And while only 4, 000 self-described Macanese now remain among a population of 450, 000, the racial mixing that distinguished the Portuguese in their empire from, say, the British in theirs has bequeathed the onetime colony an air of acceptance, and of variousness.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Visions of China: Macau

But in his eagerness to emphasise the anxiety that the Lispectors must have felt, Mr Moser underplays Brazil's tradition of racial and cultural mixing.

ECONOMIST: Brazilian literature