The International Institute of Macau (IIM) is pleased to announce the winners of the Identity Award for the year of 2022 by unanimous decision taken by the members of IIM’s statutory bodies, in accordance with the respective regulations.
The Identity Award is awarded ex aequo to Professor (Linda) Rika Naito and to Professor António Aresta for their works and examples that have actively and significantly contributed to the substantiation of Macao’s identity factors.
It is the first time that IIM grants this award to an individual of foreign nationality, Rika Naito, who teaches Macao Studies at Japanese universities namely Keio, Sophia and others in Tokyo. After studying Portuguese, first in Leiria and then in Aveiro, she graduated in Portuguese Language at Sophia University and obtained a Master degree from the Open University of Tokyo with the thesis “Transformation of the Macanese ethnicity after the transition of power”. She also has published several books in Japanese language on Macanese Culture, Cuisine and Literature, having been awarded with the 19th “Rodrigues Literary Award, the Interpreter”, bestowed by the Portuguese Embassy in Japan in 2016.
Professor António Manuel Borges Aresta, who collaborates with a local daily, holds a Licentiate and a Master degrees in Philosophy from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities of the University of Porto where he also finished the curricular part of the PhD course in Philosophy. He taught Philosophy in Portugal, Macao and Mozambique. He is devoted to investigate Macao’s cultural history and the history of Philosophy, having several written books about the memory of Macao in the East published by the IIM, among which are the three volumes of “Figuras de Jade”.
The Identity Award, created in 2002, embodies the most nuclear spirit of the IIM. Consecrated in its vocation and statutory purposes, intends to distinguish personalities, individual and collective, who, in the fields of Culture in general, in the Arts, Thought, Anthropology, Legal Sciences and Education and Teaching, have contributed significantly to the substantiation of Macao's identity factors.
Awarded for the first time in 2003, the Identity Award included, among others, figures such as Monsignor Manuel Teixeira, writer and lawyer Henrique de Senna Fernandes, Commander Arnaldo de Oliveira Sales, architect and researcher António Pacheco Jorge da Silva, the architect and artist Carlos Marreiros and the laureate designer Victor Hugo Marreiros, and institutions such as the Diocese of Macau, the Santa Casa da Misericórdia of Macau, the University of Macau, the Casa de Macau in Portugal, the Club Lusitano of Hong Kong, the União Macaense Americana, the Associação Promotora da Instrução dos Macaenses, the Dóci Papiaçám di Macau group, the Portuguese School of Macau, the D. José da Costa Nunes kindergarten and the "Macanese Families" and Macanese Memory Project digital pages.
