Penang Through the Eyes of Old Man Lim

Penang is the undisputed Pearl of the Orient. And no one has seen her blossom from a sleepy fishing port to a modern city better than Old Man Lim. An illiterate rickshaw driver-turned-photographer for more than half a century, he was recently rediscovered. Here is his story...

The photographs may be gone - lost to unscrupulous collectors - but the memories of the competing noodle stalls some 50 years ago "still makes me laugh - and hungry!" Old Man Lim eases himself into a rusty garden swing in the quiet backyard of the Old People's Home of Penang, where he has lived for many years now, and recounts what happened.

"Back then, all the chinese labourers here in Georgetown [Penang's capital] would stop at the noodle stalls along Chulia Street to or from work. The competition among the stall owners was fierce as each one had developed a unique dish to draw the crowds. Naturally, this led to some paranoia; concerns over spying on each other, you know.

"There I was, taking some harmless black and whites with my old 'Brownie' when suddenly I'm accused of spying. My best memory is running down the road with all the noodle sellers after me, hotly accusing each other of having me spy for them.

"My 'Noodle Shots', as I call them, eventually won me the New York-based Time Magazine's Quarterly Photo Competition!" His leathery face crinkles with a sheepish smile that belies his 78 years. (Was he, in fact, spying? He won't say...)

That photo award, and several others just as prestigious, are the highlight of a life wrought with uncertainty and misfortune. Abandoned by his hawker parents at an early age, he took over the care of his younger siblings by forgoing schooling and doing odd-jobs to support themselves.

Into his young adulthood, he worked at everything from coffeeshops, rubber plantations, and chicken farms, finally settling on rickshaw driving around the colourful and bustling streets of Georgetown.

"In the early '50's, I began taking tourists around scenic spots and helped many artists, mostly ang mo (local chinese dialect for westerners), to find ideal settings for their paintings."

Old Man Lim's passion for photography came about quite by chance through a friend who worked at an advertising agency who needed scenic shots of Penang. A quick15-minute lesson in photography later, Lim was out on the streets - him, his rickshaw, and a Brownie box camera.

His talent and keen eye quickly became the talk of the arty crowd in town. And tourists in-the-know sought him as their affable and immensely informative guide.