Penang and Its Region
Yeoh Seng Guan,
Loh Wei Leng,
Khoo Salma Nasution
& Neil Khor, editors

Price: RM45
2009. Nasional University of Singapore
Soft cover,
15 x 23 cm, 284 pages,
11 black and white illustrations
ISBN No: 978-9971-69-423-4

Reviews & Press

Penang Economic Monthly,
Jan 2010. 47
Review by Johan Saravanamuttu

* * *

 

Penang and Its Region
Yeoh Seng Guan, Loh Wei Leng, Khoo Salma Nasution
& Neil Khor, editors

Price: RM45
2009. Nasional University of Singapore
Soft cover, 15 x 23 cm, 284 pages,
11 black and white illustrations
ISBN No: 978-9971-69-423-4

From its beginnings in the late eighteenth century, the vibrant colonial port of Penang attracted a diverse range of peoples, enabled pioneering commercial enterprises, and fomented inter-ethnic collaboration and inter-cultural borrowings. The island came to be known as the `Pearl of the Orient', and for many travellers it was their first port of call in Southeast Asia. In the early nineteenth century, Singapore displaced Penang in international trade, but the island remained a major focus of regional trade. For this reason, the story of Penang's relations with the Malay Peninsula and other parts of Southeast Asia reveal a great deal about conditions within the region.

This collection discusses the personal networks that have linked prominent individuals in Penang with neighbouring areas and considers the position of the island as a whole within the Southeast Asian region. Specifically, the authors write about local entrepreneurs, mutual help associations, crossborder trading and political networks, and aspects of how the cosmopolitan population of the island negotiated the transition from British colony to Malaysian state.

Contents

Acknowledgements ix
Contributors xi
Foreward xv

Introduction Penang and Networks 1
Loh Wei Leng

Chapter 1
Conjunctures, Confluences, Contestations: A Perspective of Penang History - 7

Chapter 2
Penang's Changing Role in the Straits Settlements, 1826-1946 - 30
C. M. Turnbull

Chapter 3
Tanjong, Hilir Perak, Larut and Kinta: The Penang-Perak Nexus in History - 54
Khoo Kay Kim

Chapter 4
Penang's Trade and Shipping in the Imperial Age - 83
Loh Wei Leng

Chapter 5
From Regional Entrepôt to Malayan Port: Penang's Trade and Trading Communities, 1890-1940 - 103
Chuleeporn Virunha

Chapter 6
Penang to Songkhla, Penang to Patani: Two Roads, Past and Present - 131
Philip King

Chapter 7
Perceptions of Penang: Views from across the Straits - 150
Abdur-Razzaq Lubis

Chapter 8
Migration and Enterprise: The Eu Yan Sang Firm and the Eu Kong-pui Family in Foshan, Penang and Hong Kong - 180
Stephanie Chung Po-Yin

Chapter 9
A Prominent Chinese Towkay from the Periphery: The Choong Family - 190
Wu Xian An

Chapter 10
Koh Seang Tat and the Asian Opium Farming Business - 213
Carl A. Trocki

Chapter 11
Secret Societies and Politics in Colonial Malaya with Special Reference to the Ang Bin Hoey in Penang (1945-1952) - 224
Leong Yee Fong

Chapter 12
Riding the Storms: Radicalization of the Labour Party of Malaya, Penang Division, 1963-1969 - 244
Tan Kim Hong

Index 270