated with life,” Hung says. “Moreover, muddy water makes people feel that the future is uncertain, and young people find that their opportunities are limited,” and “due to the lack of proper Feng Shui setup in city planning, the public is resentful and dissatisfied with everything.”
According to United Nations Institute researcher Jaimee Stuart, there is “a major lack of evidence to address the question of whether people in Macau are happy or not compared to people living in other places,” so we must rely on “anecdotal evidence.” However, this X-ray by the master of Feng Shui is surprising.
Macau Business asked three varied Macau residents if Mickey Hung resembled them
“I assume that the level of perceived dissatisfaction in Macau is largely due to the rapid transformation processes in the last couple of decades and the obvious drawbacks such as rising housing prices, pollution, mass tourism and a lack of democratic accountability due to rapid mainlandization,” said Professor Wenning.
However, I enjoyed living in Macau for over a decade. Fantastic people and 450 years of East-West contact. “The quality of life is high, and there are still significant degrees of freedom that are difficult to find elsewhere,” he told Macau Business.
Franz Gassner, Dean of the University of Saint Joseph Faculty of Religious Studies and Philosophy, provided his opinion. He has been in Macau for less than three years and may provide a different perspective: “From my experience with local students, they are very attached to Macau, which suggests they love their home and local place. A “complaint” also shows concern and affection.
Professor Gassner believes “there is always room for improvements,” citing the government’s need “to protect and develop the trees and public gardens in the city in view of emotional well-being and also environmental stability (like Hato)” and the “too much space and focus has been given to private vehicles in the last 60 years on this tiny place.”
“The city should be greened, walkable, and family-friendly. He told Macau Business that how children are treated, feel, and play is seismographic of a community’s health and happiness.
Beatriz Madureira, who worked in Macau for 12 years as Associate Director of Human Resources for gambling concessionaires, referenced various recent studies on population contentment. “The population has adapted relatively well to the changes of the last 20 years,” she concluded. The data show that the populace is happier than average.
In 2017, the Chief Executive reacted to a deputy who told him that Macau’s residents’ satisfaction had not increased proportionally to the city’s economic growth.
“The government would need to study the reasons why local residents don’t appear to be as happy as one could expect them to be, bearing in mind that the city has enjoyed rapid economic development during the past decade,” the Chief Executive said, according to news sources. To our knowledge, this study was never done.
“No evidence”
Unfortunately, there is no information on whether Macau residents are happier than others. As statistics on health and happiness is scarce, UN Institute researcher Jaimee Stuart advises that Macau be represented globally.
2023 World Happiness Report. This research estimates Mainland China, Hong Kong (SAR), and several other nations, but not Macau.
Many additional quality-of-life and human development indices are the same. I don’t think we should just depend on anecdotes; we need to collect data on the population’s well-being and pleasure to analyze it and then address any important concerns.”
Macau Business repeatedly asked the World Happiness Report team why Macau isn’t included, but they didn’t respond.