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.

Kampung Selamat: A Resilient Village Inspiring in its Embrace of Economic Change

6 min read

KAMPUNG SELAMAT IS one of the few Chinese villages in Seberang Perai Utara. Over the decades, its transformation of economic activities bears witness to the dyn...

by Pan Yi Chieh

Smoothening Career Paths for Motivated School-leavers

4 min read

AS A TEENAGER, Yee Ji Chang liked watching Marvel’s Avengers series. One particular character stood out. “Out of all the superheroes, I was a big fan of Tony St...

by Ooi Tze Xiong

Penang Enhances Governance and Prepares for Socio-economic Recovery (September-December 2020)

7 min read

Penang2030, C4: Accelerating Programme Delivery and Institutional ReformsThe Covid -19 pandemic continues to affect the world. The situation in Wuhan, China s...

by Chow Kon Yeow

Chow Kon Yeow

Digital Literacy Should Be Pursued the Way Universal Literacy Once Was

4 min read

AT ITS MOST basic level, literacy is about the ability to read and write. But reading and writing is a goal to an end. It was to get us educated. Literacy leads...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Relating Tales of Dislocated Culture

8 min read

AUTHOR SOUVANKHAM THAMMAVONGSA’S initially hesitant demeanour over Zoom belies the writing style of her debut short story collection, How to Pronounce Knife. Sh...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

An Insider’s Account of Malaysia’s Parliament 2018-2020

5 min read

BOOK REVIEW: Parliament, Unexpected: Recollections of Parliament, Politics, and Pandemic in Malaysia (Matahari Books)PARLIAMENT, UNEXPECTED: Recollections of Pa...

by Fauwaz Abdul Aziz

Dikir Barat: An Evolving Identity Marker

5 min read

A dikir barat ensemble consists of the tok jogho (lead singer), tukang karut (spontaneous verse composer), awak-awak (chorus and clappers) and musicians. It starts with the bertabuh musical prelude, followed by singing led by the tok jogho.

by Izzuddin Ramli

Euston Quah and the Virtues of Cost-Benefit Analysis

8 min read

OUR EDITOR WAS stuck in Singapore for a few weeks in 2021 during the pandemic, and took the chance to meet up with one of Penang’s many famous sons living in th...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

Using Clubhouse for a Good Cause

3 min read

REMEMBER THE INVITE-ONLY social audio app, Clubhouse? It was the virtual place to be at the height of Covid in 2020, hosting a dizzying array of conversations,...

by Joel Teh

“Listeners Calling”: Radio Enters its Second Century in Malaysia

14 min read

IMAGINE BEING ON the lookout for new music in the prewar days, and you had already exhausted the collection of the local S. Moutrie and Co. Ltd., local agents o...

by William Tham

Chinese Whispers: The Literature and Politics of Nanyang Writers

8 min read

“Man is a restless creature, nomadic at heart.” Tash Aw, Map of the Invisible World.NANYANG, the “South Sea” in the Chinese imagination, is rich in stories – th...

by William Tham

PSDC: A Technical Skills Institute of Excellence

5 min read

THE 1980S IN Penang was a time of rapid economic growth. A decade earlier, then Chief Minister Lim Chong Eu had envisioned the creation of the Free Industrial Z...

by Ooi Tze Xiong

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