Ooi Tze Xiong - Penang Monthly

Lights, Camera, Action: Penang’s Niche in Movie-Making

4 min read

CHEONG FATT TZE Mansion and Eastern & Oriental (E&O) Hotel were thrust into international spotlight in 2018, when Jon Chu’s Crazy Rich Asians premie...

Coaching Makes Effective Leaders

3 min read

IN THE CORPORATE world, the traditional authoritarian leadership model has given way to more collaborative and people-centric approaches, and requires that lead...

The Rise and Rise of Generative AI

3 min read

THE ERA OF artificial intelligence (AI) is well underway, with increasingly more AI features becoming an integral part of our daily lives. “Generative AI is per...

Penang Hill Funicular Railway: 100 Years of Service

3 min read

THESE DAYS, ascending Penang Hill takes mere minutes. All one has to do is purchase a ticket and board the air-conditioned funicular trains serving the hill — a...

Promising Initiatives at the Local Government Level

3 min read

WITH ITS AMBITIOUS goal of becoming a “Family-focused Green and Smart State that Inspires the Nation”, the Penang state government faces numerous challenges suc...

Minden Barracks – A Little-Known Part of USM’s History

5 min read

IN 1971, the main campus of Universiti Pulau Pinang, now known as Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), was launched. Envisioned as the premier tertiary institution...

Youth Unemployment Expected to Worsen

5 min read

SOME ECONOMISTS BELIEVE that the ongoing economic crisis set off by the Covid-19 pandemic can rival the 1929 Great Depression. In Malaysia the national unemploy...

Buddhist Schools of Thought Converge in Penang

5 min read

WHILE GEORGE TOWN may not have the enduring history of ancient entrepôts in the Malay Archipelago, it has nevertheless grown into a cosmopolitan centre in just...

Is Penang Truly Inclusive for Persons with Disabilities?

6 min read

Ernest, Jia Hui and their eight-month-old daughter. Photo: Ooi Tze Xiong.LIVEABILITY IS VERY much a layered concept. Since the 1960s, discourse on city pl...

Can Malaysia’s Youths Be the Future of Change?

5 min read

MUST YOUTHS CONTINUE to be constrained by the status quo of Malaysian politics, or can they break through to the forefront of change?“As a youth activis...

Lessons for the Education Sector to Learn from Covid-19

5 min read

AS OF APRIL 21 – at the height of Covid-19 – schools in 191 countries were forced into mass closure. An estimated 1.5 billion students globally were...

Smoothening Career Paths for Motivated School-leavers

4 min read

AS A TEENAGER, Yee Ji Chang liked watching Marvel’s Avengers series. One particular character stood out. “Out of all the superheroes, I was a big fan of Tony St...