Malayan Railway Building
The Malayan Railway Building, with its iconic clock tower, stood as the tallest and most prominent structure on Penang Island in the 1900s. It was known as the "ghost station" because it was not connected to any existing railway. It mainly operated as a ticket office for passengers travelling to the Prai Railway Station on the mainland and as offices for the Federated Malay States Railway staff. This historic monument was pivotal to Penang's economy, serving as a crucial transportation hub for tin and crop export as well as ferrying passengers across the Penang Strait.
Owned by the Railway Assets Corporation, the Malayan Railway Building is set to remain a timeless Penang icon for the coming generations thanks to the refurbishment and conservation efforts being carried out. The preservation of this cultural legacy is part of the initiative towards the adaptive reuse and regeneration of the Penang waterfront.
This site is AR-activated by Ysabel Loh, a multidisciplinary artist who explores the legend of the Railway Clock Tower.
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Artist Statement:
According to local legend, there once was a clear path from the nearby Goddess of Mercy Temple along Lebuh China, to the seafront you see on your right. The path was a conduit for Qi - healthy energy that flowed freely and nourished the Island and its spirits. Qi was said to have accumulated in the area beneath where the railway clock tower now stands, attracting the two guardian lion spirits from the Temple to play in the underground waterways and wells at night.
When the colonial clock tower was built in 1907, the flow of Qi from the Temple to the seafront seemed to be disrupted by the building. No one saw the guardian lion spirits ever again. Or so the rumours say.
Explore Penang's cultural folklore and mythical tales with The Legend of the Railway Clock Tower. Free the guardian lion spirits under the clock tower! Roar to bring Qi back to the island of Penang.
Ysabel Loh is a multi-disciplinary, award-winning international performance and digital artist with a background in screenwriting, video game development, theatre, film, dance, music, and art. She was also a participating artist in SensARTS 2023, a programme sponsored by the Embassy of France in Malaysia. Her many local and international projects primarily explore cultural identity and heritage. She recently produced an immersive work as part of Cahaya XR at George Town Festival 2022 and presented her VR video game on Climate Change and preservation of Sea Nomadic Culture at SensArts Festival in November 2023.
Ysabel holds a BA (Hons) in English and Theatre (University of Warwick) and an MA in Digital Media Production (University College London). She is currently based in Penang, Malaysia and is aa co-founder of Dabble Dabble Jer Collective, an arts collective in Penang. With DDJ, she co-directed BURDEN OF PROOF, an immersive theatre experience based on the lived experiences of victim-survivors of sexual violence in November 2023.
