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.

To Excel is to Stay Curious

3 min read

How often have we not woken up at 3am in the morning with a novel solution to pressing questions that we could not solve while awake? Interlinking, integrating, interlacing… that seems to be how the brain works, or at least when we let it work.

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Linked by Bike!

1 min read

Malaysia’s first public-sharing bicycle system, LinkBike, was launched in 2016. Within a year, the cheerfully blue bicycles have become a common sight on...

by Ivan Lim

Compiling George Town’s Cultural Heritage

6 min read

From food to idols, books to garlands, worship and spirituality are tightly interwoven into the city’s fabric; all this is compiled into a book published by GTWHI, Penang’s Living Legacy: Heritage Traders of George Town, and reproduced here in brief.

by Penang Monthly

All That Glitters in George Town

10 min read

Sin Taik Wang is a little shop on Pitt Street, where for decades the Hars have made traditional votive paper flowers, known as kim hua in Hokkien. The scene is timeless, but the shop – and George Town’s last remaining kim hua makers – may be gone by the end of the month.

by Soon-Tzu Speechley

The financial status of Penang’s municipal councils

5 min read

It is undeniable that municipal councils of each state play crucial roles in providing comfortable living conditions for the people within its boundaries....

by Penang Monthly

Penang: From dawn to dusk

Penang has more than heritage attractions on offer; there are also a lot of scenic sites on the outskirts. What’s more, at night, if you go far and look h...

by Ivan Lim

Events

4 min read

FoodScenes involving characters having afternoon tea and nibbling on crumpets – and more often than not scheming away – are frequently seen in...

by Penang Monthly

Education is not only for building a common identity

2 min read

Education is a key issue in nation building; in no other country has it been more evident than in Malaysia where so much contestation since the 1950s has been...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

The Life of A Living Goddess

4 min read

In Nepal, there is a centuries-old Hindu tradition of worshiping pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of divine female energy. Kumari Devi, or Kumari, is revered and worshipped by some of the country’s Hindus as well as Buddhists as a living goddess, the incarnation of Durga.

by Chris Jung

Proficient Multilingualism is the future

2 min read

Let’s get serious about global communication.In the Age of Nationalism, which is what we continue to live in, we tend to forget that communication bet...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

An Unrecognisable New Normal

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by Azmi Hussin

Events

4 min read

COMPETITIONAre you a short film-maker or aspiring to be one? If so, show us your talent by participating in the Into the Lens: Horror Short Film Competitio...

by Penang Monthly

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