IN THE COLLECTIVE imagination of Malaysians, Taiping is often reduced to a single, serene tableau: the Lake Gardens. Here, rain trees spread themselves with indolent authority over still, reflective waters, their great, shaggy canopies collapsing inwards at dusk like green lungs exhaling. To the casual observer, it is a placid, sleepy town. But for those who care to look closer, Taip-ing offers far more than a scenic pause. It is a town that has participated in the unfolding of history, a place where the past is etched in its nooks and crannies.
It is this depth of narrative that Liew Suet Fun, president of the Taiping Heritage Society, seeks to uncover. In collaboration with The Habitat Foundation (THF), she is attempting something far more ambitious than a simple tourism campaign—reac-quainting the town with its own identity.
