This is our heritage

YAM PHUI YEE checks out the Anak-anak Kota of Penang and their attempts at

WHAT comes to mind when someone mentions the word “heritage”? Something old, rustic, tattered and probably haunted? To a group of young people in Penang called Anak-anak Kota (AAK), heritage is not just something marked in history books, it is happening now.  

AAK is the educational arm of Arts ED, a project of the Penang Educational Consultative Council and Universiti Sains Malaysia. Here, children living in the inner city work with freelance artists to explore their legacy using various art forms such as photography, music and dance. The children, aged between 11 and 18, are taught basic research skills before they trawl the town for nuggets of gold often overlooked by the public. Their research which sometimes takes a few months of weekends and school holidays often resulted in pleasant surprises as they express the findings through arts. 

“We walked and observed how religions co-exist at Pitt Street. We went into other people’s places of worship and it was interesting to learn about their deities, do’s and don’ts, symbols and myths,” said 18-year-old Ch’ng Yu Jean from St George’s Girls School.  

“It is way cooler than history lessons in school because we are not confined to exams. We are encouraged to learn and explore for ourselves. You are really experiencing it, not just buta-buta baca (reading without understanding),” she said. 

Crowds gather at Armenian Street to watch Wayang Bayang-bayang, a shadow puppet show during the Heritage Heboh! Lagi organised by Anak-anak Kota.

Last weekend, AAK re-ran the street festival Heritage Heboh!, literally bringing history and culture to the street. Two teenage tok dalang (puppeteers) performed a captivating wayang kulit (shadow puppetry) show based on a story of a sea spirit entering a boy’s body. Teens danced around round metal tables and stools found in a traditional kopitiam, imitated lok-lok (steamboat) eaters to a rhythmic tune, rapped about street names in Penang and displayed creative shows that put “cool” into heritage. A crowd of more than 400 people turned up for the event in the vicinity of Armenian Street in the heart of George Town, where they had fun at the activity stalls and sat on the tarred roads to watch the shows.  

While art forms are used as a tool to tell the importance of heritage, they are never imposed as a discipline that participants are rigorously pressured to perfect.  

“The participants were not dancers. They have come a long way, from having no basics of movement to using dance techniques to choreograph their own dance. And they know very clearly what and why they are doing it,” said dance facilitator Liu Yong Sean, 21. 

He went on to tell of how he was surprised when the teens returned from a mission to observe how roti jala was made and came up with an abstract movement ensemble, mimicking the fluidity of oil and stirred batter that finally ended in a messy knot.  

Liu grew up with AAK since he was 15 and this became his chance to pass on what he received. The final year student at Akademi Seni Kebangsaan travelled every weekend to his hometown in Penang for a few months to facilitate the movement component on a voluntary basis.  

“In arts, you use your senses a lot – your hands, body and intelligence for example. Children find it more interesting and natural. It is a tool; we don’t push them into the artistic realm. Also, it covers more scope than chalk and talk,” said Janet Pillai, the AAK founder with an impressive resume in heritage conservation and children’s theatre. 

AAK began in 2001 with a focus on the inner city but today the successful project has extended its wings to another part of the island – Balik Pulau.  

“Heritage now has expanded to cover natural resources and nature, like in Balik Pulau. The town projects were more on architecture and shophouses,” said Pillai.  

The team is currently working on expanding a heritage trail set up by the participants in the first My Balik Pulau project last year, involving about 20 multi-ethnic local children from the small rural district. They captured the town’s heartbeat by observing the town’s religion and ritual, architecture, trade and food, and community. USM student Suzana Bujal was part of the team.  

“People used to just think of old buildings as heritage. The kids have learnt about new symbols of what can be heritage. For example, they went to a nutmeg juice shop at the market and thought of it as heritage: if they don’t learn how to make the juice, they won’t know how to do it in the future. They had to document it for the future generation and took photographs, interviewed the seller and did their own layout for the exhibition,” said Suzana, 21.  

The children have made the highlights of their generation a living heritage for the generations to come. Other spots tagged included the landmark Balik Pulau roundabout, the former Penang Yellow Bus Company bus station, a noodle and tofu factory, durian plantations, a church and a pet shop.  

“They find the pet shop very memorable because they spent time there,” said Suzana, who believes that the awareness will compel them to preserve their legacy. 

The programme started with what the children consider their heritage. It could be anything from a family photo to a baby pillow. Then the focus grew to include family heritage and finally, community heritage.  

“At their age, they have to think a lot for this. We have to target these children because if they know what their heritage should be, they will get their parents and community to join them as well,” Suzana added.  

The accomplishment and impact of AAK go beyond a one-time showcase. My Balik Pulau was simply a hit among the locals.  

“After My Balik Pulau, people saw the potential of having other trades as heritage. A mee jawa seller also asked the kids to include the trade,” said Suzana.  

When breaking new ground, Pillai had to spend a lot of time and energy to build trust with the community. Since she is not from Balik Pulau (Pillai is a Malaccan who has spent more than 30 years in Penang), she is seen as an outsider but the locals know that her team is there to do something good for them.  

“Sometimes we don’t think like the villagers. We have to crack our heads about the exhibition. People don’t go to the gallery for exhibitions so we did ours in a coffeeshop and at the market,” Pillai said, adding that they are also trying to rope in resourceful people there to initiate mini projects alongside theirs.  

While the programme has been successful in raising awareness and preserving culture in the inner city, AAK is progressing to the next level of generating a shift to preserve heritage in a sustainable way. 

“Heritage has to go beyond the arts,” Pillai said. 

“We don’t have a problem about people knowing us. Now what we want is for them to take on initiatives and be part of the festival. We want to see more intergenerational work being done,” she added.  

This may involve stakeholders, professionals, business people and even those involved in science and technology.  

“We want to let them know it’s cool to farm. So we need to bring in more technologies for the long term.” 

Pillai revealed that there may another instalment of Heritage Heboh! next year but perhaps in another community in the state. Her wish is for schools to not see fieldwork as burdensome. This method is surely more colourful and adventurous than ploughing through textbooks.  

Conservation of our heritage alone is a massive task, what more teaching teenagers to love it. But AAK has done it.  

“Parents are very grateful that their children have changed from being ashamed of their inner city working class to being very proud of it. That’s a very big change of heart,” Pillai said.