Soaking in Arts with Pulau Pinang

The George Town Festival.

Last weekend we took a road trip up north to Penang Island, to catch the George Town Festival (7 June – 7 July), a month-long celebration of art, music, theatre, dance, opera and film to commemorate George Town’s inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage listing on 7 July, 2008. Each year since 2009, GTF transforms George Town Penang into an exciting and unique platform for the arts, heritage and culture. We were also there for the Obscura 2013 Photography Festival which showcased 15 print and slideshow exhibitions in various locations in George Town. It was the last weekend of the festival and we were lucky enough to catch up before it ends even if it was just a Saturday-Sunday trip. Here’s what we managed to experience during the festival.

Victoria Street Project

We were definitely in time for the Victoria Street Project, a one-day festival that celebrates nine-hours of traditional music, classical dances, creative retail designs, arts and craft as well as other cultural programs. We were walking around when we saw the festival beginning in Lebuh Victoria, and continuing to Lebuh Armenian and Jalan Kapitan Keling. We saw a group of dancers performing in the streets and walked a bit more to the food market area where local delights such as the ‘apam manis telur’ and ice cream were found. A few minutes away was a street lined with traditional games and arts for the children. Each corner came with an art activity which made it an exciting exploration.

Heritage Celebrations

I loved how the art performances and activities were a mere walking distance from one another. We were walking along Armenian Streets when we heard the familiar cling clang and drum rolls in one of the temples nearby. We turned in and a beautiful architectural temple stood in the background of a sea of people while an arrangment of tall pillars stood in front of it. We had just missed the lion dance performance and only managed to catch them mingle with the crowd while others took photos with the Malay dancers clad in their traditional costume.

Hand Made Market

In one the temples call Hock Teik Cheng Sin was a sea of stalls selling hand made items since the beginning of the festival. It was such a pretty venue especially in the evening when the lights emanated on the temple grounds. The place was crowded with curious visitors and it was quite hard to manouver into the market. I only managed to see the first few stalls before deciding to leave due to the heavy traffic. Such a shame though because I would have definitely brought one or two things home from this place.

Obscura Phography Festival

The Obscura Photography Festival which was recommended by Dian was one of the highlights of George Town Festival. There was a workshop conducted by well known photographers and she decided to take part in Che Mats’ session. Che Mat is well known for his black & white street photography photos and teaches in our local Multimedia University (MMU). I’ve heard quite a bit of story about this fiery man during his teaching days but surprisingly he was very nice and supportive in teaching the students the art of street photography. At close to midnight, we walked over to Khoo Kongsi Temple to catch the workshop showcase where the participants work were shown to the public and the best ones were mentioned. Sadly, I was a few minutes late in catching Dian’s photos which I’m sure turned out to be a great experience for her. The next day, we walked the streets of George Town and stumbled into a photography exhibition called Traces: Dark Clouds by Ian Teh which explores the industrial land of China’s far flung and improvished provinces such as inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Shaanzi; including the country’s most polluted city, Linfen which was once known as “The Modern Fruit and Flower Town.

I must say the George Town Festival is so far the most surprising arts and cultural festival I’ve been to in Malaysia because of its’ various engagement with the visitors throughout the whole month. The last two days of the festival felt like a week because of the many things that we experienced and explored. I read that not many poeple in Penang knew of the festival but I beg to differ when we were there. Volunteers were walking the streets as information centres for tourists and visitors alike. We even stopped them a few times to ask for directions and on the latest event happenings which happened at every hour. This proved to be extremely helpful as we managed to catch most of the activities that night. A city that is immersed with arts at every nook and corner deserves to be recognized and Penang you absolutely did it! I would return next year and perhaps stay longer to enjoy the exhibitions as well as the workshops if I do take up photography. For now I feel proud knowing that our this state has maintained these heritage buildings and sharing it with the world.

