Former British colony with a strong Chinese heritage - Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca 1223; Mak Yong theatre 00167
What and Why
George Town, a former British colony, is now one of the liveliest and vibrant tourist cities in Southeast Asia. The city is now experiencing a major tourist boom and is buzzing with all sorts of new touristy establishments almost on a daily basis and really has plenty to offer. George Town is rich in culture and history, with a unique mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian and British influences, in the form of architecture, religions, nature and most importantly food.
The city, in spite of the rapid developments, still retains its heritage and diverse cultures, and is home to one of the best preserved collections of pre-war heritage buildings in Southeast Asia. As a result, George Town's heritage shophouses are also being given a new lease of life as boutique hotels, bars, cafes and restaurants. Traditional trades still operate inside the city, forming a very unique blend of culture.
George Town was the first British foothold in Southeast Asia and its strategic port location within the Malacca Straits (Malay: Selat Melaka) allowed the settlement to be developed into a major entrepôt. George Town served as a main conduit for the export of, spices, tin and rubber, Malaya's main industries and commodities during that era.
Toponymy
Penang derives from Chinese word of betel nut (檳榔, binlang) which is the fruit found in the island. George Town was named to commemorate King George III (né George Hanover) of the United Kingdom in 1786 CE.
There are lots of confusion about the city of George Town and the state of Penang (Pinang). Penang itself is a state and includes the island plus part of the mainland areas. Many, in fact most, confuses it as a city, probably because its Chinese name is 檳城 (bincheng), explicitly stating it as a city. The island is called Penang Island (Pulau Pinang).
Based of the latest jurisdiction, George Town now encompasses the entirety of Penang Island and five of the surrounding isles, and not just the traditional understanding of the northeastern tip of the island. George Town is now slightly more than 1⁄3 the size of Singapore. Incredibly not even Penangites know about this change.
See
Fort Cornwallis (Kota Cornwallis)
Fort Cornwallis is a bastion fort in George Town built by the British East India Company in the late 18th century CE. Fort Cornwallis is the largest standing fort in Malaysia. The fort, surprisingly was never engaged in combat during its operational history. It is named after the then Governor-General of Bengal (Bengali: Bānglā), Charles Cornwallis. There are cannons and a prominent lighthouse in the fort.
Penang City Hall (Dewan Bandaraya Pulau Pinang)
Completed in the early 20th century CE, Penang City Hall (Dewan Bandaraya Pulau Pinang) combines Edwardian Baroque and Palladian architectural styles and serves as the municipal hall. It is easily one of the most ornate and iconic building in the island.
Sun Yat-sen Heritage Trail (Jejak Warisan Sun Yat-sen)
When Sun Yat-sen (Chinese: 孫逸仙, né 孫德明 (Chinese), Sun Deming) went overseas to look for donations from overseas, one of his first stops was George Town and he stayed in a house along Armenian Street and devised many of his plans to overthrow the Qing (Chinese: 清) Dynasty. In 1910 CE, realising the immense support among overseas Chinese for his revolution, Sun shifted the Southeast Asian headquarters of the Tongmenghui (Chinese: 同盟會) party to Penang. The house is now the Sun Yat Sen Museum (Muzium Sun Yat Sen). The Sun Yat Sen Heritage Trail (Jejak Warisan Sun Yat-sen) starts from the Museum and links more than a dozen heritage sites associated with Sun Yat Sen and his supporters along the street.
Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (Rumah Agam Cheong Fatt Tze) and Khoo Kongsi (Rumah Agam Khoo)
The large Chinese community in Penang sprouts a large number of clanhouses. Clanhouses, or kongsi (Chinese: 公司), meaning company, were most commonly known as social organisations especially under a common descent, lineage or geographical origin for Chinese emigrants. After the 19th century CE, these organisations came to be known as huiguan (Chinese: 會館), meaning meeting hall. The system of kongsi was utilised by Chinese, especially Southern Chinese, throughout the diaspora to gain political and economic leverage and advantage.
There are a number of representative clanhouses in George Town, and they are very iconic in their architectural designs. The two that probably stands out is Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (Rumah Agam Cheong Fatt Tze, Chinese: 張弼士故居) and Khoo Kongsi (Rumah Agam Khoo, Chinese: 邱公司). The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion is a building easily recognised as it was painted blue. The mansion has more than 40 interior rooms and served as Cheong's business and residential block. Blue was very popular and highly regarded during the colonial period. The exterior paint was mixed with lime as it absorbed moisture and cooled the house whilst dispelling moisture without damage to the structural integrity of the walls. The mansion served as one of the locations for the recent blockbuster Crazy Rich Asians.
