Keeping Silambam Spinning
5 min read
On Penang Island, a small group of dedicated Tamils fights the odds to ensure that an ancient martial art stays alive.
As Travellers Get Smart, Hoteliers Have to Get Smarter
4 min read
The travel business has been revolutionized, bringing pressures and opportunities to hoteliers and travelers alike. WIT, a travel news portal supported by Penang Global Tourism, will try to bring Penang’s hoteliers up to date at a workshop in July at China House.
Aiming for Developed Yet Healthy Cities
7 min read
Anthony Capon’s first trip to Penang was as a medical student in 1981, and 30-odd years later, he is stunned by how much Penang has changed.
107.6FM – Finally A Radio Station for Women in Penang
7 min read
It is Malaysia’s only English radio station for women, and in March this year, Capital FM, which has 121,000 listeners weekly, ventured north to Penang (previously it could only be heard in the Klang Valley). But what exactly does a radio station for women broadcast?
Hai Ki Xin Lor: Acknowledging Penang Hokkien
5 min read
This August, the George Town Festival will close with an original play that celebrates the Penang tongue.
It begins with the narrative...
7 min read
When Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak invented the phrase "human rights-ism" in May to denounce humanism, secularism and liberalism as ideological thre...
What is the State of Freedom of Religion in Malaysia?
8 min read
Freedom of religion in Malaysia is a delicate matter – that is no secret. And with the marriage of religion and politics, along with “human rights-ism”, this freedom is slowly eroding.
Applause for the Penang budget model
5 min read
Regina Frey, head of the Gender Bureau, Berlin, Germany.The “People Oriented Model” of Gender Responsive Participatory Budgeting (GRPB), conce...
The mystery we call development
9 min read
In the late 1970s, Canadian diplomat David Malone found himself in Sudan, tasked by his government to check in on its $30mil aid programme. Six big projects wer...
Heritage Kept Right
8 min read
When it comes to heritage conservation, strictly maintaining an old building’s infrastructure is not enough. One must ensure that the essence, or the unseen heritage, remains preserved.
Working for ghosts
6 min read
Ornate paper effigy of the King of Hell.The best part of the Hungry Ghost Festival comes at the end of the seventh lunar month, when a melee of Chinese li...
A chance to confront death
4 min read
August is usually a month full of taboos for many superstitious Malaysian Chinese. That’s when the Gates of Hell open for a whole month. During the Hungry...