INTRODUCTION

HI,my name is Elme Lee and this my blog.At first.I hereby declare that this blog is for BC101 COMPUTER APPLICATION's assignment that I need to submitted up to my lectured for giving marks to me.every post of article that published in my blog is to be submitted up as assignment.Once again, I declare my blog‘s every article are no rights to make on behalf of any of the relevant things related to, if you want to search for any details about this blog article for details, please do not take this as reference.I hereby solemnly apologize if my blog posts have violated the rights of any relevant things and then I once again to say this blog is for my BC101 COMPUTER APPLICATION's assignment which is need to pass up for my BC101 COMPUTER APPLICATION's lecture to give the marks for this assignment.
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HISTORY OF PULAU PINANG

Archaeological evidence shows that Penang (island and its mainland territory) was inhabited by the Semang-Pangan of the Juru and Yen lineage, both now considered extinct cultures. They were hunter-gatherers of theNegrito stock having short stature and dark complexion, and were dispersed by the Malays as far back as 900 years ago. The last recorded aboriginal settlement in Penang was in the 1920s in Kubang Semang.[16] The first evidence of prehistoric human settlement in what is now Penang were found in Guar Kepah, a cave in Seberang Perai in 1860. Based on mounds of sea shells with human skeletons, stone implements, broken ceramics, and food leftovers inside, the settlement was estimated to be between 3000 to 4000 years old. Other stone tools found in various places on the island of Penang pointed to the existence of Neolithic settlements dating to 5000 years ago.

Early history and colonial period

See also List of governors of Penang

The geographical term of "Penang Island" first appeared in the "The Nautical Charts of Zheng He" written on the expeditions of Zheng He (Cheng Ho) in Ming Dynasty during the reign of the Yongle Emperor. In the 15th century, the Chinese navy using the record of nautical chart as navigation guide from "Con Dao Islands" (Pulo Condore) to Penang Island, Penang has been seen to trade with Ming Dynasty (modern China) in the 15th century.







Kapitan Keling Mosque built in 1801.

One of the very first Englishmen to reach Penang was the navigator and privateer Sir James Lancaster who on 10 April 1591, commanding the Edward Bonadventure, set sail from Plymouth for the East Indies, reaching Penang in June 1592, remaining on the island until September of the same year and pillaging every vessel he encountered, only to return to England in May 1594.

The history of modern Penang, originally part of the Malay Sultanate of Kedah, began when the island was leased by Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah to Captain Francis Light, an English trader-adventurer working for theMadras-based firm, Jourdain Sullivan and de Souza and the East India Company, in exchange for military protection from Siamese and Burmese armies who were threatening Kedah. For Light, Penang was a convenient magazine for trade and an ideal location to curtail French expansion in Indochina and Dutch foothold in Sumatra. On 11 August 1786, Francis Light landed on Penang at what is later called Fort Cornwallis and took formal possession of the island in the name of His Britannic Majesty, King George III and the Honourable East India Company, and renamed the island Prince of Wales Island in honour of the heir to the British throne but the name never caught on. Penang was Britain's first settlement in Southeast Asia, and was one of the first establishments of the second British Empire after the loss of its North American colonies. In Malaysian history, the occasion marked the beginning of more than a century of British involvement in Malaya.

Unfortunately for the Sultan, the EAC's new governor-general Charles Cornwallis made it clear that he could not be party to the Sultan's disputes with the other Malay princes, or promise to protect him from the Siamese or Burmese. Unbeknownst to Sultan Abdullah, Light had decided to conceal the facts of the agreement from both parties. When Light reneged on his promise of protection, the Sultan tried unsuccessfully to recapture the island in 1790, and the Sultan was forced to cede the island to the company for an honorarium of 6,000 Spanish dollars per annum. Light established Penang as a free port to entice traders away from nearby Dutch trading posts. He also encouraged immigrants by promising them as much land as they could clear and by reportedly firing silver dollars from his ship's cannons deep into the jungle. Many early settlers, including Light himself, succumbed to malaria, earning early Penang the epithet "the white man's grave".







The cenotaph at the Esplanade, erected after World War I, commemorates fallen soldiers.

