A percepção e interculturalidade Sino-Lusitana: relatos portugueses sobre a China no inicio do século XVI

Abstract

The period of the great navigations brought about a form of globalization, as from the newly perceived New World to the Far East, there would be continuous on contact. European maritime expansion, with Portugal as its pioneer, connected the two extremities of the globe—the Americas and Asia—with Europe serving as the intermediary. This study focuses on the European entry into and contact with Asia, particularly China, following the conquest of Malacca. What was the Portuguese perspective on this exotic and mysterious land? How did they perceive cultural differences? And, most importantly, how did the clash between these two vastly different cultures unfold? These questions guided the analysis of this work, which draws from the following primary sources: Suma Oriental by Tomé Pires (1516?), As Cartas dos Cativos de Cantão by Cristóvão Vieira and Vasco Calvo (1534–1536), and Algumas cousas sabidas sobre a China by Galiote Pereira (1560?–1555). These writings provided the first recorded information about China during the initial period of contact in the early 16th century, when the Portuguese, based in Goa, first encountered the name of a powerful kingdom—the Chins. Despite their extensive compilations of knowledge about the Asian seas, the Portuguese had never heard of this realm before and thus sought to learn more about it. This period of discovery continued until China, in an effort to escape illegal markets and respond to public demands, granted Macau to the Portuguese. This work, therefore, examines this period and aims to understand how this contact unfolded, how the interaction between these two cultures developed, and how cultural differences contributed to the failure of Pires' embassy. The key concept in this study is cultural shock, the primary theory used to analyze these works. The term refers to the phases an individual experiences when entering a culture different from their own. Furthermore, the study observes that the Portuguese perspective was framed by a comparative and ethnocentric system, with contemporary Portuguese accounts frequently portraying the Chinese as exotic and, at times, inferior—revealing an ethnocentric viewpoint. Meanwhile, the Chinese perceived the Portuguese as barbarians and unpredictable, often associating them with pirates and mercenaries. In summary, this study highlights how the early encounters between Portugal and China were shaped by a mixture of curiosity, commercial interest, and difficulties in adaptation. Attempts to establish stable relations faced structural and cultural challenges, demonstrating the limits of early globalization and the misconceptions of the European gaze upon the East. The objective of this work, therefore, is to analyze, through primary sources, how cultural interactions between the Portuguese and the Chinese took place, using cultural shock as a framework to understand how these interactions influenced their perceptions of one another. The study is theoretically grounded in Oberg and Adler for cultural shock, Milton Bennett for intercultural studies, and Tzvetan Todorov for examining how the Portuguese classified and judged Chinese culture.