PETALING JAYA, 25 July 2011: The Nut Graph columnist Gan Pei Ling has won a Special Prize in Penang’s inaugural Green Journalism Award for a column she wrote about the effectiveness of banning plastic. The piece, which won her one of two special prizes in the English language category, was entitled The plastic menace and [...]

DATUK Faridah Merican has been in the arts scene for more than 50 years and is considered a pioneer of the Malaysian theatre industry. With her husband, director Joe Hasham, the “first lady of the stage” co-founded The Actors Studio in 1989. She and Joe also head the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac), which [...]

THE idea that all us are out to “hina Melayu” is so last decade. By blaming Arts-Ed for bringing out “isu perkauman”, the Gabungan Bela Hak Insan has stooped really low in order to spread its own political ideologies. According to the Gabungan, they were “merely pointing out errors” in the My Balik Pulau newsletter [...]

SHE is a law graduate and co-owns a clothes boutique. But Yunalis Zarai, who is more popularly recognised as just Yuna, is better known as the current darling of Malaysia’s independent music scene. The 24-year-old began writing her own songs when she was 14 and has not looked back since. After releasing her self-titled EP [...]

SELANGOR’S No Plastic Bag Day campaign recently came under attack in a report on online news portal The Malaysian Insider. The 9 Nov 2010 report claimed that “hypermarkets and retail shops” in Selangor have suffered up to 30% decline in their businesses on Saturdays since the Selangor government implemented the campaign in January 2009. In [...]

GROWING up watching a variety of films, it never occurred to Saw Teong Hin that it might be strange for a Chinese Malaysian like himself to direct Malay films. “I never really thought about it until people started asking me again and again: ‘Why’s a Chinese [Malaysian] like you doing Malay films?’ But why not?” [...]