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Official Portal OfCity Council of Penang island

Arca

03 July, 2024

Page 3 of 4

  • SCULPTURE 31 : KANDAR

    ADDRESS : NO. 48 LEBUH AH QUEE

     sculpture 31

    `Nasi kandar is a popular Malaysia dish, available twenty-four hours a day, that originated with Tamil Muslims hawking home-cooked curries from containers carried on a ‘kandar’ or wooden yoke across their shoulders. Originally this `food on the go’ was carried to manual labourers, working outdoors, but it has become widely recognised as a staple choice for all. Today the rice is typically served with several dishes such as fried chicken, mutton and seafood, and a selection of curry gravies.
     
    This sculpture shows a hawker striking the same poses as a modern weight lifter, to indicate the weight of the dished the hawker carried, before triumphantly hoisting his ‘kandar’ and carrying it away.

    URL: SCULPTURE 31 KANDAR

  • SCULPTURE 32 : SHORN HAIR

    ADDRESS : NO. 194 JALAN SUNGAI UJONG

    sculpture 32

    `Shorn Hair’ is another sculpture shows in the case using yellow chin to `moor’ the customer`s boat to the fire hydrant. The barber`s tolls of the trade are faithfully rendered while the hair being cut is shown being thrown into the adjoining canal.

    URL: SCULPTURE 32 SHORN HAIR

  • SCULPTURE 33 : THEN & NOW

    ADDRESS : NO. 89 LEBUH ARMENIAN

    sculpture 33

    This sculpture is more related to some traditional occupations, all currently under threat. `Then & Now’ traces the changes in local occupation on Lebuh Armenian, formerly a centre for copper smithing, to today`s less glamorous recycling of old newspapers and assorted containers.
     
    On the left of the sculpture shows a Malay worker, surrounded by a hanging array of the pots and pans he has already made, is busily fashioning yet another brass pot, while at the same time being distracted by the guni man. Our `guni’ (a type of bag), or rubbish collector is collecting bottles, tin cans and old newspaper, but appears to have his own problems.

    URL: SCULPTURE 33 THEN & NOW

  • SCULPTURE 34 : AH QUEE?

    ADDRESS : NO. 224 LEBUH PANTAI

     sculpture 34


    `Ah Quee’ typifies the story of the penniless immigrant who made good. Ah Quee, aka Chung Keng Kwee, was born into a peasant Hakka family in Guangdong, China in 1841. In his aged of 20, was sent by his mother to Malaya to search for his father, who had travelled there previously.

    Chung Keng Kwee’s home and his Ancestral Temple, which he built for the worship of his ancestors both are located on Church Street, Penang.

    In this piece was see a European businessman struggle to pronounce Ah Quee`s name while greeting him ; notice too the traditional kampong houses in the background of this sculpture.

    URL: SCULPTURE 34 AH QUEE?

  • SCULPTURE 35 : PROCESSION

    ADDRESS : NO. 149 JALAN MASJID KAPITAN KELING

     sculpture 35


    `Procession’, was one of the metal sculptures to appear and celebration both a person and event.

    Zhang Li, a mid-18th century scholar of Hakka descent, while sailing to Sumatra with two companions, was blown off course, and forced to land in Penang. After their deaths, Zhang Li and his companions were buried in graves at what is now the Tua Pek Kong Temple in Tanjong Tokong, built in 1799.

    Over a period of time the local Chinese began to venerate Zhang Li as a god of prosperity, bestowing on him the title, Tua Pek Kong. During the procession, that is carried on the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year from Lebuh Armenian to the Tanjung Tokong temple.

    URL: SCULPTURE 35 PROCESSION

  • SCULPTURE 36 : LIMOUSINE

    ADDRESS : NO. 153 LEBUH CARNARVON

    Sculpture36

    Today, this area remains a centre both for the production of these items as well as diverse paper product, and coffins too. This sculpture shows that all of the pleasures of the material world can be reproduced on paper for burning.

    URL: SCULPTURE 36 LIMOUSINE

  • SCULPTURE 37 : CHINGAY

    ADDRESS : NO. 53 GAT JALAN PRANGIN

     sculpture 37
     

    Celebrating of Penang`s communities, known `Chingay’. It has been claimed that Chingay processions, teams balancing and tossing large flags, as well as lion and dragon dances originated in Penang, Malaysia. This piece, celebrating Chingay is a light hearted, confident and glorious celebration of the multiracial nature of Penang, both in terms of the figures used and the nature of Chingay itself.

