Author Archives: Daniel Rahmann

Legend – South East Asia

The Pontianak is a woman who lives in a frangipani tree. She also wears the flowers in her hair, which has a sweet smell. Word has it that she died during child birth. You are given warning of her presence when you smell the sweetness of the frangipani flower. She attacks pregnant women out of jealousy

This legend to the informant, serves as a warning for pregnant women not to wander around at night. This piece of folklore is not to be told for the purpose of entertainment, as it is believed that the recounting of these stories invokes the spirit in question. The Pontianak is famous all around South East Asia, particularly around Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, where all countries speak a dialect of Bahasa. The official languages Indonesia and Malaysia (Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu respectively) have very little differences and are grammatically identical. With Singapore being the tiny dot situated between the two, it shares the folklore of its surrounding countries. Growing up in Singapore, I was warned of this spirit several times, also by my Indonesian nanny. However, I would like to provide the version that I know and relate to from my childhood:

The Pontianak lives in the frangipani tree. Her story is that her husband left her and she committed suicide. This is why she always attacks men. Therefore if you are a man and you encounter her, you need to throw yourself onto the ground facing down, so that she cant rip your balls off.

This version, which I am more familiar with was much more applicable to me, seeing as I am of the male gender and grew up in South East Asia. I was made aware of the possible dismemberment though I never completely accepted the legend and considered it to be true. However, this could be largely a result of the fact that I am not only from Asian but also Western origin and therefore grew up with predominantly western beliefs.

The story of the Pontianak has shown up in many publications and Asian Cinema. Most notably, it can be found in the following:

Moey, Nick. Pontianak: 13 Chilling Tales. 1990. Times Book International

Proverb – Hamburg, Germany

German:

Wenn es in London anfängt zu regnen, macht man in Hamburg den Regenschirm auf

Translation:

When it begins to rain in London, we open our Umbrellas in Hamburg

I have only heard this phrase since a year, from my grandmother, the informant who claims that this is a popular saying in Hamburg, north Germany. It corresponds to the weather similarities that Hamburg and London share as cities in different countries. Hamburg in Germany is famous for its famous Nieselwetter or Drizzle/Rain weather, so much that I have observed it in German learning textbooks when they discuss culture and Geography. Similarly, London across the world is also known for its rainy weather all year round. I think this saying simply speaks discusses the similarity of the two cities. I would like to make the observation that this term came around with the development of Europe and the European Union. As travelling became a lot easier between European countries, it was much easier to make observations about culture and weather. As both cities are extremely cosmopolitan, the already established similarity in culture is strengthened by the similarity in weather, when comparing the two.

Legend – Singapore

The origin of the Singaporean symbol is when a Malay Prince, named Sand Nila Utama discovered Singapore, it still belonged to Malaysia and was known as Temasek. His boat at brushed against a big rock and began to sink. When he was swimming ashore to Temasek, he saw an animal which looked like a lion but had a tail like a fish. He then decided to call the island Singapura, Singa meaning lion in malay, and pura meaning city, so Lion city.

This legend according to my informant is untrue and was constructed by the government to instill patriotism into the people. As she grew up in Singapore however, she was told this story by her teachers at a local school and as local schools involved a lot of patriotic traditions, such as flag raising and lowering, singing the national hymn and other related songs, this to her was a part of understanding the identity of Singapore. This is often a major issue as Singapore has been independent for only 40 years. Also as there is a blend of many different races and origins within Singapore, it was difficult to form a national identity in that the country was already so diverse, and not to mention at once belonged to Malaysia. The creature in this legend however, has become the national symbol of Singapore and is known as the Merlion. I find this story personally very important because it provides the country with folklore that every citizen shares in common. I was attracted and discovered this story however in inquiring how the Merlion came about and why it is the countrys national symbol

Music Genre – Silverlake, California

Tecktonik is a music style I observed in a Nightclub in Silverlake, Los Angeles. My informant claims that it is a style of dance that is a combination of hip-hop and techno dance style. It is done recreationally and is apparently extremely new. My informant claims to only have discovered it over the past year, as it has become extremely prevalent in Paris. Although tecktonic is not a genre of music but simply a dance style, the music that it is performed to is a genre of Electronic music, mainly Electronica and specifically French Electronica and Disco Pop. I say the word French electronica because the music that is used for this dance is mostly from French Artists and DJs. My informant told me that because this dance style is very new, it is witnessed extremely rarely even within the mainstream Electronic music community. It was emphasised that Tecktonic cannot be performed to House music, as the culture of that genre does not match the more niche electro culture. I would like to point out that footage of Tecktonic dance can be found on the internet, i.e. youtube and would like to make the assumption that it became widespread through the internet. I would like to point out that my annotation is a music video of a French pop artist named Yelle. In a remix to one of her songs, the official music video features Tecktonic dance entirely throughout the performance. My informant stresses that this music video is a major catalyst of the Tecktonic dance culture as it had never used and acknowledged on such a grand scale. As the artists success and popularity grew worldwide, the informant said that tecktonic grew on an international scale. On the official website, the video is advertised to feature Tecktonic. Internet research tells me that the Tecktonic has been copyrighted and that this is the first dance style to ever achieve copyright status. Attached is an image of the official Tecktonic logo.

Annotation:

Artist: Yelle

Song: À Cause Des Garçons (TEPR Remix)

Director: Bastien Lattanzio

Album & DVD: À Cause Des Garçons [Maxi] [Single]

ASIN: B000ZNW75S

Legend – Japan

Yorimasa is a warrior who always had very good aim and used to shoot with his bow an arrow. Most warriors used Samurai swords but in this case he once saved an Emporer who was being attacked in his bedroom by this huge evil monster. He basically killed the monster with his first arrow and the Emporer rewarded him generously for saving his life and thats how he became famous.

To my informant, this legend appears very distant to her and although she is a native Japanese, does not believe in mythical creatures and therefore rejects the story as being the truth. She does believe however that Yorimasa like many warriors existed and that the story was simply embellished and that by the time it was passed down through generations had incorporated mythical creatures. The informant, who takes a keen interest in Japanese warrior tales finds this story particularly interesting in that she feels it says a lot about her culture and the portrayal of someone humble and heroic. Yorimasa, is present in several Japanese folk tales and that this is only one of many, or could be a combination of several. I discovered this interpretation to be quite accurate with a published version, which differs only in that it is more descriptive. I make the personal observation in that people who are from a certain origin but have never lived in that country, take an extremely great interest in their country of origins history and folklore and often religious beliefs.