The Malay Hikayat(s): Indian Epics on the Other Side of the Indian Ocean

( Choo Ming Ding ) 한국외국어대학교 동남아연구소 2008 東南亞硏究 Vol.17 No.2

The Malay Hikayat(s): Indian Epics on the Other Side of the Indian Ocean

Ding Choo Ming 한국외국어대학교 동남아연구소 2008 東南亞硏究 Vol.17 No.2

For centuries, Indo-Malay authors, including craftsmen and artists, have created hikayat and other works of art of unsurpassed beauty and aesthetic value. All these works of art have to be understood through a tradition uniquely theirs. The key to understanding it lies in rediscovering and deciphering the codes. This would require knowledge of a specific semiotics, linguistics and philology. Many Indo-Malay hikayat from the Hindu were chanted rather than written for a non-literate audience. The process of adapting oral composition and wayang performance into manuscript needs to be understood as literary activity in its own right. This concept of creation is in dire need of being re-appraised in the present context. Authors and scribes charged with transforming the oral and wayang tales had their creative freedom to create and interpret. The writing and re-writing of the hikayat(s) were never an accurate transcription or a methodical process although they loosely adapted a recommended schema and conventions. All the authors and scribes had to work within the authorship of Malay traditional literature that is uniquely theirs. This style of composition is buried in antiquity which is where its value lies. It is the cultural inheritance and its spirit and tradition that reverberates through time. This article explores the codes that unlock the implicit meanings within the oral and wayang tradition taking into consideration the re-working or re-writing and its significance to the history of Malay literature such as the hikayats.

Migration and the Spread of Pantun in Malay Archipelago

Ding Choo Ming 한국외국어대학교 동남아연구소 2012 東南亞硏究 Vol.21 No.3

Migration has a very long history in Malay Archipelago. It is not just about movement, but also about the inter-connectedness of place of origin and place of destination. This interconnectivity can also be seen as threads, chains,anchors and umbilical links. In this paper we look at migration and spread of pantun in Malay Archipelago from a historical perspective. So far, there has been no study on the implications of continuous population movement on this. But, it is this connectivity that accounts not only for the prolonged Malay cultural contact and civilization, but also the open-mind of the Malays, and thus helped to bolster the pluralist or mixed pantun that we see now. In this paper, the movement of local people is linked to their direct and indirect contribution to the spread of Malay, Javanese, Minangkabau, Banjarese and other pantuns. Historically, the vast bodies of water, including the Malacca Straits, Java Seas, Sunda Straits and Lombok Straits, are not merely water spaces rich in fish, but also highways and sea-lanes where the peoples moved from one island to the other, but also local pantun came into contact with that from beyond. In other words, seas and rivers in the region had played an equally important role in the history of Malay civilization as the Ganges and Huangho in the early civilization of India and China. They are the lifelines of the people. It is the openness that derived from the connectivity had made Malays able to deal with pantun from Indonesia, Singapore,Brunei and elsewhere in peaceful and meaningful ways. It is also this connectivity that accounts for the wide array of pantun cultures that have a distinctive regional lineage or DNA. In other words, it is the mobility of people within the region also that helps to spread and make it more widely distributed,popular and now ever lasting. As the mobility of people has increased because of colonialism, capitalist labor market and political reasons in the 19th century, we see multidimensional and multivariate nature of population movement in the region,whether they are voluntary or involuntary, short distance, long distance, short-term or long-term. Retrospectically, Malay Peninsular had “open door policy” for all the wiling immigrants as she had a huge demand for labor to help to accelerate the opening up and development of the country. As it is, the past was indeed the golden age of pantun development in the Malay Archipelago which is heterodox, plural and diverse in nature.

Japanese Occupation And Malayan Literary Works

Ding Choo Ming 한국외국어대학교 동남아연구소 2006 東南亞硏究 Vol.16 No.1

Japanese Occupation And Malayan Literary Works Ding Choo Ming (The National University of Malaysia) This is a preliminary observation of some of the impacts of the Japanese Occupation in Malayan literature, based on the poems, short stories and novels available at the time writing this paper. It begins with the warm wel¬come from the Malays, but great fears from the Chinese to the Japanese Occupation force.. The Malays saw the arrival of Japanese army to fight the British as the first step towards freedom and independence. During the Japanese Occupation, literary activity almost came to a halt, except some poems, short stories in the Malay language published Japanese owned newspapers and magazines which act as Japanese propaganda and some underground publications from Mahua writers. Only after the war, there was a spurt of writings in Malay, Chinese and English languages retelling the true colors of Japanese wartime brutality and atrocities. Now, the unpleasant memories of Japanese occupation can be recalled from the literary works, photographs, records and reports, left behind, reluctantly or willingly. Though these accounts of suffering and hardships are no different from other war situations, it is not only interesting to know what is its impact on the literary development then and later on, but also more importantly to understand the lesson that this event holds for the Malays, Chinese and Indians in a multiracial community. One important point is that writers, in their different capacities, did help in promoting patriotism and fanning anti-Japanese occupation. More importantly, the Japanese military victory over the British armed forces play an important role as a catalyst in ending Western colonial rule in post-war Southeast Asia and other changes in the Malayan literary works.