The Khoo Kongsi is a huge Chinese clanhouse with highly ornated architecture, a mark of the dominant presence of the Chinese in Penang. The famous Khoo Kongsi is possibly the grandest clan temple in the country and has become one of the city's major historic attractions. Clearly the clan temple was built in early 20th century CE when the Khoo clan was at the peak of wealth and eminence in Penang society. There are many other smaller clanhouses around George Town like Cheah, Yap...
Saint George's Church (Gereja Santo George)
Anglican church built in the early 19th century CE.
Kek Lok Si (Kuil Kek Lok Si)
Kek Lok Si (Kuil Kek Lok Si, Chinese: 極樂寺), meaning temple of extreme joy, is the largest Buddhist temple complex in Malaysia. The main attraction in the complex is the massive and impressive seven-storey Pagoda of Ten Thousand Buddhas with 10,000 alabaster and bronze statues of Buddha (né Siddhartha Gotama), and the 36 m tall bird-caged bronze statue of Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर). The pagoda is a mix of Chinese-Thai-Burmese architecture, from bottom to top. In the temple complex, similar to Chinese convention of mixed Taoism and Buddhism: Mahayana Buddhism, Theravāda Buddhism and traditional Chinese rituals blend harmoniously, both in the temple architecture and artwork as well as in the daily activities of worshippers.
Indian Mosque (Masjid Kapitan Keling)
The Kapitan Keling Mosque (Masjid Kapitan Keling) is a greenish-whitish mosque built in the 19th century CE by Indian Muslim (locally known as mamak) traders. The term keling is a Malay term meaning people of Indian origin, although nowadays it is considered slightly derogatory. Kapitan means captain and refers to the community.
Penang National Park (Taman Negara Pulau Pinang)
The self-proclaimed smallest national park in the world (not sure what that pride is about), Penang National Park (Taman Negara Pulau Pinang) is actually a fine half-day getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city. One takes a boat from the ferry and you reach the park within 10 min. The most frequented would be the Monkey Beach (Teluk Duyong) and Pantai Kerachut where there is a sea turtle sanctuary, as this is the site of sea turtle egg-hatch. When we went there, the hiking trail to the lighthouse was damaged by recent storms.
ESCAPE
Usually I would not do a free advertisement for commercial entities, but ESCAPE has to be an exception: this is a waterpark that has built the world's longest water slide and it goes through loops of lush-rainforest near the National Park. The slide is coincidentally 1.111 km long and it takes more than 4 min to slide from to to bottom, all through the tree canopies.
Murals and steel rods
This graffiti or street-art is now on fire in George Town and it started when the Lithuanian artist, Ernest Zacharevic, painted several whimsical murals of the city's lifestyle on the walls of old buildings as part of the George Town Festival in 2012 CE. The most famous is of course the top main picture Little Children on a Bicycle and since then, many more wall paintings have popped up around the city, painted by random artists. There is a map to locate all of them, and effectively they have become icons of George Town.
The other which pops up recently is the steel rod arts, in which Penangite lives are presented in comic form made by steel rods.
Buy and Do
Mak Yong
My diplomatic work had again given me the fortune to encounter a very important cultural heritage, Mak Yong, when I was entertained with a performance during an official dinner in Penang. The performance was conducted by one of the famed cultural organisation Pusaka, which works to protect the various traditional rituals and performance artforms of Malaysia. Mak Yong stands in the centre of this organisation work.
Mak Yong is a traditional form of folk dance-opera from northern Malaysia, particularly the state of Kelantan. Mak Yong is considered the most authentic and representative of Malay performing arts because it is mostly untouched by external sources, especially its singing part. The stories are usually derived from local mythology, and the entire performance, lasting three hours, are presented over several nights. A typical performance begins by paying respect to the village spirits (semah kumpung) through a ritual. Most of the performers are female, and part of the singing and dialogues are improvised on stage.
The performance was at one time banned by the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia) because of its Hindu-Buddhist roots and as a result lost a lot of its momentum and perpetuation. These performances are passed orally generations after generations but unfortunately there are not properly preserved. It is recently reported that there are only a handful of authentic Mak Yong performers in Malaysia. Due to its rarity and cultural values, it is the first batch to be inscribed as an ICH.
