“There were people practising voodoo and there was once my father was inflicted with black magic. He was bedridden for almost two years. After recovering, he made a vow to dedicate his body to the gods so that he would be able to treat others with the same condition.
I tend to be alone because other people would stay away from me after knowing our family had this “thing” going on.
Usually when there is a “ceremony”, there would be a commotion with people shouting. Kids were always sent back to their rooms.
I gradually became reserved and that’s when I got my first cassette recorder.
After school, I would wait for all the other pupils to leave and then record my voice reading the entire textbook so that I could listen to it in my room.
Some people write things down when they encounter interesting things, I like to use my voice. I ‘wrote’ my diary with my cassette recorder and listened to the sounds of frogs and birds in my backyard. There was once I wrote and sang my own poems too!
I thought I was autistic, but much later I found out I just tend to be afraid of large crowds. Trying to come out of it, I turned to performing arts and in particular, dance.
My dance choreography is usually inspired by my dad’s life as a spirit medium, sometimes I paint half my face to look like a “spirit” medium.
In my final year of university, I took the stage together with my father to do a contemporary dance performance at a South East Asian cultural festival held in Pasar Seni.” – Chong Keat Aun
“我爸爸是乩童的，我们一家是在靠近泰国边境生活，那里的暹罗后裔会巫术，我爸爸就是被下了降头，在床上躺了将近两年的时间。有位高僧医治了我爸爸后，我爸爸决定把他的身体奉献给神明来做灵媒，来帮助也有这样遭遇的人。
很多时候当同学们朋友，甚至是老师知道我们家有这样的事后，他们都不敢靠近我，久而久之我就变得孤僻一人。
这种仪式进行时，场面都是非常吵闹的，小孩子们都会被赶回房间里去。
慢慢的，我更内向了，也就在这个时候，我拥有了我第一架卡带录音机。
放学后，我都等其他同学离开之后，留下来把课本朗读一遍，把自己的声音录进卡带里，好让我回到家可以听自己的声音复习功课。
很多人用笔来记录他们的生活，我喜欢用声音。我会对着我的卡带“说”日记；我还喜欢在家的后院听青蛙和鸟叫声；曾经我也会写些小诗歌来唱。
我以为我是自闭的，不过后来才得知自己拥有的是人群恐惧症。开始时，我选择了用表演和舞蹈来走出这个状态。
我的舞蹈灵感是来自我爸爸乩童的身份。表演的时候，我会把自己半张的脸庞画上他那种乩童的妆。
大专最后一年的时候，茨厂街刚好有个东南亚艺术节，我和我爸爸就在这个艺术节里同台一起演出了一场以乩童为主题的现代舞。” – 张吉安
The above interview was conducted in Mandarin.
Photo, story and translation by Tan Dao Hong.
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(This post was first published on February 28th 2018)
