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Trigger warning: this article contains information about sexual harassment
Although I'm originally from Europe, I've picked up on the culture even from not living there currently - either from the couple years I spent there as a child, from my close family, the tv shows we watch or visiting my hometown on holidays. I have a grasp of the culture even though I’ve lived in Singapore for almost 10 years.
Something I will be writing about today is what interests me most about culture and the dimensions it places on people and their societies. Made-up stories and tales passed down generations is a common occurrence in every culture. Folktales are used to help children learn about their ancestors, culture, accepted behaviours, qualities, and knowing right from wrong - good from evil. It's a clever way to help them understand the world in an imaginative way they can respond to. For years, admirably, most of these tales have been scary and threatening stories to scare children into behaving rather than being excited by. Nevertheless, fear works. So of course, as children grow up, releasing it was all a trick, either they stay terrified or start to scare other little children for revenge, starting urban legends.
There are folk tales, mythical creatures and urban legends in the western world: Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, Bloody Mary, Bigfoot, The Boogeyman and several other main characters in the stories parents tell their children every generation. Whilst Bloody Mary and Bigfoot are widely known, there seems to be the general consensus that they aren’t real. Some may believe that once upon a time they were real but know now they’re just a story, and it's pretty widely normal that believing these things to be real is the view only a child would have, that an adult believing in The Boogeyman is socially unacceptable and seen as extremely strange. This is the culture that has been created.
But after living in Asia for 10 years, I have noticed something slightly different about the cultural attitudes to these types of characters and stories. Some of the scary stories and folktales that are popular in Asia are interestingly similar to those I was told as a child.
'Kuchi-sake-onna' - similar to The Boogeyman, The famous, black-haired, dripping wet woman, 'Daruma San' - similar to the story of Bloody Mary, and the famous origin story of Chinese New year, the dragon 'Nian'.
I have noticed that the attitude towards these legends is very different. As the belief of these legends don't stop when you’re a child because of the cultural or religious significance these creatures have, it is interesting that there is such a social difference of what’s acceptable. There is a general consensus that meeting someone who believes in one of these creatures isn’t due to them being childish and foolish, believing in fantasy, but that they must have seen them, experienced them or that they have good reason to believe in it. There is no act of superiority or judgement, at least in my experience. In my opinion, I believe this to be due to the culture of western superiority and rejection of other ideals. Historically, westerners would tramp about the lands, converting people, whether they liked it or not, to their religion. There were conflicts between Christian divisions and cultural judgement if a family did not attend church. As belief was so one-pathed, there was equally only one explanation for things, people and attitudes in the world and speculation were the admittance that those making the decisions were delusional and wrong. I’ve come to see that this close-minded view isn’t so present in Asia, variations of folktales are seen as interesting variations and new stories are seen as chances to learn about the culture. However, most of these stories are pretty harmless - victims usually get away with their lives and childhood intact. However, the legend of the 'Orang Minyak' from Malaysian culture has just been brought to my attention and to be completely honest, how have we never heard of this story!?
In Malay folklore, a horrible creature came about in urban legends around the 1900s. Similar creatures are in other folkloric beliefs all around the world, tales to keep children safe, to make women conform to religious demands, but not any like the 'Orang Minyak'. Of course, there are several versions of the creature created. Historically: a man, a greedy man, in history, Satan offered a man to win back his love with dark magic, Satan gave him black arts and worldly desires but only if he sexually assaulted 21 virgin girls within seven days and worship him for all eternity. The 'Orang Minyak' is an ‘oily man’ due to his nude body being covered in oil so that no one could catch them. He is also believed to be supernaturally agile. When the 'Orang Minyak' chooses his victims, he paralyses them, overpowers them and charms them so that they cannot scream or cry -hypnotised. The creature also has the ability to not leave not a trace of evidence, no fingerprints can be recovered or oily slick left anywhere but on the women's body.
There are many ways in the legend to ward off the man - sleeping in sweaty clothing to confuse the beast, surrounding your bed in men's clothing or even in cutting your thumb and letting it bleed over a holy garment whilst the creature is in your room.
