This winter I spent some time in Malaysia, a very interesting country from many points of view. On these pages, I will mention the multicultural aspect of this country, and I will do it with the help of two very special people I met in George Town, dividing the exchange I had with them into three or four articles due to space requirements.

George Town is located on the island of Penang in the northwest of the Malaysian peninsula and is a very interesting city, especially from a cultural point of view, due to the variety of ethnic groups that coexist in a rapidly expanding but relatively small space, so much so that sometimes “Penang” refers to the city of Georgetown.

In my previous articles on artificial intelligence, I have mentioned my interest in how different cultures can coexist on the same territory, interacting, collaborating, and exchanging part of their heritage, without forgetting the possible latent tensions that, despite hundreds and even thousands of years of coexistence, continue to persist.

This will be the theme of my next articles, and I want to start with the beautiful experience I recently had in Georgetown, when I met and got to know two artists who shared a space to make visitors think.

The first is called Sumay Cheah, a Malaysian artist who graduated from Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Convent Green Lane—a beacon of educational excellence in Malaysia—graduated from Taylor University College—one of the most prestigious private universities in the world—and University of Technology Sydney. She is the co-founder and creative director at OtherHalf Studio in Malaysia and Singapore, which focuses on creating experiences through visual-creative storytelling and immersive art.

She is the creator of the “OH! Tenang” project, which invites visitors into a serene world amidst the hustle and bustle of the city, blending natural and cultural elements through sights, sounds, and scents. In addition to art, OH! Tenang hosts community programs and workshops, intertwining culture and calm to foster appreciation for nature and heritage.

The other is Joël Lim Du Bois, a Belgian Malaysian semiologist and brand consultant with degrees in European language, literature, and culture from Oxford and Cambridge. His projects include Ban Ban Kia, an initiative in which he tells the stories of Penang through its disappearing handmade shop signs. While I was in Penang, he co-hosted an installation, talk, and walk with OtherHalf Studio, showcasing his project on the appreciation of George Town’s historic signage.

My first question for you, Joël, is that you're drawing attention to the old shop signs in George Town. Why this choice?

Joël: To answer, I must tell part of my life story. My mother is from Penang, my father is Belgian from Brussels, and I was born and raised in London. I never lived here in Georgetown, but we used to go back to visit the family almost every year since the 80s. So, I watched it change and grow. And then finally, after living in different places in the world like Singapore, France, Germany, and Brazil, I decided to come back “home” to Penang. And the main reason is because it is the place where I feel rooted; my roots are here, and a lot of what I did once I settled in Penang was to rediscover my roots.

Working as a visual communication consultant for commercial brands, I am always very interested in the visual aspect of things: architecture, design, and visual and verbal communication. This is where my interest in Penang signage comes from; I think they are very beautiful, and being handmade, they are different from each other. When I came back, I noticed that there were fewer of them than before, replaced by industrially made ones, and then, as the years went by and especially after COVID, I noticed that more and more of them were disappearing.

So, I started a project six years ago—we are in 2018 or so—just to take photographs and document some of these signs, which are part of this old design heritage of Penang, just for myself and to preserve and document it. Then last year, with a typographer friend of mine called Tan Sueh Li, who is also passionate about shop signs, we organized walking tours along the streets of Georgetown to introduce these artisanal realities that were disappearing to both the people of Penang and tourists. After that, we did some conferences and an exhibition.

Why store signs? Partly, it’s an emotional and instinctive connection to them.

I love that they are, in a way, the intersection of different forms of art and creativity and expression because they are both visual and verbal, and I find that combination very interesting because they are designed to please and to attract the attention of passers-by. A lot of people don't realize it, but they are handcrafted by people with a wide range of skills, from calligraphy to writing. And some of them are works of art in their own right. If we don't want to call them artists, they are certainly skilled craftsmen who are oriented towards the creative, expressive, but also practical side. How do you make the frame the right size? How do you transport it from here to there? How do you hang it?

At the same time, they must also be functional and commercial; they are made for companies and shops, therefore for people who need to make a profit from them.

They first began to appear at a time when Penang was supported by the activity of its ports, in the late 1800s, and was beginning to prosper, becoming one of the major trading centers of the world.

So, the signs undoubtedly also embody a commercial side.

I like it; it brings together all these different themes, like the artistic part and the functional-commercial part, and this attracts me because I'm a bit like that too; I can't decide if I'm more right-brained or left-brained.

Probably neither one nor the other, but something that unites all these different things harmoniously and completely.

Did signs express something beyond verbal communication in the past?

Joël: I would say so. I think that commercial and non-commercial signs reflect the culture of the time they are created, and that an interesting way to look at them is to be able to tell stories about Penang through them.

