Tim Simpson researches and writes about Macau’s urban culture, architecture, and tourism industry, and tracks the city’s post-colonial development into the world’s most lucrative site of casino gaming. His recent book “Betting on Macau: Casino Capitalism and China’s Consumer Revolution” investigates the functional role of Macau’s massive casino resorts and fashionable shopping arcades in China’s post-socialist transformation.
His current research analyzes contemporary efforts to diversify Macau’s tourism industry away from a sole reliance on casino gambling. One project analyzes the emergence of new independent coffee shops owned and operated by Macau youth and their contribution to aesthetic entrepreneurialism in the city. The project focuses on a collection of coffee shops clustered in Macau’s historic Rua dos Ervanarios neighborhood. The Macau government has identified this neighborhood as a site for public and private investment in Macau’s creative and cultural industries, and some of these businesses benefit from a local government programme that provides start-up capital for entrepreneurial activities among local youth. In 2018, Macau was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, and the Macau government classifies coffee shops as “creative and cultural industries” due to their contribution to Macau’s gastronomy-related tourism. Therefore, these coffee shops are an emergent component of Macau’s cultural economy.
A related project investigates the production and consumption of Portuguese egg tarts in Macau’s tourism economy. These unique egg tarts are among Macau’s most popular tourist objects, and their circulation through Macau bakeries, local cafes, and Chinese social media accounts highlights the importance of gastronomic tourism to the city’s cultural industries.
New Books Network podcast about my book ‘Betting on Macau’
https://newbooksnetwork.com/betting-on-macau
University of Minnesota Press podcast about ‘Betting on Macau’
https://share.transistor.fm/s/e49b247f
University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) gaming podcast: “From Casino Wars to Casino Capitalism: Sovereignty and Gaming in Macau”
https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/gaming_podcasts/88/