Self-Wounding as War Magic: Tangki Spirit Medium Worship
A woman with a bicycle through her cheek; a man with three samurai sword thrust into his face: Why do people wound themselves? Tangki spirit medium worship is a 5,000 year-old practice of the Hokkien people of southern China. In Tangki spirit medium worship, it is believed that possessed mediums are gods incarnate. Since the flesh and blood of the medium is the flesh and blood of a god, self-wounding by the medium is a performance of powerful war magic that will drive away evil spirits and bring peace and safety to the community. This, perhaps the most violent of self-mortification practices, can be traced to Neolithic tribes in China, and tangki spirit medium worship is widely practiced today in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.
Tangki worship thrives in modern Singapore, an island-state that ranks among the modern cities of the world. It is here that the spectacle of a medium dancing in the throes of a trance against a backdrop of sky scrapers appears to be most anachronistic. An analysis of a ‘living dinosaur’ of a ritual-theatre must prove insightful and the Singapore practice is most amenable to examination for traces that would map the evolution of the worship. Such an analysis allows us to understand the communal and cultural forces that shaped an ancient performance practice and which still remain relevant in modern society.
Margaret Chan received her PhD in Performance Studies from Royal Holloway, University of London. Her MA (Performance Studies) was awarded with distinction by the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. Margaret was awarded the UK Overseas Research Scholarship and also the Thomas Holloway (Founder) Scholarship to read for her PhD. Margaret is presently in New York on a Fulbright Research Scholarship.
Margaret’s research interest is in the field of tangki Chinese spirit medium worship and Chinese Popular Religion. Her book, Ritual is Theatre, Theatre is Ritual: Chinese Spirit Medium Worship published by the Wee Kim Wee Centre, SMU and SNP Research represents a seminal investigation into the practice of tangki spirit medium worship, a signifying cultural practice of the Hokkien people.
Margaret is a pioneer of English Language Theatre in Singapore and was a journalist. She is Associate Professor of Theatre/Performance Studies (Practice) in the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University.