Bukit Chapalang: The Mousedeer in the Formation of a Nation

Abstract

This paper is a neo-archetypal interrogation of Sang Kancil in his role as the archetypal Politician. This is based on an analysis of the works of Sonny Liew (2015) a Malaysian born artist, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (2015), which utilises the iconography of the mousedeer in the formation of a nation. In the book, there is a short section called Bukit Chapalang, which is Liew ‘s (2015) revisioning of Sang Kancil as the Singaporean premier Singaporean Chinese Premier Lee Kuan Yew. This is done by comparing the original folktales of Sang Kancil with that of present-day retellings, done by Liew (2015). The changes that have occurred to Sang Kancil will be analysed using the two types of archetypal theories which are Jungian-archetypes and Neo-archetypes. From the study we expect to find the ways in which animals can be used as archetypal allegories to describe a story, such as a historical event, and can identify the changes that occur to the trickster figure of Sang Kancil when transposed to a Singaporean political landscape.Keywords: Sang Kancil, mousedeer, Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, archetypes, Jung, neo-archetypes, magician, tricksterReferencesAnderson, B. (2006). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and Spread of nationalism (2nd Ed). Verso.Crews, J. (2003). Forest and tree symbolism in folklore. Unasylva, 54(213), 37-44.Demello, M. (2022). Animal folklore: Beasts and creatures in tales, myths, and legends. ABC-CLIO, LLC.Drouin. J. M.(2005). Ants and bees. Between the French and the Darwinian revolution. Ludus Vitalis, 8(24), 3-14.Edensor, T. (2002). National identity, popular culture and everyday life. Berg Publishers.Evans. I.H.N. (2014). Studies in religion, folk-lore, & custom in British North Borneo and the Malay Peninsula. Cambridge U, P.Faber. M and Mayer. J. (2009). Resonance to archetypes in media: There’s some accounting for taste. Elsevier.Guerin, W.L. (2005). A handbook of critical approaches to literature. Oxford U P.Grobbelaar. Denise. 2020. The white lion as symbol of the archetype of the self and the cannibalization of the self in canned hunting, Jung Journal 14(2), 11-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/19342039.2020.1742550Han, J. (2019). The study of Thai elephant culture based on the “Elephant Metaphors” in Thai idioms. Comparative Literature: East & West 3(2), 148-162. https://doi.org/10.1080/25723618.2019.1701306Hasan, T. (2021). Life events and river metaphor, the semantic model and visualization. Scholar’s Press.Jeffrey, S. (2018). The ultimate list of archetypes. https://scottjeffrey.com/archetypes-list/Jung. C.G. (1968). Man and his symbols. Dell Publishing.Koike, M & Loughnan. S (2021). Virtual relationships: anthropomorphism in the digital age. Social and Personality Psychology Compass 15(6), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12603Kurowska, X. & Reshetnikov, A. (2020). Trickstery: pluralising stigma in international society. European Journal of International Relations, 27(1), 232-257. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066120946467La Shure. (2020). Hero of the people: Reimagining the trickster in North Korea. Journal of American Folklore 133(529), 259-284. https://doi.org/10.5406/jamerfolk.133.529.0259Liew. Sonny. (2015). The art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye. Epigram Books.Moore, R & Gillette, D. (1991). King, warrior, magician, lover: Rediscovering the archetypes of the mature masculine. HarperOne.Morley, H. (1889). The history of Reynard the Fox (William Caxton's English Translation of 1481), Routledge.Neumann, E. (2015). The great mother, an analysis of the archetype. Princeton Classics.Quah, C. W. K, Harris Satkunananthan, A., & Hamdan, S. I. (2019). Sang Kancil as cultural artefact: A comparative, neo-archetypal study. Gema Online Journal of Language Studies, 19(4), 243-257. http://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2019-1904-13