A local company has launched a lollipop souvenir product that uses bone conduction technology to allow the buyer to hear the history of some famous Macau food products and a song in the Patois dialect while eating.
The product was developed by Best Concepts Planning Limited, with the idea for the product coming from the founder, James Sun, as he was spending his leisure time researching China’s market trends.
“He stumbled found a lollipop that created a sound using bone conduction while on TikTok. After viewing it, he became intrigued and attempted to link Macau’s intangible cultural components and Macanese music into a lollipop,” the company told Macau News Agency.
After a research process, the company decided to cooperate with a mainland sugar factory to create sweets with the flavours of Portuguese tart and Alua, and the Coraco Em Macau – Patois for Heart In Macau – project was born.
The lollipop uses Isomalt, a sugar replacement, as the candy’s basic ingredient, that does not promote tooth decay.
The candy surrounds a bone conduction technology device that by using ceramic vibration uses the lollipop as the carrier and allows for only the person that is biting the candy to hear the recorded audio.
Bone conduction is the conduction of sound to the inner ear primarily through the bones of the skull, allowing the hearer to perceive audio content without blocking the ear canal.
‘Bone conduction technology explains why the candy may generate sound but only the user can hear it. The hardness of the candy allows the vibration of the candy stick to be transmitted to the brain, resulting in sound,’ the company told MNA.
Upon biting the lollypop the customer will hear an audio recording in Mandarin depicting the history of the Portuguese egg tart, followed by Pastro Verde, a song in Patois written by famous Macanese writer José dos Santos Ferreira, better known as Adé, and performed by the Tuna Macaense.
Patois is a local creole language that blends Portuguese with Cantonese and Malay and is listed in UNESCO as a critically endangered language.
‘This lollipop can be seen as a product that can represent local Macanese culture, and believe it will be the preferred option for children’s snacks and tourist gifts,’ the company added.
The ‘Heart in Macao’ initiative has previously secured financing from the Macau SAR Government’s Cultural Industry Fund, as part of a unique funding program aimed at assisting the development of cultural-tourism-related businesses.
The lollipop is currently produced in Mainland China, with Beijing Science and Technology Park Company having created the bone conduction candy bar and the candy factory located in Shanxi.