Like many other urban legends, this creature only came to affect the country on a larger scale due to the influence of new technology. In 2012, there was a spread of 'Orang Minyak' Sightings that were reported in the news as one would report on bear sightings on mountainsides. The residents of Kampung Laksamana in Gombak Selangor, Malaysia, saw and heard the creature near their houses. The villagers were concerned as every house in the neighbourhood housed a young girl. One had already witnessed the creature, waking up one night to someone or something caressing her in her sleep and rendering her paralysed.
Although those stories seem illogical and more sensible to identify the attacker as a person, not a mythical creature, you cannot find a single villager in villages that have had spiked sightings of this creature who does not genuinely believe that it is a real creature. In Laksamana, over 200 villagers patrolled the Kampung at night when the young women in their homes were attacked.
"Until we manage to catch this thing, we are going to carry on with our patrols. I don't feel calm although I don't have a wife or younger sister," Aslam Khan vows, a man who claimed to have seen the creature in a clearing in the forest.
And the stories are much worse than being molested (as awful as that is). Around the same time, a hospital nurse in Kuala Lumpur was raped by the creature when she was asleep. Armed with a knife he threatened and tied up the women. She was found hours later frozen in terror, with all the nurses in the dorm spreading the story of their colleague being raped by the 'Orang Minyak', the victim herself believing it was the creature that assaulted her.
Although this creature’s story spread to Singapore in 1957. Mass panic spread, terrorising women in HDB estates in Clementi, Alexandra, Ayer Rajah and Changi - a serial molester covered himself in coconut oil and soot to elude capture. A religious head of state, Chief Kathi of Singapore even declared the supernatural man to be a real man that could shapeshift. Although the legend has faded in Singapore it is still very present in areas of Malaysia.
I mean no harm to those who believe in the 'Orang Minyak' and by no means intend to diminish or erase their cultural and historical beliefs in this story, however for the sake of this article and the angle I am trying to discuss, in my opinion I do not believe that this creature is real, so the following discussion will go off this personal assumption.
Let’s look at why this legend has become popular, as all legends have reasons behind them. Now it can be thought that this story originally was created when the acceptable tradition was for women to get married as soon as possible to ensure their safety in the village and protection from their husbands. So this story of a creature terrorising virgins unless they had a husband could be the result of this view. Personally, my theory is that the origins of this story was of this intention. To encourage the social norms to girls since they were very young.
However what is the more terrifying implication is that many people could morph this legend for their own crimes and the fact that thesis young girls have been told this story since they were young, this has a significant impact on their reactions. If a community created the story of a terrifying monster that slips into young women's bedrooms at night and paralyses them, rendering them mute, and you are a young impressional girl hearing this story from your parents, I believe there would be significant confirmation biases or illusory correlation. (noticing more confirmatory evidence and ignoring disconfirmatory evidence). These women would face if they are experiencing this, believing they are paralysed, caught up in the fear of the moment. And soon enough, this mythical creature becomes the perfect explanation for criminals ill actions.
So I argue, that for over 50 years, serial rapists and molesters have been getting away with terrorising young girls because of the belief that villagers have in the Orang Minyak. That this creature is the ultimate alibi for these men committing awful crimes. Where a culture has been twisted and taking advantage of to the point where hundreds of awful things have happened to girls where on one hand they get no justice for it and on the other hand, it is somewhat viewed as their fault for not having a husband yet.
But we see these biases all over the world, embedded into the culture, The Catholic Churches molesting scandal because nobody suspects a man of God, and in Malaysia, The Orang Minyak because nobody suspects the humans.
I guess the moral of this article is how of course we need to respect culture and welcome the urban legends, myths and cultural beings that arise in all the different cultures around the world, but at the end of the day, no matter how disrespectful it may be to shrug off the existence of certain creatures, sometimes cultural influences do more harm than good, and we need to recognise that yes they are an important learning point of Malaysian history, but placing the blame on an imaginary creature when a young girl is raped should not be the default accusation. Sometimes it may be easier to blame a monster rather than a friend but growing up is dealing with the hard decisions, recognising that sometimes they’re best ones.
Again, this is my own angle on the story, a theory and a cry out to all of you, why did we not know about this before!