The Ghost Bride

by Yangsze Choo

It seemed to me that in this confluence of cultures, we had acquired one another’s superstitions without necessarily any of their comforts.

One thing that always struck me in multi-ethnic Malaysia was how quickly and easily ghost stories spread. For example, an Indian friend of mine at school warned us all to stay away from banana trees at night, since women with long black hair and backward-pointing feet were said to appear. As a result, we all became terrified of going through banana groves at twilight, lest we meet any of these frightening ladies. I was also told not to play and put the lovely fragrant white flowers of frangi-pani (plumeria) in my hair as it was 1) a tree often planted in Malay graveyards, and 2) white, which is the Chinese colour of mourning. Years later I visited Hawaii and was very surprised to see people wearing wreaths of these flowers on their heads, where it has a totally different meaning!