Looking After the Ashes: Old Wives' Tales, Taboos; Supernatural and Childhood Superstitions (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9789814882101)

If you eat while lying down, you will turn into a snake. If you don't polish off all the rice on your plate you will marry a man full of pimples and pockmarks.

Looking After the Ashes is a semi-biographical fiction of Kopi Soh's childhood stories. Growing up in a large extended Taoist influenced Peranakan family filled with strong women, Soh hears these words of 'wisdom' daily. She used to live in a world where clipping finger nails at night was strictly forbidden, pointing at the moon would result in one's ears getting chopped off, and children were forced to stay indoors during sundown for fear of collision with evil forces. A world where mental disorders and illnesses were believed to be caused by malevolent spirits. Talisman, mediums and fortune tellers were a part of everyday life.

Author: Kopi Soh
ISBN-10: 9814882100
ISBN-13: 9789814882101
Publisher: Penguin Books
Language: English
Published: 08/31/2021
Pages: 216
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.54lbs
Size: 7.81h x 5.12w x 0.55d