"Same Taste, Same Look" Sculpture, Cintra Street

"Same Taste, Same Look" Sculpture (GPS: 5.41656, 100.33278) is one of the steel-rod sculptures installed in George Town in 2013. Located on Cintra Street, on the wall of Sin Guat Keong Coffee Shop, near the junction with Kimberley Street, The sculpture depicts two elderly diners commenting on an equally elderly dim sum waitress. Apparently they have all aged together, but the quality of the dim sum remains the same.

The "Same Taste, Same Look" Sculpture is based on the caricature of cartoonist Tang Mun Kian. It celebrates the Cantonese dim sum restaurant, and in general, the Cantonese Chinatown (as opposed the Hokkien Chinatown further east) in the area. There are presently two such restaurants in the area, one on Cintra Street itself and another on Sungai Ujong Road.

Same Taste, Same Look Sculpture, Cintra Street, George Town, Penang (30 June 2012)


The area bordered by Chulia Street, Penang Road, Prangin Road and Carnarvon Street developed into a Cantonese enclave from the 1860s onwards. They occupy streets in the area such as Cintra Street, Kimberley Street, Sungai Ujong Road, Kuala Kangsar Road, Hong Kong Street and Rope Walk.

The Cantonese join an influx of newly arrived immigrants to Penang in the later half of the 19th century, when political and economic upheavals in southern China coupled with perceived golden opportunities in the Nanyang (aka Southeast Asia), brought throngs of southern China immigrants to the area.

The new immigrants to Penang, known to the locals as Sinkheh (literally, "new guests"), bought up the properties previously occupied by South Indians in a then rural part of George Town. The second half of the 19th century brought a gradual transformation of this area from rural to urban, and from one that was predominantly Indian and Indian Muslim to one that is Cantonese and Taoist. The arrival of the Cantonese also brought a change to the urban landscape, as the thatch village houses and Anglo-Indian bungalows gave way for urban shophouses and townhouses.

Cintra Street itself had a small community of Japanese immigrants setting up businesses ranging from dentistry to brothels. While the Japanese presence has largely been erased, the Cantonese character remains to this day, and is perhaps best examplified by the consuming of dim sum in the morning.

Further Reading

The term "Chinatown" refers to at least three separate enclaves in George Town. To learn more, read my article on the Chinatown of George Town.

List of Steel-Rod Sculptures by Tang Mun Kian, Marking George Town Sculptures and Penang Street Art