
Being an old cosmopolitan centre, Penang has its fair share of successful artists, and more. But, despite its strong pulse, the future of its art is not certain.

by SHARON CHIN
When I was in Penang last year, I stumbled across the Toy Museum along Tanjung Bungah Road. My first reaction was: whoaaaaa. It remains one of the strangest, most fascinating places I’ve ever been in.
The Museum itself is a shop lot of about 650 sq ft, located beside Copthorne Orchid Hotel. It feels suspiciously like an old night club with a bad ‘Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt’ theme: gilt fibreglass statues and fake hieroglyphs abound. Inside, rows and rows of shelves house over 100,000 figurines, collectibles, models and toys from a mind-boggling span of western popular culture. It was like walking into a dragon’s hoard, only instead of gold, this dragon preferred toys.