Signs of the Times

DOMINIQUE TEOH | 7 October 2025

PETALING Street's shop signs reveal more than they say. From calligraphic inscriptions to modernist typefaces, each detail tells you something of the people, time and place they came from.

No one understands this better than Huruf, a type and design collective that is enriching Malaysia's typography discourse through research, workshops and publications.

For the folks at Huruf, signs don’t just convey information. They are an entry point to Malaysia’s multilayered heritage; a point of convergence where design, culture and history come together.

This was the focus of City Walk With Huruf, a walking tour of the Petaling Street area that took place on Sept 27.

“I think the walk is important so that we are more attuned to the everyday aesthetic that is around us,” shares Tan Zi Hao, a Huruf member and Senior Lecturer at Universiti Malaya's Visual Arts Programme.

“By exploring the history of signage, we begin to pay attention to how writing systems and typography play a role in shaping our linguistic landscape,” he adds.

City Walk With Huruf was the first in a series of events organised by material and ideation lab matlab under the banner “matfest”. Running from September through to December, matfest invites the public to engage with materials through immersive workshops and collaborations.

Facilitators Tan Sueh Li and Tan Zi Hao during City Walk With Huruf.

Intercommunal Rivalries and the 'Chinese' Identity

“‘Chinatown’ was once a controversial term,” Zi Hao says, addressing the group gathered outside the Chan She Shu Yuen Ancestral Hall on an overcast Saturday morning.

“Chinese” was never a monolithic identity, but a category imposed by British colonial authorities for administrative purposes. Intra-Chinese rivalry and competition was, in fact, a regular feature of colonial Malaya.

These communal identities are reflected in Kuala Lumpur’s shop signs. As Chinese names had to be romanised and translated into English and Malay, their spelling demonstrated the pronunciation of specific dialects, whether Cantonese, Hokkien or Hakka. Kean Guan Tea Merchants, for example, transliterates the Chinese 建源 according to its Hokkien pronunciation, “Kean Guan.”

You can find both the Chinese and English names hanging above the entrance to this famous tea house — the Chinese rendered in beautiful calligraphy; the English sitting below it.

Tan Sueh Li, who founded Huruf in 2017, notes that these wooden signs were common among early migrants. Initially, they would carve their place of origin on these plaques, but the practice eventually developed to display shop names too.

The wooden plaque hanging above the entrance to Kean Guan Tea Merchants was made by Huang Shi Qing (黄实卿) a well-known craftsman skilled in calligraphy, carving and signmaking.

Global Connections

This artistic exchange was not confined to China and Malaya. Pay attention to the typography and materials used in these signs and you’ll find that craftsmen in Kuala Lumpur were not only aware of global art movements, but actively adapted them to local design sensibilities and functions.

The Pak Tai Photo Studio provides a beautiful example, with the Chinese characters on its signboard rendered in the meishuzi (美术字) or “art character” style. Unlike traditional scripts, which are drawn or written, this typeface is constructed by combining geometric shapes, drawing influence from the European Bauhaus movement.

This modernist zeitgeist originated in Europe, but made its way to Japan, Shanghai and eventually Malaya, where it was popularised in the 1960s and 70s.

The sign at Pak Tai Photo Studio is new, but retains its original design, with its Chinese name rendered in the modernist meishuzi
(美术字) style.

Similarly, you can find the use of Shanghai plaster throughout the city. With roots in the European Art Deco movement, this material took a vibrant turn upon reaching Asia, where local craftsmen would use stone aggregates dyed in different colours. This resulted in a speckled plaster more colourful than its European predecessor.

Shanghai plaster did not actually originate in Shanghai. 'Shanghai' simply became a catch-all term to reference the combination of east and west.

Multilingualism

Malaysians are no stranger to multilingualism; and when it comes to signage, this linguistic diversity is on full display.

“You may see more Malay language on signage in KL than in cities like Penang, where the English-Chinese only combo is still prevalent," notes type designer Fam Kai-Cong of Huruf.

If this multilingual landscape facilitated inclusion, then it also created opportunities for selective translation, where information could be highlighted or obscured for various purposes.

Colonial era pawn shops, for example, created a special script to obscure the value of items, allowing them to manipulate the price of goods. Eventually, protests against such practices erupted in parts of the peninsula, and the British responded with a mandate that pawn tickets be multilingual.

Multilingual signage is a common feature of Kuala Lumpur, especially among businesses that serve a multi-ethnic clientele.

Tensions and Ties

If you walk around Petaling Street, it’s not uncommon to find Malay text sandwiched awkwardly between its Chinese and English counterparts. Some were added as new appendages to old signs. Others were handpainted alongside permanent plaster reliefs.

These additions were often a response to a 1982 advertising by-law, which mandates the inclusion of the Malay language on all signage. The question of language has long placed signage at the centre of ethnic tensions. Yet, this tension was often the result of superstition lost in translation.

Many shopkeepers were reluctant to remove their old signs, as doing so was believed to bring about bad luck. The Malay script was thus added on to existing signs as shopkeepers attempted to reconcile law with superstition. Some even incorporated Jawi as a sign of loyalty to the state and their willingness to assimilate.

Kien Fatt Medical Store displays Jawi signage on its facade.

“It is important to know that there are histories behind this visual plane,” shares Zi Hao. “Understanding what came before us allows us to be more sensitive to the history that is unfolding before us. This area of KL has always been part of a history of change. In the past it was due to tin mining, commerce and trade among Chinese migrants. Today it's a site of tourism and migration.”

Though unintentional, policies like the 1982 by-law also influenced the typography of Petaling Street's signage.

Type and graphic designer Louie Lee explains, “What we notice is that the Latin scripts in this area are usually condensed. The Malay language has the longest line, while the Chinese is the shortest, so the English and Malay languages in the Latin script needed to be condensed in order to sit together nicely with the Chinese."

Malay signage hand-painted beside a Chinese plaster relief. Many of these reliefs remain attached to shophouse facades, long after the businesses have shuttered.

The Medium is the Message

Some signs tell us where we're going, but every sign tells us where we've been. Read between the lines and you'll glean impressions of history, linguistics, climate and culture.

It’s a Rosetta Stone of sorts; and in much the same way, knowing how to decipher it will tell you a lot about the society in which it comes from. So the next time you find yourself around Petaling Street, take a moment to stop and observe the signs.

City Walk With Huruf was part of matfest, a series of events that invites the public to engage with materials through immersive workshops and collaborations. matfest runs from September to December 2025 and is organised by matlab, an experimental material lab and offshoot of architecture studio POW Ideas. You can follow matlab on Instagram to keep up to date on upcoming matfest events.

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