Identiti Peranakan Baba Di Negeri-Negeri Selat

Ding Choo Ming 한국외국어대학교 동남아연구소 2014 東南亞硏究 Vol.24 No.2

Intimate interactions between baba peranakan and Malay cultures have resulted in not only the blending, mixing and adaption of culutral elements from the two cultures, but also the creation of a cultural configuration that is unique to the peranakan baba. This development has made scholars confused in finding a term appropriate to explain it. This blending process involves not only the physical aspects of the cultural artifacts involved, but also the contact of the two cultures causing the transformation. Among the features that stand out among the successful, especially the wealthy baba peranakan, is their imitation of white people’s lifestyle. The typical image is they like to wear coat, speak English language, move in chauffeur-dirven car, play cricket, become member of club, drinking wine, dancing and partying. Nevertheless, the essence of baba peranakan’s culture is their new identity not found in the other Chinese because the process of mixing and creative adaptation. Interaksi intim antara peranakan baba dengan kebudayaan Melayu berakhirkan tidak sahaja pengadunan, pencampuran dan penyesuaian unsur kebudayaan, tetapi juga penciptaan konfigurasi kebudayaan yang unik kepada peranakan baba.. Perkembangan itu telah membuat sarjana bingung mencari istilah yang boleh memberi pengertian yang tepat tentang perkembangan yang berlaku itu. Proses pengadunan itu bukan sahaja melibatkan artifak budaya secara fizikal, tetapi juga kontak budaya yang menyebabkan transfromasi itu. Antara ciri yang menonjol dalam kalangan peranakan baba yang berjaya, terutamanya yang kaya raya, ialah meniru gaya hidup orang putih. Imej tipikal mereka adalah suka memakai kot barat, bercakap bahasa Inggeris, mempunyai kereta yang berpandu, bermain kriket, menjadi ahli kelab, minum arak, berdansa dan berpesta. Namun, inti pati kebudayaan peranakan baba adalah identiti baru yang tidak dijumpai pada orang dan dalam kebudayaan Cina totok kerana proses pengadunan dan penyesuaian secara kreatif.

Japanese Occupation And Malayan Literary Works

( Choo Ming Ding ) 한국외국어대학교 동남아연구소 2006 東南亞硏究 Vol.16 No.1

Some Common Repetitions in Pantun

( Choo Ming Ding ),( Norhayati Bt Mohamed ) 한국외국어대학교 동남아연구소 2011 東南亞硏究 Vol.21 No.1

Migration and the Spread of Pantun in Malay Archipelago

( Choo Ming Ding ) 한국외국어대학교 동남아연구소 2012 東南亞硏究 Vol.21 No.3

Migration has a very long history in Malay Archipelago. It is not just about movement, but also about the inter-connectedness of place of origin and place of destination. This interconnectivity can also by seen as threads, chains, anchors and umbilical links. In this paper we look at migration and spread of pantun in Malay Archipelago from a historical perspective. So far, there has been no study on the implications of continuous population movement on this. But, it is this connectivity that accounts not only for the prolonged Malay cultural contact and civilization, but also the open-mind of the Malays, and thus helped to bolster the pluralist or mixed pantun that we see now. In this paper, the movement of local people is linked to their direct and indirect contribution to the spread of Malay, Javanese, Minangkabau, Banjarese and other pantuns. Historically, the vast bodies of water, including the Malacca Straits, Java Seas, Sunda Straits and Lombok Straits, are not merely water spaces rich in fish, but also highways and sea-lanes where the peoples moved from one island to the other, but also local pantun came into contact with that from beyond. In other words, seas and rivers in the region had played an equally important role in the history of Malay civilization as the Ganges and Huangho in the early civilization of India and China. They are the lifelines of the people. It is the openness that derived from the connectivity had made Malays able to deal with pantun from Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and elsewhere in peaceful and meaningful ways. It is also this connectivity that accounts for the wide array of pantun cultures that have a distinctive regional lineage or DNA. In other words, it is the mobility of people within the region also that helps to spread and make it more widely distributed, popular and now ever lasting. As the mobility of people has increased because of colonialism, capitalist labor marked and political reasons in the 19th century, we see multidimensional and multivariate nature of population movement in the region, whether they are voluntary or involuntary, short distance, long distance, short-term or long-term. Retrospectically, Malay Peninsular had "open door policy" for all the wiling immigrants as she had a huge demand for labor to help to accelerate the opening up and development of the country. As it is, the past was indeed the golden age of pantun development in the Malay Archipelago which is heterodox, plural and diverse in nature.

The Role of Pantun as Cultural Identity for Nusantara in 21st Century and Beyond

( Choo Ming Ding ) 한국외국어대학교 동남아연구소 2009 東南亞硏究 Vol.18 No.2

The Identity of Baba Peranakan in the Straits Settlements

( Ding Choo Ming ) 한국외국어대학교 동남아연구소 2014 東南亞硏究 Vol.24 No.2

Interaksi intim antara peranakan baba dengan kebudayaan Melayu berakhirkan tidak sahaja pengadunan, pencampuran dan penyesuaian unsur kebudayaan, tetapi juga penciptaan konfigurasi kebudayaan yang unik kepada peranakan baba.. Perkembangan itu telah membuat sarjana bingung mencari istilah yang boleh memberi pengertian yang tepat tentang perkembangan yang berlaku itu. Proses pengadunan itu bukan sahaja melibatkan artifak budaya secara fizikal, tetapi juga kontak budaya yang menyebabkan transfromasi itu. Antara ciri yang menonjol dalam kalangan peranakan baba yang berjaya, terutamanya yang kaya raya, ialah meniru gaya hidup orang putih. Imej tipikal mereka adalah suka memakai kot barat, bercakap bahasa Inggeris, mempunyai kereta yang berpandu, bermain kriket, menjadi ahli kelab, minum arak, berdansa dan berpesta. Namun, inti pati kebudayaan peranakan baba adalah identiti baru yang tidak dijumpai pada orang dan dalam kebudayaan Cina totok kerana proses pengadunan dan penyesuaian secara kreatif.