By : Kalinga Seneviratne

Like other boys his age, 12 year old Mansoor spends much of his free time playing video games. But that may change soon, now that he has discovered the joys of playing with a toy that has been around for centuries the kite.

On a recent on 20th March 1999 in this township in southern Malaysia, Mansoor, his father and nine-year-old sister were among the hundreds of people who swarmed to a local park to attend an international kite festival.

Sukchid shows the smallest kite in the world (0.7cm x 0.9cm) during the 6th Thailand International Kite Festival at Pratum Thani in Thailand

The event, called Bukit Layang Layang, attracted kite makers from at least eight countries who also participated in kite-flying exhibitions and competitions. But while all these impressed the children and their parents who went to the festival, many got the most pleasure from flying their own kites themselves.

Mansoor, for instance, had a wide grin on his face as he lugged at the string of his kite as it soared above. “I really enjoy flying a kite”, he said with an obvious thrill in his voice. “I think I must do this more often. This is better than playing videos”.

His father Arafin, a 45-year-old technician, couldn’t have been more pleased to hear that. “I spent many memorable hours as a child making and flying kites at home”, he said.

"But my two children are always in front of the TV playing their video games. They need some fresh air and exercise".

Arafin may well have been echoing the thoughts of the other adults at the festival, especially those of Haji Hussin.

Bin Haron, president of the Johar Kite Association that organised the week long event.

"In Malaysia, kite-flying has traditionally been very popular, especially in the northern states like Kelantan’, said Mr Haron.

"But in the south, like in Johor, because of modernisation and the information technology push, schools don’t encourage pupils to make push, schools don’t encourage pupils to make kites anymore".

"We want to bring back the incentive (to fly kites) to the young, to keep alive our traditions’, he said.

Eiji Ohashi, a master kite maker from Japan who was at the festival here, said kite-flying is no longer popular among the youth in his country as well.

"Children play computer games", he complained while keeping an eye on his flying train kite that had some 700 individual kites strung together. “(Only) us old men keep the tradition going.

Historians say it is a tradition that dates back to thousands of years ago. The earliest references to kites in Asia go as far back as 202 BC and apparently not as playthings for children.

That was during the Han Dynasty in China, when Emperor li Pang would fly kites fitted with Aeolian harps some sort of noisemakers over enemy territory at night. Upon hearing the loud noises, the enemy would flee their camps in fright, thinking evil spirits were upon them.

The Japanese, ironically, used kites precisely to ward off evil spirits. Historical records also say kites have been in use there since the sixth century as symbols of prosperity, good luck or fertility. Later, the Japanese flew kites to ward off birds at harvest time and to welcome a bountiful harvest. Here in Malaysia, earliest records show that Malays centuries ago used leaf-shaped ‘fishing kites’ from which lines were strung, providing fisher folk a means of lightly suspending their bait hooks without frightening their prey.

Today, the wan bulan (moon kite) is the symbol of Malaysia’s national airline.

Kites went westwards only toward the 18th century. In 1752, Benjamin Franklin used a kite to demonstrate the existence of electric currents during lightning. Much later, kite making technology proved useful in the development of the aeroplane.

Although its popularity has waned somewhat in Malaysia and Japan, kite flying is still a favourite pastime elsewhere in Asia, especially China and Indonesia.