Jual Morah, the Penang Bazaar

I had meant to write this story for a very long time. Since March 2022, actually, but for the lack of a suitable picture to accompany the piece, I did not. Well, I've found it eventually; this picture was buried deep within my harddisk folders. What was this building? As the name suggested, it housed the Penang Bazaar. However, the locals had another term for it: Jual Morah, or simply, Morah, meaning Cheap Sale or simply, Cheap. (See the Note at the end of this story.)

 
Jual Morah, or the Penang Bazaar, has definitely seen better days. Today, it is a poor version of its popularity during its heyday when the lively art of bargaining thrived. Built in 1904 as a simple, single-storey market, it became a haven for traders from across Southeast Asia. Traders from Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar and Singapore flocked here, making it the most well-known "cheap market" in the state. At its height, it even attracted tourists from around the world, all drawn to the thrill of haggling for a bargain.

I found an interesting short write-up on the Penang Bazaar in The Singapore Free Press that was dated 12 November 1949. Written by a fella named Kenny Kaye, it described the establishment and its activities quite well at possibility the height of the place's popularity:

"Devaluation or no, Penang's bargain hunters paradise - the Jual Morah or Penang Bazaar - where canny women go to haggle and dicker to their hearts' content, continues to do a thriving business. To most people shopping is a chore that sometimes turns out to be fun, but to the women who frequent this bazaar it is a pretty serious business. A session in this mecca for shoppers may take a whole afternoon, after which time customers usually emerge from its musty recesses triumphantly but grimly clutching parcels and looking and feeling like a wet dish-rag. Like many others, these shoppers go through the mill of blandishments and cajolery hurled by raucous salesmen. Shopping in the Jual Morah is unlike anything you have done elsewhere. It is no mere asking for a price and making an offer. It is more than that. It is psychology and diplomacy rolled into one. It is a battle of wits between buyer and seller. The reason that must of the shoppers are women stems from the fact that they are the only people who can weather the onslaught of quick-fire sales talk and the withering sarcasm of stall assistants. All the insolence, brazenness and check are accepted good-naturedly as part of the game, and the women usually show their mettle by beating the salesmen at their own game. As the name Jual Morah implies, you can get things pretty cheap there, if you know how, because of the stallholders' low overhead. But prices are usually jacked up high, sometimes as high as 300 per cent, for the women to beat down. That is why men fight shy of this mart and prefer the posh downtown establishments where they know they will be charged a bit more with no bargaining, but where they feel they are on much safer ground.

"Jual Morah started in 1904 as a collection of stalls on a vacant lot back of Penang's busy main street, Penang Road. It became so popular that an enterprising towkay built a corrugated iron roof, paved the land and called it Penang Bazaar. But the name Jual Morah stuck. It paid such handsome dividends in stall rental to its owners that a few years before the war it was given a facelift. An imposing modernistic two-storey building was erected to serve as entrance and on the top floor was housed a restaurant for the benefit of weary shoppers. Stalls were renovated and electric fans installed. On entering its precincts, eye and ear are besieged immediately with a symphony of colourful haberdashery, towels, drapes, handbags, toys and other hundreds of items strung out on poles or displayed on makeshift counters for all to see, and the noise of bargaining and the chit-chat of shoppers. Although the bazaar stands within a stone's throw of many high-class shops and department stores, rich in goods, its lure to women remains irresistible."

The land itself belonged to Taiping miner-millionaire Ng Boo Bee, who envisioned it as a place where newcomers from the Nanyang could set up small stalls. By 1937, the front of the building had been expanded to two storeys, but little else had changed. Early photographs show an alley running alongside the bustling market, once wide enough for bicycles and motorcycles but gradually overtaken by hawkers, transforming it into a pedestrian thoroughfare.

Some people tend to mistaken the Penang Bazaar for the Chowrasta Market, which should not be the case. The two buildings are quite different. The Chowrasta Market, established around 1870, stands on the next block. In those days, it was largely dominated by Indian traders, thus leading to the name of one of the roads surrounding it, Tamil Street.

Over time, the Penang Bazaar evolved. By the 1930s, large billboards covered its front, advertising its wares. In the years before the Second World War, it received a facelift. The Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle of 05 January 1938 gave a short report within its pages: 

"The average Chinese loves to bargain, and it is for this reason that large crowds are to be seen at the newly reopened Penang Bazaar, better known as the Jual Morah, in Penang Road, in 1938. The building has been completely renovated with an imposing facade facing Penang Road and a car park by the side. The vari-coloured lights lend a gayer aspect to the building within which brighter lights and a larger number of electric fans enable shoppers to buy their requirements in comfort. On the re-opening night, bargain hunters turn up in full force, women easily outnumbering the men who went there, more for the purpose of seeing the parade of shoppers and satisfying their curiosity about the new building than to make bargains." 

