November 2025

This November, Penang Monthly explores language, place and memory. As GTLF returns, we highlight Penang’s multilingual streets and the dialects that keep local history alive.

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A publication of Penang Institute, Penang Monthly is the voice of Penang - an inspiring read for the curious Malaysian, featuring stories about the people, ideas, and issues shaping the state's well-being. Sign up for a free account to enjoy unlimited access to all our articles.

Profiling Penang as a Culture Hub

6 min read

Branding a city is more than creating a logo; it refers to establishing an identity based on the city’s inherent features and characteristics. A city with a successful brand of its own can eventually turn into a place where people want to live, work and visit.

by Julia Tan & Chang Jia Ying

Measuring creativity

5 min read

Malaysia’s creative content industry is estimated to be worth RM16bil, according to the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC). “Platforms such...

by Penang Monthly

Taking water and colours to new heights

6 min read

Watercolours are deemed low in the art hierarchy. But it is in that genre that Chang Fee Ming is a game-changer, known for constantly pushing the parameters of...

by Ooi Kok Chuen

Making music tell stories

5 min read

This April’s Penang World Music Festival was touted to have the best line-up of musicians yet, with performances that were at once culturally educational...

by Michelle Leong

Michelle Leong

The “banality of evil” in Malaysia

4 min read

Fifty-four years ago, Jewish writerphilosopher Hannah Arendt came up with the concept of “the banality of evil” after she covered the trial of Adolf...

by Kee Thuan Chye

Cartoons for the people

5 min read

Who is the most controversial cartoonist in Malaysia, currently being investigated on a whopping nine charges under the notorious Sedition Act and facing a pote...

by Dr. Mustafa K Anuar

Corruption and cronyism: Two sides of the same coin

5 min read

Following the first Bumiputera Economic Congress in 1965, Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) was established as a statutory body through an Act of Parliament. The trus...

by Steven Sim

A book that questions race and probes history

6 min read

Walking towards Red House Canteen at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Dr Ariffin Omar recounts to me his time as both a student and lecturer on and beyond the...

by Liani MK

Malaysia’s great – and recent – identity crisis

4 min read

If ever there was a country chronically afflicted by an identity crisis, it would be ours. Debates rage on about how we should define our identities. For exampl...

by Zairil Khir Johari

Staging stories of iconic women

5 min read

It’s hard to believe from the way Sabera Shaik writhes and wriggles on the dance floor that she is 62 years old. Slender, mild-mannered and sharp-eyed, Sa...

by Michelle Leong

Michelle Leong

Romancing Penang’s Ferry

5 min read

This August, some bright minds will transform the ferry walkway into a platform connecting the people of Seberang Perai with the island in more ways than one.

by Julia Tan

Paris – Source of inspiration for local artists

6 min read

Until Lai Foong Moi paved the yellow-brick road to the art world of Paris in 1953, few in Malaya/Singapore thought it possible for them to traverse such a path.

by Ooi Kok Chuen

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