Lady White

Abstract

Focusing on the literary migration and development of a Chinese classic, the tale of the White Snake and its evolution in different forms and languages, this article explores how ethnic Chinese communities in insular Southeast Asia sustain their cultural identity. From its origins as a folk tale to the Baba Malay (Malaysian peranakan) novel version, adapted for an emergent print culture in British Malaya and to its Indonesian language version, recounted for an independent Indonesia, the transformation of the Lady White Snake tale not only demonstrates its agility and resilience as a marker of Chinese identity but the variety of literary forms it takes explain how East-West interactions contribute to the evolution of Chinese identity overseas. This article also explores the English language version published in Malaysia in the 1970s in the form of a play and the latest Hong Kong Cantonese version made as a film, both in reaction to the establishment and development of the nation state.

Keywords:

• identity
• diaspora
• Peranakan Chinese
• Straits Chinese
• literature

Notes

¹In this article, the Baba Malay version refers to the 1889 Tan Beng Teck translation of the tale using the hybrid Malay and Hokkien language unique to the Straits Settlements of Penang, Melaka and Singapore. Baba is an honorific used by the Malay host community when referring to the adult male of the Straits Chinese community. Hence the term Baba Malay by extension refers to the Malay language used by the Baba community.

² Huangmei Xiang refers to the stylised acting and singing of the Beijing Opera.

³ Qing Ming (Mandarin), sometimes known as Tomb Sweeping Day, the equivalent of All Souls’ Day for Christians.

⁴The Cantonese film version refers to Green Snake (1993) dir. Tsui Hark, with actors Joey Wong, Maggie Cheung, Shao Wenzhuo and Wu Xingguo. It was based on Li Pik Hua's Green Snake: a novel. Also known as Lillian Li, the author is a well known script writer. Many of her novels have been adapted for screen, the most famous being Farewell my concubine (dir. Chen Kaige). Tsui Hark was born in Vietnam and migrated to Hong Kong with his family when he was 13. At the time of writing, the film is available on the following website: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_58fB11Jdac>

⁵Review of ‘Green Snake’, Subway Cinema <http://www.subwaycinema.com/frames/archives/tsui20017/greensnake.htm> Accessed 10 October 2009.

⁶The May Fourth Movement in 1919 marks a turning point in modern China's political development when university students took to the streets to protest China's treatment at the Versailles Conference. Instead of returning German territories in China to China, it was made over to Japan. This led to a rise in nationalism that would eventually lead to the formation of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.

Additional information

Author biography

Neil Khor is currently Affiliated Scholar at the Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, UK. He is also Honorary Secretary of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Neil read English for his PhD at the University of Cambridge. His area of specialisation is Straits Chinese literature and the social history of Penang. His publications include Glimpses of Old Penang (STAR, 2001), The Penang Po Leung Kuk: Chinese Women, Prostitution and A Welfare Organisation (MBRAS, 2003), Penang Turf Club: 140 Years of Racing (PNTC, 2004) and more recently Chinese Women: Their Malaysian Journey (MPH, 2010).