Can Macau University students speak? A critical study of voice and subjectivities in local higher education

Macau, once a Portuguese colony, is now the Las Vegas of the Far East. As an economic decolonisation strategy, the central government of China legitimised the gaming industry in Macau. Many students and teachers were absorbed by casino work, resulting in a low higher education entry rate and sabotaging the city’s sustainable development. While few studies on the Macau student voice exist, the research has mostly adopted either an academician view or top-down surveys. This study explores how Macau university students voice their subjectivities in higher education. Using a combined theoretical framework of Foucauldian homo economicus and the postcolonial theory, this study interviews 17 Macau students from six local tertiary institutions triangulated by four teachers. The findings reveal that, under the influence of neoliberalism, Macau university students voiced their subjectivities as homo economicus, using the mentality of cost-profit to guide their educational practices. They were, however, simultaneously restrained by the performativity of the knowledge economy. Meanwhile, the Macau students’ subjectivities are sealed in a complex discursive matrix of coloniality and (neo)coloniality, not capable of thinking ‘outside the box’ and living a life distinct from Macau’s planned destiny as a casino destination. In conclusion, although we interviewed Macau students and amplified their voices, their perspectives remained confined to the defaults of neoliberal and (neo)colonial discourses.