    Among the figures on these five-foot way pillars who leads the procession with a Chingay flag balanced on his head. Behind him a rather anxious Chinese father balances on a high unicycle followed by his more confident son. The sequence is complete by an embarrassed man, caught in the realisation that doing a handstand is not advisable while wearing a sarong, and a stilt walker who lags behind the main procession, while arranging a date with his beloved, at an open window.

    URL: SCULPTURE 37 CHINGAY

  • SCULPTURE 38 : MAHJONG

    ADDRESS : NO. 37A LORONG STEWARD

    sculpture 38

    `Mahjong’, a representative portrayal of the popular game, instead alluding to the game`s name with a flock (or `quarrelling’) of sparrows. The mahjong’s a `game of sparrows’ which favourite pastime for the elderly.

    URL: SCULPTURE 38 MAHJONG

  • SCULPTURE 39 : CANNON HOLE

    ADDRESS : NO. 64 LEBUH ACHEH

    sculpture 39

    Trishaw riders are commemorated in two different sculptures, `Cannon Hole’ and Beca. `Cannon Hole’ marks the 1867 riots between rival secret societies. One of the most intriguing aspects of these riots is that both sides were multiracial, with the Muslim Red Flag association and the Hokkien Tua Peh Kong Society united against the Muslim White Flag and the Cantonese Ghee Hin.

    The most serious riots broke out in August that year 1867 of Lebuh Cannon area. In order to put down this unrest, the alarmed colonial authorities called in reinforcements from Singapore, and cannons were fired near the site of this sculpture, leading to today`s Lebuh Cannon. It is said bullet holes from this time can still be found in the walls of surrounding buildings.

    URL: SCULPTURE 39 CANNON HOLE

  • SCULPTURE 40 : TEMPLE DAY

    ADDRESS : NO. 11 LORONG STEWARD

    sculpture 40

    At the centre of `Temple Day’ is a tourist, suitably armed with a camera and copy of guidebook, surrounded by stall keepers selling a bewildering array of temple goods from incense to giant joss sticks, as seen at the stalls alongside the nearby Goddess of Mercy Temple.

    URL: SCULPTURE 40 TEMPLE DAY

  • SCULPTURE 41 : FOR YEOH ONLY

    ADDRESS : YEOH KONGSI

    sculpture 41

    This particular sculpture is mounted on the wall of the Yeoh Kongsi, established in 1836 as a benevolent foundation for newly arrived immigrant members of the Yeoh clan. Here we can see a line of new immigrants, each loaded down with all their possessions being scrutinised by an official `with a list’.

    URL: SCULPTURE 41 FOR YEOH ONLY

  • SCULPTURE 42 : TOK TOK MEE

    ADDRESS : NO. 103 LEBUH CHINA

    sculpture 42

    Here we see an itinerant hawker serving up bowls of wanton,  or `tok tok’ mee (noodles), so called because hawkers announce their presence by tapping on a piece of hollow bamboo. The contents of a hawker`s trolley – extra bowls, the pile of uncooked noodles and a sieve – are faithfully detailed in this sculpture.

    URL: SCULPTURE 42 TOK TOK MEE

  • SCULPTURE 43 : BORN NOVELIST

     ADDRESS : LORONG LUMUT

    sculpture 43

    `Born Novelist is one the few sculptures to celebrate a specific person, in the case Ahmad Rashid Talu, the first to write an original Malay Novel with local setting and local characters.

    URL: SCULPTURE 43 BORN NOVELIST

  • SCULPTURE 44 : PROPERTY

    ADDRESS: NO. 33 GAT LEBUH CHULIA

    sculpture 44

    `Property’ celebrates the reclamation of land and the resulting building boom in new godowns and shops along the coast near Victoria Street of Weld Quay. With the pushing out this shoreline, a deep water port was created, allowing larger vessels to dock on the quayside, making loading and unloading cargoes simpler. Trans-shipment into lighters was no longer necessary.

    In the background we see a junk and an Indian coolie erecting a sign, `Proposed Reclamation Project’, while in the foreground a merchant and his lawyer anticipate the profits to be made while standing on the existing jetty.

    URL: SCULPTURE 44 PROPERTY

  • SCULPTURE 45 : ESCAPE

    ADDRESS : NO. 322 LEBUH PANTAI

    sculpture 45

    `Escape’ is confident, and bold minimalist representation showing a makeshift rope hanging from a berred window. This piece is located on a (warehouse) Gudang along Acheen Street, or the Achehnese Warehouse, one of the oldest building on Lebuh Pantai, Penang.

    URL: SCULPTURE 45 ESCAPE