'We Are Playing Relatives' Riau, the Cradle of Reality and Hybridity

In a world propelled by disintegration and renewal, 'literature' is still able to offer some of us the ultimate salvation from our anxiety. Is it not tempting, in these days of disquiet, to turn to Hikayat Hang Tuah, that encyclopedia of Malay writing, to soothe our worries, to enlighten our uneasiness about life? Following conventions and subverting them in one and the same movement, the Tale of Hang Tuah is full of irony - and irony is what we may need in order not to be torn apart by our ambivalent desires of intervention and disavowal. Evasive and inconclusive, Hikayat Hang Tuah is exemplary for each and every form of Malay writing. It shows us how to play with love and life, with power and money.