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14 | FireFlyz
Cover
STORY
Having Fun The
Traditional Malaysian Way
FireFlyz
reflects and revisits some aspects of the past, in a time long before the
tendrils of technological advancement invaded our lives to explore and recollect
some of Malaysia’s treasured games and pastimes.
W
alk
down a
busy street in
any major city
in Malaysia
and youwould
likely be able
to see throngs
of people with their heads down, utterly
engrossed and hands busy on the ubiqui-
Wau
Think of a kite, and chances are, you’d
think of the geometrical, four-sided sheet
of thin, aerodynamic material connected
to a string. The Malaysian
Wau
is a kite,
but its soft curvatures and patterns makes
it distinctively different fromwestern ones.
tous “handheld mobile device”.
This would be intriguing yet scary at
the same time – how the proliferation
of mobile devices have been so quietly
pervasive over the years, and it’s a little
startling when you realise how incredibly
dependent on technology our people are
and how gradual and subtle the changes
have been.
When exactly did we evolve into a
nation of technologically immersed con-
sumers? More importantly, what did we
Malaysians use to do to entertain ourselves
back then?
Fireflyz explores five charming, tra-
ditional Malaysian pastimes that kept us
entertained before the advent of YouTube
or Facebook.
Waus
tend to be on the large side as
opposed to normal kites, and canmeasure
up to 3.5m long and 2.5m wide, which
makes for an incredibly majestic show
when it glides in the sky.
The
Wau Bulan
is one of Malaysia’s be-
loved symbols of our culture and heritage.
Their designs are also usually complex
geometric shapes in an array of bright,
bold and matching colours, while normal
Waus
tend to employ floral drawings.
The
Wau Bulan
also goes a notch
higher – a stringed bow is attached to the
front of the kite, which produces a very
distinctive, soft, wailing sound when it
flies.
The
Wau
is generally flown around
coastal areas such as Kelantan, which is on
the East coast of Malaysia, and especially
so after the rice harvest season.