Tag Archives: shape shifter

Aswang

Nationality: American/Filipino
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: California
Performance Date: 04/27/15
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

The informant is a fellow student and a good friend. While going out for smoothies, she shared her Filipino culture with me.

Informant: “This is like evil. So basically what it is, it’s like… It’s kind of like a shape-shifter. Like it takes on a human form during the day, and at night it takes on a monstrous form of either a bat, a bird, a rat, or something… Something that’s vicious, you know?”

Me: “Wait, did you say monster during the night? Or just and animal”

Informant: “A monstrous animal-like, animalistic… Yeah, not like a monster, it could be a bat, it could be a rat, uh… a bird… Some vicious creature. And in the day it take son this human form an it’s disguised. And what it does, is at night it feeds on human bodies. Or like, it wakes up humans in the middle of the night and they eat their flesh. And they kind of, they have this thing that they do where they feed human flesh to humans, so that they’re like manipulated.”

Me: “Does that turn them into Aswang as well?”

Informant: “Yeah, yeah. Yes.”

Me: “Ah, ok. So they like sneak into peoples’ houses?”

Informant: “Yeah, they sneak into peoples’, or they wake them up when they’re sleeping. I’m not sure if they actually turn them into Aswang, but they definitely feed on the humans. And they’re kind of like demonic, violent, evil creatures that you should be careful of. I don’t know if there’s any prevention, like… That you have to block your doors is all I know.”

Me: “But who do they target specifically?”

Informant: “Anyone.”

Me: “Anyone? So, like, how do you avoid them? You don’t know?”

Informant: “I don’t know how to avoid. Like, my grandma never told me. They just feed on anyone.”

Me: “Okay, but are they like, uncommon attacks?”

Informant: “I don’t know that part, just that they attack random people.”

Me: “And has she seen one?”

Informant: (shakes head) “I think it’s just a legend.”

Background & Analysis

The informant’s grandma learned about these creatures through oral tradition, and the legend is not particular to any island or culture specifically in the Philippines. The informant also doesn’t believe the Aswang are real, especially because it’s known as a creature that comes in the middle of the night and eats your family. She believes if it were real, there would be some sort or prevention or protection methods against them. For the informant, the lesson of this legend would be to lock your doors at night and not go wandering around at midnight, lest something bad happen. All of the informant’s family members know about this legend and other popular ones as well, since it’s been around for a long time and is so widespread.

What seems to be the trend with legends, is that you can always pull a lesson or a message out of them once you are able to look past the creepy, scary stuff. In this case, the lesson could be something as simple as keeping your doors locked at night, or watching out for those who would try to hurt or take advantage of you.

 

Aswang – Philippines

Nationality: Filipino-American
Age: 21
Occupation: Student
Residence: Camarillo, CA
Performance Date: April 12, 2013
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

My mom told me a story that my grandma told her, which was basically about one of our neighbors in the Philippines and how she is a shape shifter. 

In the Philippines we call these shape shifters aswang, and what happens is that the aswang actually eats young children.  And so in order to differentiate human beings from an aswang, because these shape shifters can be animals, they can be people, so you can’t tell.  The only way you can tell is through the reflection of a spoon, because when you look at your reflection in a spoon, your reflection is upside down, but for an aswang, if you were to show the aswang’s reflection it would be right side up. 

And so that’s what my mom would tell me about these creatures, and it really freaked me out when I was a little kid, because when I was in the Philippines I was like, “Oh my God, I don’t know who is who, and I could probably die right now.” I was so scared when I was younger. 

I asked my mom whether or not she was familiar with these kind of stories of the aswang, and surprisingly she said no. Where she is from, aswang refers more to monsters and werewolves and things of that nature.  It encompasses a lot of “mythical” beings, so I guess what the main “aswang creature” is really depends on where you’re from.  But the Filipinos do not see them as “mythical”; they consider the creatures real, and have no doubt in their mind that they exist.  That can be seen in this story, as Franceska’s mother and grandmother sincerely believed that their neighbor was a shape shifter.  So Franceska grew up believing she might be eaten at any moment by a shape shifter, and even said at one point contemplated carrying a spoon around with her.