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.

Imagining National Culture: Lessons From Bangsawan

6 min read

IN THE FIRST half of the 20th century, Bangsawan, or Malay opera, started incorporating the latest Anglo-American dances and music into its already cosmopolitan...

by Prof. Dr. Tan Sooi Beng

Remembrance Day: A Reminder of the Folly of War

3 min read

IT WAS A chilly winter morning on 8 November 1918, in what was then known as the Western Front battlefield in northern France. Among the vast fields of poppy, c...

by Enzo Sim

The Evolving Office: Work Holidays Without End

5 min read

Photos by Arieff ZafirWHEN VACATIONING IN New Zealand, Farizan Sulaiman and Awatif Ismail, who were self-employed, found themselves, yet again, furiously tappin...

by Liani MK

The Young Are Emerging as the Sustainability Generation

5 min read

ACCORDING TO Deloitte’s 2022 survey, millennials and Gen Zs cite climate change and environmental degradation as one of their top concerns. More than 90% of tho...

by Ang Kai Jie

Doctors Without Borders Working in Penang

5 min read

A little Rohingya girl at the entrance of the family home, wearing a T-shirt with the French words C'est la vie.THE SECESSION OF Biafra – a southeas...

by Enzo Sim

A Coconut a Day…

3 min read

Rangan Priakaruppan.THERE IS A makeshift stall along Lorong Abu Siti that bears no name yet locals who know of it flock to it, especially if the day happe...

by Sarah Daniel Jacob

A Year Marked by the Passing Away of Artists Across the World

7 min read

THE DEATH FROM coronavirus of China celebrity watercolourist Liu Shou Xiang on February 13, 2020, in Wuhan, marked the annus horribilis of a lethal disease that...

by Ooi Kok Chuen

A Woman, a Bike, and the World under Her Wheels

6 min read

AT HER FRIEND’S insistence, Lin Yeoh clambered on a Honda CB750 one day, slightly petrified at the thought of crashing. The experience instead opened up a...

by Regina Hoo

Music-makers Left to Fend for Themselves Under MCO

4 min read

MUSIC AND THE arts have always been a tricky national affair. It is recognised the world over as a symbol of a developed society capable of celebrating the fine...

by Kelvyn Yeang

An indie protest

4 min read

On September 29 and 30, hundreds of thousands of Malaysians showed up in defiance of the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 and the Home Minister’s comical ban on...

by Ooi Kok Hin

Small Acts of Courage to Make the World a Better Place

5 min read

If he was not a household name before September 2, 2014, he should have become that after he, on that day, became the first academician in Malaysian history to be charged under the Sedition Act of 1948.

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

When art espouses politics…

5 min read

University students used to be active in theatre clubs on their campuses. But all that ended during the 1970s. Students were no longer allowed to participate in politics; this limited their creative development but, happily, it led to theatres being started outside the universities.

by Izzuddin Ramli

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