Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

is the Executive Director of Penang Institute. His recent books include The Eurasian Core and its Edges: Dialogues with Wang Gungwu on the History of the World (ISEAS 2016).

326 posts

Amazed, Enthused and Amused by Music

3 min read

Have you noticed how, despite all the effort done to put us into a visual trance that takes us into another reality, moviemakers still cannot do without background music?

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Time for Penang to Lead Again

2 min read

Penangites are one proud people. That is not even a controversial statement. They are proud of their food, their history and their geography.Don’t get...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Education for What and for Whom?

2 min read

The federal government announced its master plan for education in September 2012. As was expected, the general goals sound fine at first glance while the larg...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Fleeting Squatters in Public Spaces

4 min read

As the Batu Kawan township comes into being, new hope is raised that the quality of life in the state of Penang will be affected positively, and that the bar...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Sustainable Development There is No Other Choice

2 min read

I just returned from Japan, and like every other visitor, I was struck by how clean the place is.To be sure, there are lots of spotless countries and cities...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Climate Change: Are You Not the Problem?

3 min read

It is understandable that the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are vague in formulation and loose in categorisation. Be that as it may, it is h...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Mothers, Thy Name is Worry

3 min read

Women may not all have been born multitaskers, but mothers, whether working mums or not, definitely are.In fact, it may not be possible to define motherhood...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Income Gap, Outcome Bad

2 min read

It is certainly true that never before in human history have so many been lifted out of poverty as has been the case in East Asia over the last few decades. T...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Things Gain Value as They Disappear

3 min read

What did heritage conservation look like or sound like in the pre-modern age when things changed slowly, and conservatism was not an ideology but a...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Give Me a Town Square, or Give Me a Death

2 min read

One thing that strikes me when I travel from city to city nowadays is that the ones I enjoy most and have the fondest memories of are simply those that boast...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

The Seas ‘r’ Us

2 min read

Ooi Kee Beng.Penang lies at the southern end of the Andaman Sea, the eastern end of the Bay of Bengal and the northern end of the Straits of Melaka. It al...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Knowing Me Through My Multiple Names and Faiths

2 min read

The history of naming is an extremely interesting one that varies greatly from culture to culture. In some, surnames are important, in others, they are not even existent. In some, personal names are important, in some, less so.

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng