“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
THE BATTLE FOR FREEDOM
The heartbeat of the series Macau is the journey towards the ultimate fight for freedom that is currently unfolding between the United States of America and China: a real-life Game of Thrones. It starts on this small island and expands outward as the show progresses towards a conflict within China’s boundaries and ultimately between nations.
A WORLD OF CONTRADICTIONS
Macau exposes a world of contradictions and the challenges that result when made glaringly obvious: billion-dollar glass towers surrounded by crowded slums; a conservative culture where sex and drugs are openly sold in twelve-story malls of vice; a communist regime fueled by American capital and mass consumerism; a law-abiding society motivated by fear and the imprisonment of the brave who speak the truth: and those who despair versus those who hope.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO MACAU
Under Xi Jinping's leadership, China is pursuing its Belt and Road Initiative, aiming to invest $1 trillion to $8 trillion to connect over 100 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. The US fears this could enhance China's global power, yet lacks a viable alternative. Some view the initiative as a strategic move to facilitate military deployment, while others see it as crucial for improving transportation in a nation of 1.4 billion people.
THE CURATOR OF DREAMS
Macau is a diverse blend of races, religions, cultures, languages, and beliefs, fostering both celebration and potential conflict. In China, the Gallery of Art and Sex serves as a front for extensive money laundering, disguising high-end escorts as valuable art among other illicit activities favored by the wealthy and influential.
INSPIRED BY TRUE EVENTS
In 2001, a new Chinese regime invited international investors to build new Vegas-style casinos. This shift in government policy infuriated the mob, broke down the wall between East and West, and exposed a vast underbelly of hypocrisy, greed, money laundering, and corruption: the setup of the series. Macau makes Vegas look like Disneyland; as a form of social government control, it is the only legal oasis for gambling lovers in all of China. They flood in by the millions to wager away billions.
“Macau was a seedy backwater of a gambling den. It was prostitution infested, crime infested, triad infested. Everything that you don’t want a gaming destination to be…”
SHELDON ADELSON, Founder & Former CEO of Las Vegas Sands (NYSE: LVS)