The past few weeks I’ve written innumerable press materials for various virtuous days – anti-corruption day, youth day, volunteering day, mountain day, etc. I suppose they are as much an internal focusing mechanism as an actual way to increase public awareness.
This weekend we went to Shah Alam, the capital of the neighbouring state of Selangor. You can really tell the state capitals here, they are clearly royalist bastions. (On another note, I also did some reading up on Malay Rulers and Article 153, however not much to say about either other than express interest in how all this seems to work). Anyhow, we went to see a Mak Yong performance. No spirit possession occurred and it was all in Bahasa, but fascinating nonetheless. Clearly a dying art. Had we watched it in Thailand it would have been a slick tourist-aimed production. Had we watched it in a Kelatanese village before the ban, it would have been an intense and ramshackle affair. Here there was one good performer, several others who seemed to have wandered onto the stage and appeared to be wondering what they were doing there, and one woman in the back who may or may not have been one of the original Mak Yong performers seeing her spiritual practice turn into a rare and desultory cultural event. There was a comic interlude, all in Bahasa, but comic interludes are the same the world over. The dancing was not what one might call energetic,with several moves that seemed to consist of standing still and twitching a single finger. It was held on a parade stand, meaning that the audience sat on the road with buses rumbling past, and occasional cyclists obscuring the stage. But I enjoyed it, there were hints of magic to it, and it was sad to think what our 20th century Islam has done to heritage.
On Saturday we went for Penang prawn mee and kaya in SEA Park where I saw the photographed house with its glorious pediments.
