"Spy" Sculpture, Kampung Malabar

Spy Sculpture, Kampung Malabar, George Town, Penang (11 May 2013)


The "Spy" Sculpture (GPS: 5.41858, 100.33382) is a steel-rod sculpture gracing the wall in Kampung Malabar, George Town, near the junction with Cintra Street. It appears to show three mean and one apparently Japanese woman. The sculpture was based on a caricature by cartoonist Reggie Lee.

The "Spy" Sculpture is intended for Cintra Street, although it is applicable to Kampung Malabar as well. From the fourth quarter of the 19th century right up to the decades prior to the Second World War, this area became a Japanese enclave. The small Japanese community here ran businesses ranging from dental clinics to photography shops. There are also brothels with Japanese prostitutes, known as Karayuki-san.

It believed that the photography shops were a front for the Japanese to engage in espionage. Whether or not this is true, xenophobic sentiments against the Japanese, especially from the Chinese community in the area rose particularly after the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), and even before the start of the Second World War, most of the Japanese had left George Town.

Spy Sculpture, earlier shot, view blocked by vehicle (8 February 2013)

Location of the "Spy" Sculpture

List of Steel-Rod Sculptures by Reggie Lee, Marking George Town Sculptures and Penang Street Art