Special event: Mic Mythos
At TheCanteen@ChinaHouse, poetry meets performance in Mic Mythos—a night where voices echo the myths we live and the memories we keep. Featuring spoken word artists from across the region and live music by DramBand, Penang’s first and only Irish band, the evening celebrates rhythm, story, and the power of language to move and transform.
Book launch: The Malaysian Squirrel’s First Book of Short Stories (August Moon)
The Malaysian Squirrel’s First Book of Short Stories is by the same author that has produced the series of Malaysian Squirrel Missions. This book has life lessons and is designed for younger children to introduce them to the Malaysian Squirrel series. The books are published by Precious Pages Resources, a Malaysian Publishing Company formed with […]
Performance: HESSELHOLDT & MEJLVANG— Be a Beautiful Force Together
Locals are invited to contribute their personal textiles at a CO-EX workshop, each carrying its own memories and stories. These textiles are transformed into large-scale banners for a participatory performance at Hin Bus Depot and an exhibition at ChinaHouse. Through movement, music, and collective action, the work celebrates diversity, communal identity, and the creative energy […]
Walking trail: PHG x GTLF: Millionaires Row: A Heritage Walk with Eugene Quah
Step beyond the pages and onto the pavements of history. Join historian Eugene Quah for the Millionaire’s Row heritage walk. Stroll down Northam Road (Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah), where the colonial era’s most opulent mansions stand, each one holding a dramatic, untold story. This is your chance to see the architecture and hear the narratives […]
Film screening: Terdedah: 7 Artists in Search of a Cover A lo-fi documentary by Amir Muhammad
Shahnon Ahmad’s novel Terdedah (1965) has not been reprinted in decades. This rambunctious satire is about a young widow with two lovers. Why hasn’t the book been seen for so long? Did it “dedah” (reveal or expose) too much? Amir Muhammad asks seven artists how they would design a cover of Terdedah if it were […]
Panel: Poetry, Performance, Resistance
Spoken word is poetry unbound—a fusion of voice, rhythm, and presence that insists on being heard. This session brings together performance poets who use their craft as both art and activism, challenging silence with lyric fire and embodying stories of struggle, defiance, and survival. Through performance and conversation, they show how the stage becomes a […]
Book launch: Fierceland
Penguin launches Fierceland, Omar Musa’s powerful new novel. When siblings Roz and Harun return to Malaysian Borneo for their father’s funeral, they must confront a legacy of wealth built on deforestation, violence, and silence. Spanning continents and generations, Fierceland is a haunting saga of family, corruption, and redemption, alive with ghosts of history, language, and […]
Panel: Intimacies and Inheritances
The private is never only personal. Writers often transform memory, intimacy, and inherited experience into stories that confront wider histories and contemporary wounds. This panel brings together three novelists whose works explore desire, vulnerability, and the aftershocks of trauma. They reflect on how literature can hold tenderness and violence side by side, giving voice to […]
Book launch: Misgovernance
Penguin presents Misgovernance by renowned political economist Terence Gomez, a timely study of power, institutions, and accountability in Malaysia. Tracing decades of state capture, corporate collusion, and policy failures, Gomez reveals how misrule has shaped the nation’s political economy. Clear, incisive, and uncompromising, this book is an urgent call to confront systemic dysfunction and imagine […]
Panel: Stories We Inherit – Belonging Through Time
Stories are not only passed down—they linger, transform, and return in unexpected ways. This conversation sheds light on writing that grapples with history, migration, and the search for belonging. They reflect on how literature can carry the weight of the past into the present, revealing what endures across generations and what must be reimagined anew. […]