Lemongrass, lotteries and the digital: interfaces, mediums, and underworld gods on a live-stream

ABSTRACT

As the COVID-19 situation intensified in Malaysia during the second half of 2020, live-streamed videos of Chinese underworld gods, Dua Ya Pek and Di Ya Pek appeared on Facebook. Possessing different human vessels each time, the gods ate, drank, smoked, and communicated with their devotees online by improvising and responding to their online ‘comments’. During one possession, Dua Ya Pek even had a specific remedy for COVID-19: stalks of lemongrass. The shift to social media subverts the private nature of such possessions, making them somewhat public. This article examines how divinities now engage with online devotees through livestreaming and the transgressive nature of this emergent practice. When the gods are still able to predict winning lottery numbers and reemerge through the digital interface of Facebook, the disembodied bodies of spirit mediums perform the underworld gods’ collective stance that they are still available and active in a time of crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Digital interface
• popular Chinese religion
• spirit medium
• live-streaming
• digital religion
• spirit possession

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See an example of how Tik Tok was used by a follower to document his visit to a Ah Pek temple in Singapore, uploaded by ‘lewiscloud’ at https://www.tiktok.com/@lewiscloud/video/7001070396145454337, accessed 7 September, 2021; See as well the YouTube video that showcases how the spirit possession of Dua Ya Pek and Di Ya Pek was carried out in 2020 during the pandemic in Singapore, uploaded by ‘七少爷 Qi ShaoYe’ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS02WzS8j8E, accessed 7 September, 2021.

2 The Grand Dragon Lottery results can be viewed at https://gdlotto.com/results/past/. The date of the draw is 19/05/2020 and the winning number, ‘1374’, appears under the ‘Special Prize’ category.

3 See the classification and characteristics of lemongrass at the National Parks website, ‘Flora and Fauna Web’ for more information about the plant, available at https://www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/flora/1/9/1918, accessed on 9 September, 2021.

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Alvin Eng Hui Lim

Alvin Eng Hui Lim is a performance, religion and theatre researcher. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the National University of Singapore. His research focusses on the intersections of theatre and religion, popular religious practices, spirit mediums and rituals, with emphasis on digital media. He holds a PhD in Theatre Studies jointly awarded by the National University of Singapore and King's College London. He is also Deputy Director and Technology and Online Editor (Mandarin) of the Asian Shakespeare Intercultural Archive (A|S|I|A, http://a-s-i-a-web.org/). His first monograph, Digital Spirits in Religion and Media: Possession and Performance, is published by Routledge in 2018. He has also published on Singapore theatre, translation, digital archiving, and religious performance in Singapore.