..PORTRAITS
OF PENANG:
..LITTLE
INDIA
..PENANG
UNDER THE BRITISH
..EAST
INDIA COMPANY:
..1786-1858
..ENGLISH-PENANG
HOKKIEN
..POCKET
DICTIONARY
..HELEN
ONG'S GREAT DINING
..IN
PENANG
..THE
CHINESE IN PENANG:
..A
PICTORIAL HISTORY
..DAYS
GONE BYE:
..LIVING
IN PENANG
..ROAD
TO DAWN: FILMING
..IN
PENANG
..TULILA:
MUZIK BUJUKAN
..MANDAILING
..PENANG,
THROUGH GUILDED
..DOORS
..PENANG
TRAMS,
..TROLLEYBUSES & RAILWAYS
..OUR MALAYSIA
..KINTA VALLEY
..PENANG POSTCARDS
..COLLECTION
..STREETS OF GEORGE
TOWN,
..PENANG
..RAJA BILAH AND
..THE MANDAILINGS
..IN PERAK
..WATER WATCH
Areca
Books
120 Armenian Street
10200 Penang, Malaysia
Tel: +60 4 2620123
Fax: +60 4 2633970
Email: arecabooks@gmail.com
Website: www.arecabooks.com
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Hail,
Penang! George
Bilainkin * * * Speech
by Ilsa Sharp, * * * Book
launch * * * Reviews
& Press The
Star, * * *
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Hail, Penang!
In the late 1920s British colonial power in Malaya appeared at its zenith. Run by a small political and commercial elite on behalf of metropolitan interests, Malaya was the most profitable of all Britain’s possessions and seemed likely to remain that way. Into this scene came a young journalist, George Bilainkin – witty, confident, acerbic and iconoclastic – appointed by chance as editor of Penang’s lively English-language newspaper The Straits Echo in 1929. Through a series of engaging sketches and reflections he discloses a wonderfully compelling portrait of Penang, its personalities and its environs. Looking beyond the complacent colonial façade Bilainkin grapples directly and indirectly with a wide range of topics that have strikingly modern echoes: the absurdities of social snobbery; the position of women in society; and, above all, the fraught nature of race relations. This revised edition of Hail, Penang! offers an original, engaging and provocative glimpse of colonial society that is sure to engage a new generation of readers.
‘As
a practitioner of the written word, Bilainkin was skilled, and
exceptionally lively .… While his was a flawed personality, it
was a wonderfully alive and human one for all that. In terms of
journalism alone we will not see his like again. And with his
Hail, Penang! he earned his place in Malayan history’. – ILSA
SHARP. Contents List
of Illustrations vi I
Towards the Pearl of the East 1
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