The children of yesteryear have all grown up: The story of a boy from George Town, Penang

This book originated from an autobiography.

After the COVID-19 pandemic subsided in 2021, Chen Zhihong and his wife returned to Penang and purchased a house on the edge of the George Town UNESCO World Heritage Site. To help his interior designer understand his background and decorating style, he wrote an article, "My Autobiography," which recounted his life journey. The article, which he posted on Facebook, received a positive response, and he has been writing one a day ever since, "trying to find a resting place in the world of words for those who loved me in the past, and thus embarked on a month-long journey of nostalgia."

Forty-one essays, accompanied by some old photos, capture Chen Zhihong's childhood memories on the streets of George Town in the 1980s and 1990s, and family anecdotes under the eaves of traditional shophouses. Through writing, he sees himself coming alive, and the transformation of an old city over four decades. He says, "Today, I still hear my mother's old voice, saying, 'Get up, it's time to go home.'"

Chen Zhihong

Born in George Town, Penang Island, Malaysia in 1976, his ancestral home is Anxi, Fujian. He holds a Master's degree in Chinese from the University of Malaya. Before moving to Korea at the age of 36 to study Korean, he taught part-time courses in Chinese and media departments at various universities. He later transitioned to a position as a creative director at a film and television company. He currently runs a language center with his wife.

He has won numerous awards both domestically and internationally, including the Huazong Literary Award, the United Daily News Literary Award, and the New Era Global Chinese Youth Literature Award. He is the author of the short story collections Legs (2006) and Happiness Building (2015), and the essay collection Uncle's Travels in Korea (2023).

Photo coloring pages

Foreword: A Letter to Penang Interior Designers / by Chen Zhihong

• A birthday that cannot be achieved
• A nickname that lasts a lifetime
• Grandmother in her final days
• The father who cannot be disturbed
• Neighborly marriage
• Repeated changes in the family tree
• Little monkey sitting on the stairwell
• My childhood in the back seat of a Mercedes
• My grandfather's fourth wife
• The Last Breath of Southern Thailand
• A story of a forbidden place
• The daughter of a wealthy family
• The lost and found shop
• Before the coffee shop
• Thrills in the Calm
• The initial smell
• A guided tour on the windmill road
• A window to philately
• Deshun Lu, living on the verge of his end
• When a city is alive
• Five Meals a Day Citizens
• Grab a holy place
• Career chosen at age five
• Senior minor patients
• Double-sided shopping diary
• A little boy who makes a living by the Chinese zodiac
• A tortuous farewell
• Four Seasons in George Town
• A rare tradition of leisure
• A touch of festive colour
• Calling someone the wrong name for a lifetime
• Vacation at my uncle's ancestral home
• Walking in your own garden
• One of the stations in life
• A door has closed
• Rest in peace, big sister
• Can’t you change it?
• A boy under the tree on Coconut Street
• First Love
• Olive trees standing in the distance
• Peeping Tom

postscript