Pepper Estate: The Untold Story
11 min read
RESIDENTS OF Tanjung Bungah would sometimes use, as a shortcut, the well-shaded and narrow winding hill road that snakes around the Guillemard Service Reservoir...
Modern and Traditional Means to Care for Mother and Child
6 min read
THE JOURNEY OF motherhood, from conception to pregnancy, birth and then raising a child, can be a daunting prospect for a first-time mother. So how does a woman...
STEM Education: Quo Vadis, Malaysia?
6 min read
STEM EDUCATION REMAINS an enigma to policymakers, even after decades of research. Since economic growth today hinges on technological development, and the latte...
Lessons for the Education Sector to Learn from Covid-19
5 min read
AS OF APRIL 21 – at the height of Covid-19 – schools in 191 countries were forced into mass closure. An estimated 1.5 billion students globally were...
From a Fascination with Aeronautics to the Production of Lightweight Aluminium Boats
5 min read
As a student, Derek Neoh was not keen on studying and homework. “But I had a strict father,” Neoh says, “and he always emphasized the importance of education.”...
Manufacturing Excellence: Fruits of Penang’s Industrialisation
5 min read
THE SEMICON SOUTHEAST ASIA event hosted at Setia SPICE Convention Centre from 21 to 23 June 2022 is a part of the ongoing celebration of Penang’s 50th year of m...
Remembering the Eight Pioneers
5 min read
ACTING AS a key entrepot for the Far East, Penang in the 19th and early 20th century flourished. The free port system that the British tended to impose in its p...
The Smartphone and the Elderly
5 min read
THE SMARTPHONE BECAME a liberator of sorts for many of us when in-person connection was rendered impossible by lockdown restrictions and social distancing measu...
Plantdemic: The Rise of Pretentious Rarity
6 min read
The plantdemic – an emerging social phenomenon of mass buying exorbitant houseplants for, among other reasons, plain boredom, and parading them on social media in hope of becoming the next “plant-fluencer”.
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...
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...
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.