After Light's demise, Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Wellesley, later to be Duke of Wellington, arrived in Penang to co-ordinate the defences of the island. In 1800, Lieutenant-Governor Sir George Leith secured a strip of land across the channel as a buffer against attacks and named it Province Wellesley (today Seberang Prai). The annual payment to Sultan of Kedah was increased to 10,000 Spanish dollars per annum after the acquisition. Today, the Penang state government still pays RM 18,800.00 to the Sultan of Kedah annually.

In 1796 Penang was made a penal settlement when 700 convicts were transferred thither from the Andaman Islands. In 1805 Penang was made a separate presidency (ranking with Bombay and Madras); and when in 1826 Singapore and Malacca were incorporated with it, Penang continued to be the seat of government of the Straits Settlements, an extension of the British Raj. In 1829 Penang was reduced from the rank of a presidency, and eight years later the fast-growing town of Singapore was made the capital of the Settlements. In 1867 the Straits Settlements were created a Crown colony under direct British rule, in which Penang was included.

Colonial Penang thrived from trade in pepper and spices, Indian piece goods, betel nut, tin, opium, and rice. The Bengal Presidency realised of Penang's potential as an alternative to Dutch Moluccas as a source of spice production. Development of export crops became the chief means of covering administrative costs in Penang. The development of the spice economy became an impellent for the movement of Chinese pioneers to the island, which was actively encouraged by the British. However, Penang port's initial pre-eminence was later supplanted by Singapore owing to its superior geographical location, but Penang remained an important feeder to Singapore - funnelling the exports meant for global shipping lines by ocean-going liners which had bypassed other regional ports. The replacement of sailing vessels by steamships in the mid-19th century cemented Penang's secondary importance after Singapore. Penang's most important trading partners were China, India, Siam, Sumatra, Java, Britain, as well as other Strait Settlements.

The rapid population growth stemming from economic development created problems such as sanitation, inadequate urban infrastructure, transportation and public health. Main roads were extended from the capital into the fertile cultivated spice farms further inland. But in order to sate the severe labour shortages in public works, the government began the practice of employing Indian convict workers as low-cost labourers. A great number of them worked on Penang' streets, draining swamps and clearing forests, constructing drainage ditches, and laying pipeworks for clean water.Indeed, convict labour was key to Penang's successful colonization as many found employment in the civil service, military, and even as private servants to the colonial officials and private individuals.

For ten days in August 1867, Penang was gripped with civil unrest during what was known as the Penang Riot which pitted rival secret societies Kean Teik Tong (the Tua Pek Kong Hoey), led by Khoo Thean Teik and the Red Flag against the alliance of the Ghee Hin Kongsi and the White Flag, which the British under newly appointed lieutenant-governor Col. Edward Anson put down with sepoy reinforcement after days of chaos.

At the turn of the century, Penang, with her large population of Chinese immigrants, was a natural place for the Chinese nationalist Sun Yat Sen to raise funds for his revolutionary efforts in Qing China. These frequent visits culminated in the famous Penang Conference of 1910 which paved the way to the ultimately triumphant Wuchang Uprising which overthrew the Manchu government

Special Food at Pulau Pinang

Dubbed 

Dubbed ‘The Pearl of the Orient’ by foreign traders back in the olden days, Penang is well-known for its abundance of superb, authentic hawkers’ delights which the locals claim can’t be duplicated elsewhere. In Penang, hawker food is as delicious as – if not more than - the finest gourmet experience in any city. It is also very popular. Many Malaysians hold Penang as the top foodies’ destination in the region, not because of some fancy restaurants but rather for the humble eateries and stalls that line the streets.

Since Penang is synonymous with good food (eating also seems to be Penangites’ favourite pastime), there are many places where one can find a good concentration of hawker stalls and restaurants on the island, especially in Georgetown. The island is famous for their Nyonya-inspired flavours. Malacca may be more famous for their Nyonya culture, but in terms of cooking, it is the Penang Nyonya flavours that capture the hearts (and stomachs) of many.

Amongst Penang’s most popular culinary delights are Penang Char Kuay Teow, Assam Laksa, Tar Sau Peah, Rojak Pasembur, Nasi Kandar and Hokkien Mee.