Untitled - stories
In 1993, acclaimed Italian journalist Tiziano Terzani visited Melaka, Malaysia and described it as “the most haunted city in the world”.
From 2013-2015, I travelled to Melaka and Singapore to find the ending of a ghost story, which began at a Melbourne dinner table conversation with my uncle. The ghost in the story is a pontianak, a Malay mythology of a long-fanged vampiric woman who died at childbirth, who primarily preys on men. In my uncle’s story, the pontianak haunted his rented dwelling, which belonged to a Chinese doctor and his pregnant wife during the Japanese occupation in World War II. My uncle would only tell me the ending of the story if I visited him, and the story can only be told during the day. In respecting his wishes, I journey back to a place where crabs have saintly crosses on their backs, fairies bathe by moonlight at the top of seven waterfalls, an island holds the shape of a pregnant maiden; stories that can only be drawn from the place itself. Superstition and fortune telling put Singapore and Melaka on Terzani’s travel itinerary, and the knowledge also saved his life. To find the end of my uncle’s ghost story, I travel to the places of my childhood and encounter people who open my eyes to mythologies that are props to nation-building propaganda. This is an excavation of a family ghost story that’s led to other discoveries, a revelation of the mythological fictions that I once learnt as historical fact, and an investigation in understanding a parallel fantastical reality that can chart one’s destiny. A sneak peak can be found on the Wheeler Centre's website |
Melaka Art and Performance Festival 2013-2015
2013Returning home and grieving - see my reflection in Peril
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2014"Fairytale" in Pontianak
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2015Rehearsing with Martin Theseira (Save Portuguese Community Action Committee Chair)
Meeting Martin through Bert Tan (founder of the Malaysian Heritage and History Club) & working on a storytelling collaboration together with youth from the Portuguese Settlement, in a timeframe of about 3 weeks. My reflections in: 2017 "Living Heritages" in The Lifted Brow, (36), 66-68, (edited by Ellen van Neerven) More info about Martin Theseira, please see A unique community put under pressure by development (Right Now) My travel in 2015 to the Melaka Art and Performance Festival was supported by Melbourne’s UNESCO City of Literature Office Travel Fund initiative. |