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Punca identiti Melayu sukar diterapkan dalam seni bina June 25, 2018 – Posted in: In The News

Identiti Melayu sukar untuk diterapkan dalam seni bina Malaysia berikutan kurangnya generasi muda Melayu yang tahu mengenai seni dan budaya bangsa. Hal itu menjadi semakin rumit kerana kebanyakan pemaju juga bukan dalam kalangan orang Melayu, selain kos pembinaan seni bina tradisional amat tinggi. Penasihat Sosiobudaya Kerajaan Malaysia, Tan Sri Rais Yatim, berkata bagaimanapun dalam hal ini menyalahkan generasi muda sebagai tidak peduli atau tidak menghargai budaya sendiri adalah tidak tepat. “Generasi muda hari ini tidak…

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Finding Arina June 11, 2018 – Posted in: Reviews

I was honoured to launch her first book, Paracosm, on Saturday, 6 May 2017, at the University of Malaya. I have nothing but praises for the 17-year-old Puteri Fateh Arina Merican Megat Suffian Merican, or Arina. She is indeed an extraordinary girl, extremely talented and ferociously opinionated. She is one of the most creative young minds in literature I have come across in recent memory. In my speech, I said that she has “a sophisticated,…

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Ipohworld’s World review of “Perak Postcards 1890-1940” June 4, 2018 – Posted in: In The News, Reviews

Once the premier state of the Federated Malay States, Perak pioneered tin mining, rubber, roads and railways in Malaya. In the early twentieth century, Europeans and Asians venturing into this frontier country bought picture postcards to send home to family, friends and pen pals all over the world. Perak Postcards 1890s-1940s represents the largest such collection ever assembled into one volume, with more than 500 picture postcards contributed by several collectors. Practically all the major Perak districts…

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Perak Postcards, 1890s-1940s – Posted in: In The News

Regular readers of the Echo will know that I often voice my concern over the lack of interest in Perak’s heritage, tangible or intangible. We seem to be losing our trees, limestone hills, culture, buildings and genuine history faster than ever, despite the cries in the wilderness that come from the different heritage organisations. Soon there will be nothing left of these things but faded memories. It is therefore with great pleasure that I picked…

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Through the wheels of time – Posted in: In The News

THE nostalgia hits many locals on busy Penang Road. From the Chulia Street-Penang Road junction towards Komtar, commuters will come across parallel steel tramlines, built sometime between 1880 and 1906. Road builders dug them up by accident in 2004 while replacing underground utility cables. To make them invulnerable to the grinding wheel of time, the road running along the tramlines is encased not in normal asphalt but solid concrete. This preserved vestige of Penang’s history…

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Postcard Journeys – Posted in: Reviews

Every once in a while, a book comes along that surpasses expectations. Although there have been other publications about postcards in Malaysia, Penang Postcard Collection 1899-1930 is by far the most ambitious study of the subject to date. Serious collectors or scholars of postcards (deltiologists, as they are called), as well as casual readers, are sure to delight in this richly illustrated and beautifully designed volume. Packed with fascinating historical detail, this book is a…

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French book on Penang launched in Paris – Posted in: In The News

A book on Penang entitled Penang: la Porte des Secrets (Penang – Through Gilded Doors) as well as an exhibition of photographs on the Malaysian island were launched today, 18 October 2006 in Paris. The book, its French edition stylishly written by Julia de Bierre and superbly photographed by James Bain Smith was officially launched by the Malaysian Ambassador to France, H.E. Dato? S. Thanarajasingam, at a ceremony held at the Café des Initiés in Paris.…

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My Day in the Sun talk at Universiti Malaya May 31, 2018 – Posted in: In The News

My Day in the Sun Speaker Dr MARK YOI SUN SOO Date Time 29 Jul 2013 10:30 AM – 29 Jul 2013 12:30 PM Venue Bilik Mesyuarat Dekan II, FSSS, UM Language Mandarin In My Days in the Sun, a distinguished radiologist presents a candid self-portrait of his first 40 years. Mark Y.S. Soo was born in 1933 into a Cantonese family who divided their time between business interests in Malaya and Hong Kong. As…

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Penning a memoir – Posted in: In The News

MANY of us have hazy memories of our childhood which fade even more as years pass, but this is not the case with Dr Mark Soo Yoi Sun. Even at the ripe old age of 80 this year, the radiologist had a twinkle in his eyes when he narrated events when he was a four-year-old boy roaming the streets of Kampar. It is this astounding memory and a wish to tell the story of his…

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Mark Soo’s Book Launched – Posted in: In The News

A book launch, jointly hosted by Perak Academy and Areca Books in honour of Mark Yoi Sun Soo’s debut book, was held at Symphony Suites, Ipoh recently. Entitled My Days in the Sun, the book is a memoir detailing Mark’s first 40 years of his life where he spent alternating between Hong Kong and Kampar, Malaya where his father’s family herbal medicine business was located. Mark witnessed firsthand the devastation of the Japanese Occupation (1942-1945)…

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