"Where Are You From?"
If I had five ringgit for every time I was asked this question in the five months I spent in George Town, maybe I could have put down a deposit for one of the crumbling backstreet terraces I passed by on my daily walks. There is no offence given or taken with this query. It is genuine, but I am glad to leave it behind, now that I am returning to Australia. I know I am different. I see it every day.
I first arrived in Penang in 1972, naïve and awash with culture shock. I did not return for 40 years. Now I come back in November for the George Town Literary Festival. Last November, I was here well ahead of time, after accepting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to stay in a George Town apartment for an extended period. By the last weekend, when the Festival was held, I was settled in, relieved and happy to be resident, for a time, in this fascinating place. No more awkward communal breakfasts in the hotel or, worse, leaving the hotel to look for the first good coffee of the day. Instead, fully caffeinated, I walked from my apartment near the sea to the Festival’s daily offerings of rich, creative storytelling: three days of exposure to some of the best of Southeast Asian writing. Most George Town Literary Festivals also feature a few writers from elsewhere, sponsored by their governments in, say, the Netherlands, Belgium and Canada.
.jpg)
