1970s Macau Canidrome Greyhound Racing Neon Night Portuguese Colonial Postcard

Title

1970s Macau Canidrome Greyhound Racing Neon Night View Portuguese Colonial Postcard

Front

A colour night photograph of the entrance to the Canidrome, the greyhound racing stadium in Macau, then a Portuguese overseas territory on the South China coast.

The centre of the composition is filled by the stadium’s entrance canopy, an undulating modernist structure of three shallow concrete vaults rising and falling in a continuous wave form, supported on tapering piers and outlined along its whole length with brilliant blue and white neon tubing that traces the curves and terminates in upturned points at each end. The soffits of the vaults are lit from within by fluorescent strip lighting, casting a pale green-white glow over the pale rendered entrance block, its doorways and pierced concrete screen walls below.

Mounted above the canopy is a large curved neon sign in red, reading in several lines: the Chinese name of the venue, “MACAU CANIDROME CLUB” in English and “CANIDROMO CLUBE DE MACAU” in Portuguese, with a further red Chinese character sign on a vertical panel to the right and additional red neon lettering at the left.

To the right of the canopy rises a modern multi-storey building with a projecting angular upper structure, its windows lit in green and white, and further lit buildings and a street lamp recede into the darkness beyond.

A group of perhaps a dozen figures in light summer clothing stands beneath and in front of the canopy, partly blurred by the long exposure. The lower third of the picture is dominated by the long exposure trails of passing traffic, sweeping across the frame as bright red and white streaks, with the partly blurred forms of parked and moving cars beneath them. The sky above is entirely black.

Standard continental size, four-colour photo-offset lithography on semi-gloss card with a visible halftone screen and deep saturated colour. Condition shows light handling wear, minor corner and edge rubbing and no significant creasing. The image remains clear.

Back

Plain white divided back printed in brown, with a dotted vertical dividing rule.

At the upper right of the address panel, in large spaced capitals, is “POST CARD”. In the upper right corner is a stamp box outlined in a decorative wavy rule, containing the printed word “STAMP”.

At the lower left is the caption in three languages. In English: “View of the Canidrome”. Beneath, in Chinese: “跑狗場（大足球場）” (“the dog racing ground (the large football ground)”). Beneath that, in Japanese: “ドッグレース場” (“dog racing ground”).

At the lower right is the series reference “No. 155”.

The card is unused and unposted. There is no stamp, postmark, cancellation, handwritten message, address or annotation of any kind. No publisher or printer imprint is given. The reverse is clean and bright with light corner rubbing and minor edge wear.

Estimated Era

Circa 1970 to 1985, most probably the 1970s. The card belongs to the same anonymous numbered series as companion Macau views of the Penha Church numbered 157, the Monte Fortress numbered 158, the Barrier Gate numbered 159 and the Ruins of St Paul’s numbered 160, all sharing an identical reverse layout with the wavy-ruled “STAMP” box and trilingual captioning; the series’ St Paul’s card carries a caption block referring to the Casino-Hotel Lisboa, opened in 1970, confirming production after that date. The Canidrome was reopened for greyhound racing in 1963 under the Macau Canidrome Club, and the trilingual signage in Chinese, English and Portuguese reflects that operation. The Chinese caption’s parenthetical reference to the site as a football ground records its earlier dual use, a detail of interest for collectors. The modernist wave canopy with full neon outlining, the fluorescent strip lighting and the vehicles caught in the exposure trails are all consistent with the 1970s, and the printing is four-colour photo-offset on semi-gloss stock with a coarse screen typical of Hong Kong and Macau tourist card production of that decade. The venue closed permanently in 2018.

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