If you look deeper into the signs or behind them, you can tell much deeper and more interesting stories about Penang, about its history, the fact that it was a British colony, about the people who lived here, the intermingling, and the immigrants here. You can also see how it has evolved over time.

To give a couple of examples, inside the exhibition I showed you the oldest signs I have, and they are in Chinese.

Beach Street was the commercial heart, the administrative area with the British colonial trading banks, and the signs are all written in English with a Victorian font. They are always hand-painted using Victorian techniques like drop shadow, gold lettering on a black background, and things like that, a style that is still seen today in the UK.

Then you have these completely different Chinese signs, even though they are not written in Hokkien or Cantonese or any other Chinese group, each with their own traditions, which are completely different from each other. Different materials, vertical instead of horizontal, carved instead of painted, and, for me, the shop signs in Penang also emerge through the marriage of these different traditions, and you can find Chinese signs that are hand painted and are starting to have cast shadows.

We are starting to see signs in both languages, Chinese and English, sometimes Tamil or Jawi, testifying, once again, to the cultural intersection.

Now I have managed to collect signs from 1880 onwards, so there are more than a hundred years of stories to tell, and, as you can see, they are all different, with different styles, different colors, different techniques, and different materials. And this is because they always reflect the time in which they were made.

People are always trying to use the latest, so the signs in Georgetown from the 1930s are Art Deco, a style that has left a deep mark on the architecture here. Likewise, the signs from the 1950s have a calligraphic style inspired by the expressive cursive that can be seen on the signs of American diners of that era.

Coming to you, Sumay, I am very interested in knowing the local culture, which I find quite difficult to pin down.

Summary: I think the best word to describe our local culture would be rojak. Rojak is a local delicacy that is made up of a mix of fruits topped with prawn paste usually. As it is a mix of different types, here, we like to say that we are very similar to this dish. As we are all made up of different races and cultures and have different beliefs, this sauce holds us altogether as one, which makes our culture so deliciously rich.

Just as Joel is a mix of Belgian and Chinese, I am a mix of Thai and Chinese.

I think this is a very interesting place because there are so many different cultures. But there is also the risk of losing your roots. I don't know how you both experience this kind of friction.

Joël: That’s something that really resonates with me, that I’ve always been very aware of, especially because I’m a mix of two very different cultures, completely different cultures, different worldviews, different everything, growing up in a third culture. I’ve always found it very difficult to navigate that contradiction; you never know how to introduce yourself, and when I do, I always go on for five minutes about where I’m from, like I did with you. And I think the reason I’m interested in being here in Penang is that it’s such a diverse place anyway. Historically, it was hugely cosmopolitan because it was a very busy trading port, and so it attracted people from all over, and everyone found a way to not only live together and get along but also start to influence each other.

You can see it in the food; you can see it in small everyday things and even in the whole culture. For example, the Peranakan culture, which is the specific type of Chinese that both Sumay and I are, is a kind of mixture that is mostly Chinese, but in some cases, it is a real mixed marriage between Chinese and Malay; in other cases, it is just a Chinese family that has adopted Malay traditions: so Malay words are inserted into their mother tongue, Malay clothes and colors, spices in Malay cuisine, Malay clothes, and so on.

As I said before, this is the reason why I came back here, because I wanted to find my roots, and it is amazing how in Penang the tradition is still alive, even if lately it is also changing, but it is amazing how Penang manages to be very welcoming and open, cosmopolitan, but also how it keeps alive our traditions and our heritage.

China has lost so much of its traditional heritage after the Cultural Revolution. There are no Buddhist or Taoist temples anymore, and certain traditional festivals are no longer celebrated while we still have everything here.

These traditions have also remained in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, but especially in Penang, despite and perhaps also because it is such a cosmopolitan place. And that is why I think it is so interesting.

I would like to add another point about the signs and how things are slowly, slowly changing here too. The signs, as I said, show these different cultures coming together and finding the right arrangement. Everything fits and is balanced; all the different cultures are visually present.

Part of the underlying reason for my interest in all this is social and cultural. Because Penang, Malaysia, in general, I should say, has changed a lot, it is becoming more and more culturally divergent. One reason for this is the rise of the digital and social media age, where instead of focusing inwards on Malaysia’s own cosmopolitan culture, different cultural groups look outwards towards the dominant cultural expressions found online—towards global Western media, or mainland Chinese media, or international Islamic or Indian media. And these changes are also reflected in newer shop signs, which take their inspiration from these external design cultures, which do not always fit harmoniously together. And as a result, local and vernacular Malaysian design heritage and identity are being lost.

To be continued…