Coinciding with the Festival, GEG invited local parents and children from the Associação Promotora da Instrução dos Macaenses for an exclusive parent-child story creation session, where they created and read Portuguese-language stories together, deepening their understanding and interest in Portuguese culture through relaxed and interesting interactions.
Festival Overview & GEG’s Role
From April 4 to May 6, the “Galaxy Entertainment Group Presents: Literary and Cultural Festival for Parents and Children ‘Alphabets & Friends’ 2025”—organized by the Portuguese Institute of the Orient (IPOR) and the Consulate General of Portugal in Macau and Hong Kong—featured 30+ activities celebrating Chinese -Portuguese cultural exchange.
As title sponsor, GEG hosted an exclusive parent-child story creation session at the Galaxy Kidz Edutainment Center, inviting 30+ families from Associação Promotora da Instrução dos Macaenses to craft and read Portuguese-language tales.
Interactive Story Creation
Led by Ms. Catarina Mesquita, founder of Mandarina Books—Macau’s first trilingual children’s publisher—children learned new Portuguese phrases and built original stories inspired by daily life. Renowned Portuguese cartoonist Mr. Rodrigo de Matos illustrated their narratives live on canvas. Families then adorned their creations with colorful stickers and enjoyed bilingual readings of Ms. Mesquita’s Chinese -English -Portuguese publications.
During the parent-child story creation session at the Galaxy Kidz Edutainment Center, Ms. Catarina Mesquita, founder of Macau’s first trilingual children’s book publishing company, Mandarina Books, inspired the creativity of children in an educational and entertaining way, guiding them to use different Portuguese phrases and vocabularies to create unique stories based on everyday life.
Portuguese cartoonist, Mr. Rodrigo de Matos, vividly illustrated the children’s ingenious ideas on canvas.
Community Impact & Participation
Since 2021, GEG’s five-year partnership has grown the Festival to include 40 local schools and institutions, drawing over 10,000 participants. Mr. Mário Herculano Fernandes Estorninho from Associação Promotora da Instrução dos Macaenses praised the event for sparking creativity, enhancing Portuguese language skills, and deepening cultural understanding.
Reading Month & Mini Library Initiative
For the first time, the Festival served as an official “reading point” for Macau SAR’s “Reading Month 2025,” aligned with International Children’s Book Day, World Book Day, and World Portuguese Language Day.
The “Mini Library” event—co-hosted by IPOR, the Portugal Consulate-General, and GEG—donated nearly 400 Portuguese language and bilingual books to nearly 40 local schools, enriching youth access to high-quality reading materials.
Children added colorful stickers to their works afterwards in a warm and lively atmosphere.
The participating families read books published in Chinese, English and Portuguese together, experiencing the joys of cross-cultural communication.
GEG’s Ongoing Cultural Commitment
GEG’s motto—“What is taken from the community is to be used for the good of the community”—drives its sponsorship of Macau’s multicultural arts: the Macau Literary Festival (11th year), the GEG Lusofonia Festival, the China and Portuguese-speaking Countries Film Festival, and traditional music and dance performances.
Moving forward, GEG will continue to support diverse cultural events, fostering Macau as a hub of Chinese-Portuguese exchange.
For more on GEG’s community initiatives, visit Galaxy Entertainment Group.