Eat and Drink
Hawker food (Makanan penjaja)
If you ask me to vote the world's best street food or hawker food (makanan penjaja), my vote will definitely go to Penang, way above Taiwan, Thailand or Singapore. Penangites pride themselves for their street food and there is no exaggeration. My only reservation would be their food presentation. I have to confess that as a resident of Malaysia, I do feel slightly offended when Singapore (Singapura) claimed hawkers food as their ICH in 2020.
The list goes on: char kuey teow (Chinese in Chaozhou dialect: 炒粿條, fried flat rice noodles), assam laksa (thick rice noodles in sour assam soup, recently hyperbolically voted as the top 10 food in the world by CNN), rojak (Malaysian mixed fruit salad with thick soy sauce), nasi kandar (mamak mixed curry rice), cendol (Malaysian scraped ice dessert), oyster omelette, curry noodles, and most importantly the king of the fruit durian. There are many hawker centres in George Town and you cannot go wrong with any. Stay healthy though.
My personal favourite are the Presgrave Street Hawker Centre and the Northam Beach Cafe which are both frequented by locals and visitors.
Nasi lemak
The staple of Malaysia is definitely the nasi lemak, literally meaning 'fat rice'. The basis of it is really white rice cooked in coconut milk (and hence the fat) and pandan leaf, producing a distinctive fragrance when serving. The basic serving comprises of usually a boiled egg, sliced courgette, fried peanuts, anchovies, and most importantly the chilli sauce (sambal), which gives the spirit of the dish, as picture above. It is also commonly served with piece of fried chicken. For those unaccustomed to the Malaysian lifestyle, this dish is considered an essential dish for a typical Malay-style breakfast, and not lunch or dinner. This is usually sold in the street wrapped like a small dumpling and is dirt cheap, usually just MYR RM2 to 3 per serving, making it accessible to everyone, the affluent and the poor.
This dish is widely taken by all races in Malaysia, and in some form it serves as a unifying food theme in Malaysia. It is however, unscientifically labelled as a healthy food. In actual fact, it is really fatty as the coconut-soaked rice contains loads of unsaturated fat, making it just slightly healthier than having a full American breakfast...
Stay
As mentioned, many old run-down shoplots have been given a new life as a result of the tourist boom and resurrected as boutique hotels. We recently stayed in Loke Thye Kee Residence, again a former mansion. At RM200 a night, you cannot complain, especially with the high quality room!
Getting There and Around
While the George Town proper is not that big, accessing all the sites by foot would be quite impossible, as in other parts of Malaysia: hence drive. Malaysia is not a country of good public transport access. The island deserves a few days of stay!
UNESCO Inscriptions
Melaka and George Town, historic cities of the Straits of Malacca have developed over 500 years of trading and cultural exchanges between East and West in the Straits of Malacca. The influences of Asia and Europe have endowed the towns with a specific multicultural heritage that is both tangible and intangible. With its government buildings, churches, squares and fortifications, Melaka demonstrates the early stages of this history originating in the 15th-century Malay sultanate and the Portuguese and Dutch periods beginning in the early 16th century. Featuring residential and commercial buildings, George Town represents the British era from the end of the 18th century. The two towns constitute a unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia.
This ancient theatre form created by Malaysia’s Malay communities combines acting, vocal and instrumental music, gestures and elaborate costumes. Specific to the villages of Kelantan in northwest Malaysia, where the tradition originated, Mak Yong is performed mainly as entertainment or for ritual purposes related to healing practices.
Experts believe that Mak Yong appeared well before the Islamization of the country. It was performed as a royal theatre under the direct patronage of the Kelantan Sultanate until the 1920s. Hence, the tradition was perpetuated in a rural context without forsaking the numerous refinements acquired at court, such as sophisticated costume design. A typical Mak Yong performance opens with an offering followed by dances, acting and music as well as improvised monologues and dialogues. A single story can be presented over several consecutive nights in a series of three-hour performances. In the traditional village setting, the performances are held on a temporary open stage built of wood and palm leaves. The audience sits on three sides of the stage, the fourth side being reserved for the orchestra consisting of a three-stringed spiked fiddle (rebab), a pair of doubleheaded barrel drums (gendang) and hanging knobbed gongs (tetawak). Most roles are performed by women, and the stories are based on ancient Malay folk tales peopled with royal characters, divinities and clowns. Mak Yong is also associated with rituals in which shamans attempt to heal through song, trance-dance and spirit possession.
Mak Yong, which requires long years of training, has been preserved until the present largely through oral transmission. In today’s society, few young people are willing to commit to such rigorous apprenticeships. As a result, this important tradition is undergoing steady decline, as attested by reduced dramatic and musical repertories and a shortage of seasoned performers.
References
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