"The Story of Mu Kaun"
A 1934 poster advertising Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus entertainer Mu Kaun, a Kayan Lahwi tribeswoman, labels her as a "Giraffe-Neck Woman" and "The Most Startling Discovery of the Century."
www.discovermyanmarmagazine.com
By- DANIEL WINE / Photographs by- YE MYAT TUN www.discovermyanmarmagazine.com https://issuu.com/discovermyanmarmagazine/docs/discover_myanmar_magazine_january_2
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In November of last year, the Discover Myanmar team researched and shared images of advertising from old Burma. Most of these brought on nostalgia; some were bittersweet, others hilariously entertaining. Perhaps it was because of the team's trip to a Kayan Lahwi site in Kayah State two months before, but I kept scanning over a 1934 poster of a rather passive-looking woman with long neck coils advertising the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus.
It looked innocuous enough at first glance, but something rubbed me raw as I studied it. The woman's neck length was exaggerated to cartoonish proportions. Touting that she was "the most startling discovery of the century," the poster called her the "Giraffe-Neck Woman."
"Discovery for whom?" I muttered to myself. Using the word "discovery" to refer to an exotic culture that has existed for centuries is rather asinine, akin to Columbus "discovering" the Americas where there were already native civilizations long established. The word reinforced the existing sentiment that this "giraffe woman's" culture had no significance before it was "discovered" by, and made available to, the western world. Such hype words were the norm when the poster was put to print but do not fly so well today.
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Continuing on, the advert boasted that she was a "Royal Padaung," going by the Shan term, which is considered pejorative by the Kayan Lahwi. What, I wondered, was a royal doing as a circus attraction? What was her title? "Princess Mu Kaun," the post proclaimed— a princess they had objectified and likened to an animal.
Again, I begged the question: Why was a royal princess from Burma performing for an American circus? Was this something she wanted? Did performing in a traveling circus fulfill some wish of hers to see to world? With whom did she socialize? Did she miss her native land? Did she ever return?
The Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, based in Peru, Indiana, was a circus that traveled across the United States in the late 19th and early part of the 20th century. It seemed the circus was destined for misery. In 1913, 21 years before Mu Kaun made her American debut, the circus lost eight elephants, 21 lions and tigers, and eight performing horses in a massive flood.
