This post was originally published on murderiseverywhere.substack.com.
I read Remy Lai’s Ghost Book last week and I loved it. It’s a graphic book that’s somehow funny, scary and tender all at once.
Also, there are soup dumplings (which is always good. But they play too big a part in the plot for me to discuss them here).
More importantly, the book features Ox Head and Horse Face, or Niu Tou (牛頭) Ma Mian (馬頭), the underworld guardians from Chinese mythology.
I first met them as a child in the Haw Par Villa Hell Museum, guarding the gates of hell: this is Ox Head with his trident.
And yes, he’s meant to look frightening. Generations of Singaporean children have been walked through this foretaste of hell to be terrorised into good behaviour.
It was only later that I realised Ox Head and Horse Face weren’t there to drag us into the tortures of hell, but police its boundaries.
Unlike the really important deities in hell, Ox Head and Horse Face don’t carry scrolls, ready to impart wisdom or impose justice—they carry chains, hooks and the spiked clubs and tridents you see here—because they are considered the guardians and law enforcers of the boundary areas.
The only time they roam the earth is during Hungry Ghost Month, when they patrol the streets and make sure all the ghosts return to hell after. Then you’ll see them everywhere as statues and played by temple performers, symbolically keeping order so human guests at the live shows and prayer tents are safe.
Their earliest literary appearance is in Journey To The West, the Chinese comic novel written by Wu Cheng’en in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), where Ox Head and Horse Face are among the first underworlders encountered by Sun Wukong.
These days, apart from their stations at Haw Par Villa, they also have altars in various parts of Singapore. These are usually in temple side halls or by the entrance/ exits or behind more highly ranked underworld figures… which is also how they appear in painted murals and statues in traditional Taoist temples—smaller than and subservient to the ‘main’ deities.
Yet people do seek them out, and increasingly so in Singapore, it seems.
Because Ox Head and Horse Face are regarded as guardians of safe passage, people go to them to pray for safe passage when traveling, whether within or between worlds, and for protection from malevolent spirits and humans–for themselves as well as their deceased ancestors.
Though I grew up with very Christian grandparents, I know the household servants were convinced we made it through a sickly childhood only because they successfully balanced Western vaccinations with joss stick protection from Asian deity-demons!
And I suspect that defining exactly what one seeks protection from and why–either articulated to the priest for prayers or written down yourself on the paper slips to be burnt—goes some way towards finding a solution.
Anyway, I really enjoyed Remy Lai’s book. I loved how she made frightening figures funny without making fun of them. Ox Head and Horse Face love soup dumplings, but only the best soup dumplings. They are protectors, but protectors can themselves can become a danger—which is something children know instinctively and adults too often forget.
And a parent who seems busy and distant can turn out to have been protecting his child from the ‘Protectors’ all along!
Anyway, I’m ending with a photo of my own little protector, Dog Tail;
Because Sophia’s come through her surgery with flying colours and is off painkillers and eating well. Here she’s examining a wild butterfly pea patch that isn’t blooming.
Writing wise, The Tembusu Tree is out! I’m working on Bonsai Lives (working title) and trying not to get too distracted by ideas for the book after that. In other words, all’s right in our world.
Hope all’s well in yours too. May you be happy, may you be healthy and may you be safe!