The ‘disappointing’ Science Centre

Natalie Leung

Excuse me please if I’m being too straight to the point. But I really want to say the Science Centre was, and still is, a big disappointment for me.
It’s of course always good to see new attractions - except casinos - open in Macau. No need to say I’m quite sure most of you understand what I mean. So I was very excited and couldn’t wait but visited this Science Centre on my Friday day off during the first week after it opened on January 25.
Once we entered a guide approached me and my boyfriend and tried to introduce to us what the Science Centre had to offer, which was nice. Both of us were attracted to the Planetarium but as we just missed the 3pm 3D movie, we decided to go to check out the exhibition galleries first and then come back for the 5pm show.
There are many different special concessions for local residents, students and groups, but I wonder why they don’t offer any discounts for Macau’s imported labour who account for quite a significant number of population and most importantly are contributing to the economy here. I’m a non-resident worker myself but don’t take me wrong, I’m not saying this because I simply want a five or 10 pataca discount on the entry fees. I just realised that in Macau, it seems that the general impression on imported labour is negative - local people keep saying how they “steal” their jobs by accepting lower salaries or longer working hours - but how about the good side of imported labour? They are part of the work force making continuous contributions to Macau, while not receiving much appreciation or recognition from other people or to a certain extent the government as well. It’s justified and understandable that non-resident workers do not get any government welfare here, such as in the cases of the cash handout and healthcare voucher schemes. The Science Centre obviously recognises the large presence of students, children and elderly people in Macau and therefore offers them special or even free admission prices (I tried to check the price lists better but the Science Centre’s website was “temporarily unavailable”), and the absence of a small discount for imported labour makes me feel that this group of temporary residents are being “ignored’ in society.
Nevertheless, let’s go back to my “adventure” at the Science Centre. Shortly after we entered the first gallery on the ground floor - a temporary exhibition about China’s science development - we were extremely shocked by how bad the interior renovation was there. The white walls were seriously uneven and dirty with some markers or footprints, and the stairs looked as if the Science Centre had been in use for some years already. Also, some of the labels of the exhibits, mostly replicas, were badly made - a small piece of thin paper being put on the exhibits by sticky tape!
We then walked to the first permanent gallery and started to play around the exhibits as most of them are interactive. Yet, we soon found that the exhibits give no solutions or answers explaining why the objects move or stay in a particular way. Most of the instructions only tells people how to interact with the exhibits, so how are we, especially kids, supposed to learn science there? It is more like a playground than a place to acquire knowledge.
Finally we went down to the ground floor for the 3D Sky Show, and only at that time we found that the 5pm show, which was the last one of the day, gave only Cantonese narration and no simultaneous interpretation was provided.
It soon caught me by a huge surprise that it was live narration given by a man (who I don’t think is a professional narrator) sitting behind the audio panel inside the theatre. How odd and unprofessional it was! If I knew that I would never pay 45 patacas to go in. Eventually the boring tone of voice, uninteresting narration and the lack of 3D visual effects successfully drove me to sleep for about I think 25 minutes during the 35-minute show. Sigh.