A Recap of George Town Literary Festival 2023
5 min read
AT THE END of every November, there occurs a sudden influx of visitors to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of…
Imaginings of Nationhood: on “Negaraku”, a Collector’s Show by Bingley Sim and Ima Nurbinsha
6 min read
A NATION IS, first and foremost, the story of an idea. That’s what we mean by “nation-building”—what’s…
Keeping the Curtain Open for Peking Opera
6 min read
“WHAT’S MOST IMPRESSIVE is that their physicality isn’t diminished at all, but in fact stands out as their strongest weapon,” Ling Tang exclaimed. “It’s like an...
Raging Against the Machine: Reflections on Pendatang, Abang Adik and Maryam Pagi Ke Malam
5 min read
WHAT DO (a) a family living in a speculative, segregated Malaysia; (b) two brothers squeezed into a Pudu flat and; (c) a woman of royalty who owns an art galler...
Exposing the Extraordinary in the Ordinary
5 min read
A Play Review: Material Woman in the Beauty WorldWritten by Leow Puay Tin, directed by Tung Jit Yang, performed by Ling Tang.Featured as part of the George Town...
What Writers Think About Writing
7 min read
PENANG BOASTS a flourishing literary ecosystem filled with writers, poets, translators, booksellers, publishers and — of course — readers. With the annual Georg...
Book Review: The Best of Malaysian Short Fiction in English 2010-2020, Exploring the Faculty of Malaysia’s Fictioneers
4 min read
WHAT MAKES A short story successful? In reading The Best of Malaysian Short Fiction in English 2010-2020 (which, as an aside, has a really gorgeous cover), I fo...