（花）炮會原是一種從神誕搶炮活動發展出來的為搶炮而成立的社團。在澳門，一個炮對應一個神像，每年神誕神像要返還寺廟重新發放；並且澳門炮會還發展成長期性的小型民間互助組織。炮會成員大多在20多到100多人之間，可能來自同一個社區，同一行業，或其他相似背景，但並不受限於其中任何一項。他們自願組織在一起共同拜一個炮╱神，同時也相互扶持維持生計，並通過一個炮將社團與一個社區寺廟聯繫起來。本文首次展現澳門炮會的發展歷史，從炮會活動的角度揭示二十世紀文革前澳門在城市化和現代化過程中華人基層社區的社會構成的變化。簡而言之，炮會現象代表中國傳統的寺廟中心的地緣社會到脫離宗教打破地緣的現代城市社區之間的一種過度。

The firecracker society, or (hua)paohui (花)炮會, was originally organized for the purpose to snatch something shot from the (hua)pao (花)炮 (firecracker), which in Macau is matched with a statue of a deity, distributed and redistributed from a temple annually during the temple festival of celebrating a deity’s birthday. Macau paohui developed into small-scale non-government mutual aid organizations. Members in a paohui, generally ranging from about twenty to over a hundred people, might be related by location, occupation, or other backgrounds but were certainly not restricted to any one of these criteria. They form an association voluntarily, mainly for the purposes of collective worship and helping each other to make a living. And the association related itself to a local community temple through the pao. This paper presents, for the first time, the history of the paohui in Macau and reveals how the social structure of local communities changed in the process of urbanization and modernization in Macau in the twentieth century before 1966 as seen from the perspective of paohui activities. In short, the phenomena of Macau paohui represent the transition from the traditional Chinese temple- centric territory society to the modern urban society, which has detached from religious and territory bonds.