Reimagining the Weretiger of the Malay Peninsula: Western Colonial and Chinese Diasporic Perspectives

Abstract

The weretiger, a fearsome shapeshifting figure from Malay folklore, contrasts sharply with the Malayan tiger, a national symbol revered in Malaysia. Transgressing the boundary between human and beast, it embodies an unsettling other to human society (both protective and perilous) and has permeated the cultural imagination of the Malay Peninsula. Although rooted in local belief systems, the figure has evolved through external and diasporic perspectives, acquiring new meanings beyond its original cultural context. This paper examines shifting representations of the weretiger among observers from outside the primary belief-bearing communities: first in Western colonial writings and then in the Chinese diaspora in historical China and Malaya/Malaysia. The inquiry is situated within the existing scholarly landscape, beginning with Robert Wessing’s comprehensive study of Southeast Asian weretiger traditions, which provides a sociological foundation grounded in local beliefs; it further acknowledges Nazry Bahrawi’s cultural translation framework regarding how oral traditions have been textualized into modern adaptations within the Malay literary sphere. Building on and moving beyond these perspectives, the paper analyzes how Western colonial authors, particularly Manuel Godinho de Erédia and Hugh Clifford, framed the weretiger within a hierarchical framework of disdain, deploying a two-tiered gaze: the Malay community’s gaze toward internal and external others (including marginalized groups such as the Semang and Kerinci), and the Western colonists’ gaze toward the Malay community. Finally, it traces how Chinese authors, from Ma Huan and Hsu Yun Tsiao who actually hailed from China, to the more recent Malaysian-born Chinese creators Maniniwei and Amanda Nell Eu, have transformed the weretiger motif from a folkloric curiosity into a vehicle for cultural critique, eventually turning from an external lens to a pursuit of internal authenticity. In doing so, the paper foregrounds the weretiger as a polyvalent symbol whose meanings are constantly renegotiated across historical, cultural, and ideological contexts.