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By Ooi Kee Beng, editorial in Penang Monthly, May 2017. IN LIEU OF a normal editorial, and in keeping with this month’s cover story being about Penang Hokkien, I am providing here in somewhat truncated form, the Introductory from “The Hokkien Vernacular” (edited by George Thompson Hare and published in Kuala Lumpur in 1904). I … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial for Penang Monthly, April, 2017 A racist act is the conscious effort by one group identity to effectively reduce the social status and the security, the rights and the privileges, and the integrity and dignity of another group identity. The intended dynamic is two-fold, and lies firstly in the racist’s … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG, Editorial for Penang Monthly, March 2017. “The Present” is a strange concept. For one thing, it is really not possible to think of “The Present” without relying on images of “The Past” and imaginations of “The Future”. They are after all three sneaky sides of the same strange coin. (Yes, a … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Penang Monthly editorial, February 2017 Culture, if you ask me, is the joint expression of the inter-personal behaviours of a particular society over time. Within that, we find comfort and orientation in life. The key word is “time”. When profound changes come at us at great speed, how we behave towards … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Penang Monthly Editorial, January 2017 How does one show respect? How does one show tolerance? How does one show acceptance? These are important questions to answer when the ethnic and religious diversity of modern societies are increasingly considered a persistent problem and not a cultural wealth. If we wish for greater … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial December 2016, Penang Monthly It seems very little is written about the history of a key location like Ayer Itam (I take the liberty of using the old spelling here). And since Penang Monthly is running some articles about the village in this issue, I decided to seek out some … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Editorial, November 2016, PENANG MONTHLY Most religions are defined by their rituals and by the regimenting the collective behaviour of its followers. That is what ultimately defines a “religious establishment”. During this process, things tend to get misunderstood and become issues for contestation despite starting out as rather rational and practical … Continue reading
By OOI KEE BENG Editorial in Penang Monthly, October 2016. Man’s discoveries and inventions revolutionise him. That is a truism. The conquest of fire altered how and what we eat; the invention of the wheel changed how we travel and how we construct machines; the discovery of germs increased human population as new modes of … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng Editorial, Penang Monthly, September 2016. Much of youth is definitely wasted on the young, and this is because the young as a rule are not aware enough of what it means to be old. They are not burdened by the growing sense of mortality that growing old brings. And that is … Continue reading
By Ooi Kee Beng, Editorial for Penang Monthly, August 2016 Artists – be these painters or sculptors, musicians or even authors in many cases – need sponsors. They need patrons. In our commercial age, there is of course the market, through which some artists can succeed. Those are few though, and the so-called market often … Continue reading
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