The renovations coincided with a boom in Western influences in Penang. Post-war, Western entertainment was all the rage, and the upper floor of the bazaar was transformed into the Broadway Cafe, a lively venue for dancing, drinking and socialising.

In the 1960s, the bazaar remained a favourite spot. Regulars often stopped for coffee and watched the world go by while soaking in the street’s bustling energy. By the 1980s, the coffee shop had made way for an electrical appliance store, which later became a clothing shop.

Meanwhile, the Broadway Cafe had closed in the early 1970s. At that time, China-style department stores were all the rage. A group of entrepreneurs hoped to convert the space into one such business and they tracked down the building's owner. However, their venture faced stiff competition. The real pioneer of China-style department stores in Penang was the Pulau Pinang Supermarket which was founded in 1967 by Chang Cheng Guan, Chia Siak Leng and Tan Peck Yon. Occupying the first and second floors of Chowrasta Market, it was so successful that it inspired others to enter the market.

The second major store, Oriental Emporium, was established by two brothers from Singapore, Lim Tow Seng and Lim Tow Yong, in the former Windsor Building beside Capitol cinema in 1968. Its grand opening drew overwhelming crowds. Super Department Store was the third crowd-puller, located on Rangoon Road at the Burmah Road junction. These stores thrived on the belief that, although China was not yet highly industrialised, its products were durable and affordable. "Cheap and good" were the catch words. [Digression: among the Penang Hokkien community, a more derogatory description would be pan-gee, ko tua-tay (cheap and yet big piece)! 😁]

Determined not to be left behind, negotiations were fast-tracked and in 1975, the space was secured for the Yuyi Shangdian Department Store. However, at just 2,500 square feet, it struggled to compete with the larger stores. Despite initial optimism, success proved elusive. By the late 1970s, new competition emerged from rivals like Angel Department Store, which drew customers away.

By 1980, Yuyi Shangdian was losing money. Unable to find interested buyers due to its small size and inconvenient upstairs location, an alternative plan was hatched. Collaborating with associates in Kuala Lumpur, the space was repurposed into the Chinese Patent Medicines & Medicated Liquors Centre which officially opened in 1980. This business no longer exists, having closed within the last two years or so. When I took this picture (below) in March 2022, this business' signboard was still on display, but not any more!

Over the decades, much had changed, but the spirit of the bazaar lingered. As a child, I wandered through its narrow aisles with my mother and aunt, sometimes marvelling at the sights and sounds, and sometimes feeling bored. Though the heat could be overwhelming, there was an irresistible charm to it. In the early days, fabric stalls dominated the market, but today, they have largely given way to ready-made clothing. As a teenager in the late 1960s, one of my favourite haunts was the staircase at the side of the building. But it wasn't Broadway Cafe that interested me—it was the bookstore at the entrance. Books and magazines piled on the side of the steps, still allowing the Cafe patrons to climb up and down. I could stand there for hours reading without the Indian proprietor chasing me away!

Ownership of the bazaar has remained in the hands of the Ng family. I read somewhere that it was managed by third-generation custodians Dr Ng Teng Kok and his siblings. There were proposals to redevelop the space, but the idea was ultimately abandoned due to unresolved negotiations. In 2006, the owners celebrated the Bazaar's 100th anniversary with a grand dinner.

Disaster struck in 2000 when a fire ravaged two-thirds of the bazaar, leaving only the front portion untouched. After reconstruction, it reopened, but the challenges did not end there. The bazaar’s future remains uncertain. If redevelopment is pursued, the fate of the present traders must be considered. If left as it is, time will dictate its course. Either way, the marketplace that once thrived under the name Jual Morah—Penang’s bargain hunter’s paradise—will inevitably face the changing tides of history.

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Disclaimer: This story was conceived in 2022, and since then, the fate of the Penang Bazaar may have already been decided. As I haven’t checked on its latest developments, I might be mistaken in some of my comments. But in time, I’ll find out whether my assumptions were right or wrong.

Note: I’ll stick to the old spelling—Jual Morah—even though I distinctly remember my grandmother and mother calling it Molah instead of Morah. It wasn’t so much an inability of the older generation of Chinese to roll their r’s, but rather the way it was conventionally spoken.