01-08-2003 Friday: Mid-semester break.
I am watching a Thai movie as I write this. No, I am not dossing off from work. I'm actually doing work, that is I'm watching it for a small research project that I am running. Its for a paper for a conference that will be held in Thailand later this year. When the idea that we should write papers for this conference was mentioned at a meeting at the school, I started to think about Thailand. Several things ran through my head, mostly snatches of memories from some the time I visited Golok all those years ago when I was a kid. Then some of us talked about the idea after the meeting and I realized that collectively, we know pathetically little about Thailand and the Thais.
We know about some headlines involving Thailand, we know a couple of people who have something to do with Thailand, for example the Thai language teachers on campus, and we a strangely generalized collection of beliefs involving scenes like those that appeared in a James Bond movie and Survivor. Then also there is a collection of thoughts on the vice trade. Rather embarrassingly little 'real' information about a neighbor that is so close that we share borders with them.
So I started on a small scale fact finding mission. I placed a short questionnaire on a couple of usegroups, one on Thailand and another on Malaysia. Unfortunately I haven't received any replies yet, then again I haven't been able to access my email today. The second step is to see some Thai movies, particularly those that involve some sort of mixture of what the people commonly want, things they would do to get them and things they believe in. This mixture, to me, logically leads to horror films. So here I am watching 'Bangkok Haunted' on my computer and later I look for my copy of 'Nang Nak' for a reviewing.
What insights have I gained from this movie? Only a couple of things so far. Firstly, the river seems to play a very prominent role in their lives, all these stories are set on the riverside. Their houses are either on the waterfront itself of have easy access tot the river. The modern day ones are the same, the characters seem to commute to modern day jobs on crowded riverboats. I'm sure they have busses and perhaps even light rail systems in the cities but perhaps the river hold a special position in their minds because it seems very prominent in these movies. Secondly, there are very familiar elements in their superstitions. In one of these stories in "Bangkok Haunted", a young woman got into trouble because she used a love potion made from the blood or stuff extracted from the chin of a dead woman. In Kelantan, they call this 'minyak dagu' or ' minyak orang mati dibunuh' and it is supposedly obtained from Malay or Siamese practitioners of dark magic. So this stuff would be familiar to Malaysians in the north but perhaps less so elsewhere. Keep looking, I guess.
I think the next thing I'll do it ask some of my students to see these films, maybe they'll see other things I have missed.
So, that concludes a short note from KL. Going for lunch soon. I think I'll have catfish today. Join me anyone?
I am watching a Thai movie as I write this. No, I am not dossing off from work. I'm actually doing work, that is I'm watching it for a small research project that I am running. Its for a paper for a conference that will be held in Thailand later this year. When the idea that we should write papers for this conference was mentioned at a meeting at the school, I started to think about Thailand. Several things ran through my head, mostly snatches of memories from some the time I visited Golok all those years ago when I was a kid. Then some of us talked about the idea after the meeting and I realized that collectively, we know pathetically little about Thailand and the Thais.
We know about some headlines involving Thailand, we know a couple of people who have something to do with Thailand, for example the Thai language teachers on campus, and we a strangely generalized collection of beliefs involving scenes like those that appeared in a James Bond movie and Survivor. Then also there is a collection of thoughts on the vice trade. Rather embarrassingly little 'real' information about a neighbor that is so close that we share borders with them.
So I started on a small scale fact finding mission. I placed a short questionnaire on a couple of usegroups, one on Thailand and another on Malaysia. Unfortunately I haven't received any replies yet, then again I haven't been able to access my email today. The second step is to see some Thai movies, particularly those that involve some sort of mixture of what the people commonly want, things they would do to get them and things they believe in. This mixture, to me, logically leads to horror films. So here I am watching 'Bangkok Haunted' on my computer and later I look for my copy of 'Nang Nak' for a reviewing.
What insights have I gained from this movie? Only a couple of things so far. Firstly, the river seems to play a very prominent role in their lives, all these stories are set on the riverside. Their houses are either on the waterfront itself of have easy access tot the river. The modern day ones are the same, the characters seem to commute to modern day jobs on crowded riverboats. I'm sure they have busses and perhaps even light rail systems in the cities but perhaps the river hold a special position in their minds because it seems very prominent in these movies. Secondly, there are very familiar elements in their superstitions. In one of these stories in "Bangkok Haunted", a young woman got into trouble because she used a love potion made from the blood or stuff extracted from the chin of a dead woman. In Kelantan, they call this 'minyak dagu' or ' minyak orang mati dibunuh' and it is supposedly obtained from Malay or Siamese practitioners of dark magic. So this stuff would be familiar to Malaysians in the north but perhaps less so elsewhere. Keep looking, I guess.
I think the next thing I'll do it ask some of my students to see these films, maybe they'll see other things I have missed.
So, that concludes a short note from KL. Going for lunch soon. I think I'll have catfish today. Join me anyone?
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