The emergence of Freemasonry in Macau in late XVIII century is a matter of academic research and curiosity namely among local academics. An interesting contribution under the title "
A Primeira República, Macau e os Maçons" (The First Republic, Macau and the Freemasons) appears in the last issue of the
Review of Culture edited by the Macau Culture Institute. According to the author there is a trace of relevant Masonic activity in Macau that explains why Freemasonry expanded to China from Macau and not as been advanced by traditional historians, through the context of the Opium War. There are signs that point out that Lodges belonging to different Orients may worked in Macau during decades and then being dissolved. The most emblematic Lodge was
Lodge Luis de Camões n.o 309 created in 1906 under the auspices of Lodge Pro Veritate (Coimbra), both Lodges belonging to the Grand Orient Lusitano, Portugal's historical Obedience. The most relevant names of local intelligentsia were members of that Lodge that subsisted till the third decade of the 20th Century. They were important actors in the political struggles that symbolize that epoch of transition from monarchy to republican rule.
