REIMAGINING INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE: A SEMIOTIC READING OF BATIK GIRL AND THE DALANG’S TALE

Abstract

This article examines how Malaysian animated shorts mobilise semiotic strategies to reimagine intangible cultural heritage (ICH), focusing on Batik Girl (2018) and The Dalang’s Tale (2021). While earlier scholarship has catalogued cultural motifs in Malaysian animation, less attention has been paid to how these motifs function symbolically and narratively. Drawing on Roland Barthes’ framework of denotation, connotation, and myth, complemented by Clifford Geertz’s notion of thick description, this study analyses selected keyframes from both films to trace how cultural signs operate within cinematic storytelling. In Batik Girl, motifs, textures, and tools from the batik lukis tradition are transformed from aesthetic details into symbolic landscapes that externalise grief, resilience, and healing. By contrast, The Dalang’s Tale engages more deeply with the performative grammar of wayang kulit Kelantan (WKK), where shadows, light, and puppet aesthetics articulate secrecy, trauma, and reconciliation. At the mythic level, WKK emerges as a cultural allegory of cyclical conflict and renewal. The comparative analysis demonstrates a progression from surface symbolism to embedded performative allegory, reflecting both the creative development of the filmmaker and a broader shift in Malaysian animated shorts from folktale adaptations toward cultural marker films. These findings underscore the value of semiotic analysis for revealing the symbolic depth of ICH in animation, showing how short films function as cultural laboratories that preserve continuity, enable innovation, and resonate with both local and global audiences.