2 min read
Why the old town is red
The Stadthuys, Christ Church and the clock tower are the colour on every postcard of Melaka. For most of their history, they were white.
Melaka in Three Tenses
A journal about Melaka, Malaysia
- PastMelaka was the port where the monsoons met.
- PresentMelaka is incense, trishaw music and Friday nights on Jonker Street.
- FutureMelaka will be whatever it decides to keep.
Short essays about one small city on the Strait of Malacca: the history under its streets, the life on them now, and the questions about what comes next.
Latest essay
Saying it in KristangFutureIc. 1400 to 1957
Past
Sultans, spice fleets and the empires that came for them.
3 min read
One gate, two empires
Of the great Portuguese fortress of A Famosa, only one gate survives. It carries a Dutch coat of arms, and it may owe its survival to an Englishman.
3 min read
Under the Melaka tree
A prince on the run, a hunting dog and a very brave mouse deer: how a settlement on a muddy river became the busiest port in Southeast Asia.
IIToday
Present
Night markets, river walks and a heritage city that is still lived in.
2 min read
Palm sugar, rice balls and devil’s curry
Melaka’s food is its history in edible form: Malay, Peranakan, Portuguese-Eurasian and everything in between, often on the same table.
2 min read
The river that came back
For decades the Melaka River was something the city turned its back on. Now it is where everyone goes in the evening.
2 min read
Friday night on Jonker Street
Every weekend a quiet street of antique shops and clan houses becomes the loudest, most crowded and most delicious few hundred metres in the city.
IIINext
Future
Reclaimed land, rising water and the question of what to keep.
2 min read
Saying it in Kristang
Papiá Kristang, the creole of Melaka’s Portuguese-Eurasian community, has been spoken for five centuries. Whether it is still spoken in fifty years depends on what happens now.
2 min read
Land from the sea
Melaka’s shoreline has moved a long way in a single generation. As the sea begins to rise, the city has to decide which way the line should move next.
2 min read
A museum or a neighbourhood
Since 2008 the old town has been a World Heritage Site, and its buildings are better cared for than they have been in generations. The question is who will still live in them.