November 2018 - Penang Monthly

Listen Up, Malaysians! You Are Now Individually the Agents of Change

4 min read

One of the greatest challenges that faces a society coming out of a period of authoritarian rule and bad governance is the need to break away from looking to po...

by Dato' Dr. Ooi Kee Beng

So What Are You Reading Today?

11 min read

The Prince of Wales Island Gazatte.Penang’s history of publishing is a remarkable one. In 1806, when it was made a Presidency of India, the first is...

by Rebecca Vega

Asian Art Dominates at Malaysia Expo

7 min read

Heri Dono's kinetic installation from the gilt-edged international collection of world elite collector Datuk Noor Azman Nurdin.Francis Bacon's F...

by Ooi Kok Chuen

Jalan-Jalan Cari Datuk: Encounters

1 min read

A Malaysian friend tells me that, as a young boy, when he walked with his grandmother, she would say to him “Don’t pee on the tree, Datuk Kong lives...

by Cheryl J Hoffmann

Cheryl J Hoffmann

Siamese Ties in Need of Preservation

7 min read

Wallapa Buranawijarn.Penang has always had a sizeable Siamese community, and this relationship stretches back to the nineteenth century.On May 30, 1845,...

by Tan Lii Inn

How to Survive Without Having to Migrate?

11 min read

What if you want to emigrate to the West but are not able to? Don’t worry – if you shift your paradigm, you don’t need to even worry about sur...

by Ken Soong & Michael Soong

Ken Soong Michael Soong

Using Books to Connect Cultures

5 min read

Every time a festive season comes around, a full-page advertisement appears in major local newspapers. It features historical figures and talks about Malaysian...

by Emilia Ismail & Tho Mun Yi

Tho Mun Yi

Defending Literacy among the Visually Impaired

6 min read

New forms of media following the rise of technological advances have eclipsed the written word, and Braille literacy among the visually impaired appears to...

by Regina Hoo

The Hopeful Future of the Malay Novel

7 min read

Time and again, I lose myself in the maze of shelves at the bookstore.At one of the remaining major bookstores in Penang, I cruise – as usual – fr...

by Izzuddin Ramli

Traversing South-East Asia’s Fractured Literary Landscape

4 min read

Minh Bui Jones’ life is very much tied to words and his South-East Asian roots. Born in Vietnam, he migrated to Australia in 1978 where he began his media...

by Regina Hoo

Exciting Indie Publishers of Penang

6 min read

Rosalind Chua of Clarity Publishing.They may not be many, but Penang boasts several independent publishing houses, such as Clarity Publishing, Areca Books...

by Regina Hoo

A Complete Printing Press

8 min read

Phoenix Press, one of the oldest printing presses in Penang, began operations as a commercial printer along Lebuh Gereja at the turn of the twentieth century....

by Regina Hoo