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As the COVID-19 situation intensified in Malaysia during the second half of 2020, live-streamed videos of Chinese underworld gods, Dua Ya Pek and Di Ya Pek appeared on Facebook. Possessing different human vessels each time, the gods ate, drank, smoked, and communicated with their devotees online by improvising and responding to their online ‘comments’. During one possession, Dua Ya Pek even had a specific remedy for COVID-19: stalks of lemongrass. The shift to social media subverts the private nature of such possessions, making them somewhat public. This article examines how divinities now engage with online devotees through livestreaming and the transgressive nature of this emergent practice. When the gods are still able to predict winning lottery numbers and reemerge through the digital interface of Facebook, the disembodied bodies of spirit mediums perform the underworld gods’ collective stance that they are still available and active in a time of crisis.

Lemongrass, lotteries and the digital: interfaces, mediums, and underworld gods on a live-stream