Oral Stories of the Past at Present, to Future
By Vanlita Lei

"I hope that every little story about Macao can be promoted so as to let people learn history with fun, take history as their common knowledge and get more chances to know about Macao," Leonardo Yuen, 24 years old, general director of Macau Story House and vice director of the Oral History Association of Macao (OHAM), shared his expectation for Macau Story House and Macao's cultural and creative industry.

Macau Story House is an inspirational venue which is not just about history studies but also aims to popularize the history of Macao and local artistic creations. Located in the St.Lazarus Church District, it was founded in 2012 as a project of OHAM.

"I am young, I want to challenge myself"
Yuen graduated from the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) with Bachelor in Heritage Management. During his university years, he was already a volunteer in OHAM. After graduation, he worked in a bank for almost a year. "I thought this was not my ambition," said Yuen.

In 2013, Lam Fat Iam, director of OHAM, invited him to take charge of general directorship of Macau Story House. "I remember Lam asked if I could quit my current stable job and accept a new job which did not seem to have promotion at all," said Yuen. "I am young, I want to challenge myself." Finally, he took the chance to begin his ambition and he felt lucky to have a job related to his professional field.

Now he has taken over Macau Story House for three months. According to Yuen, his routine work includes writing reviews on daily culture news, receiving visitors, arranging future work and doing research on history. "I really enjoy my new job because I can apply my knowledge and skills gained from my study and experience here," he said. "I just want to put my efforts in OHAM, St.Lazarus Church District and Macao's cultural and creative industry," he added with a smile.

Memory Style Home
Oral history is one of the ways to collect historical information about individuals, families, important events or everyday life by using audiotapes, videotapes or transcriptions of interviews. "We decided to build up a store to share our achievements in oral history study," said Yuen.
Inside the "store", there are mainly three areas which are the reading area, the sales and display area and the cultural salon area. There are over 2000 books in the reading area. They are categorized into local books, oral histories and art design. "We have already attracted some frequent visitors and they enjoy reading here," said Yuen. The sales and display area is not only a place for the "newborn" local artists to consign their works, but also a place for them to gain experience and inspiration so that they can cultivate their designing style gradually. The cultural salon area is for short-term exhibitions about stories of Macao via different kinds of media and different themes. "I'm impressed by the vintage style decoration in the Macau Story House. It's attractive and I enjoy spending time learning here," Sun, a visitor said.