The City of Willows at Cultprint Penang
When we say that The City of Willows art installation is not your typical art installation, we mean it’s the art-come-to-life kind of unique. And when we mean art-come-to-life, we mean Alice in Borderland type of come to life.
Unfolding at Cultprint Penang from now till 7th December 2025, the interactive art installation The City of Willows, by artist Chong Yan Chuah and scholar Simon Soon, is a playable experience inspired by the rich histories of 19th-century Chinese secret societies, set in a cosmological realm that feels like a past life but eerily familiar.
What to expect at The City of Willows art installation
Part art, part game, and entirely immersive, The City of Willows exhibition is an interactive art installation held at Cultprint Penang that invites visitors to play their way through a dreamlike sanctuary in the ornate game art that displays a spiritual history in virtual reality.
Sprung from the creative minds of Malaysian artist Chong Yan Chuah and scholar Simon Soon, the shadowy world of the 19th-century Chinese Triads is reimagined as something of a post-apocalyptic haven. It mimics the role and legacy of the real-life Hung Society that once provided refuge and a sense of solidarity for Chinese migrants navigating colonial Malaya.
Image adapted from: Chong Yan Chuah
In the game, the ancient Triad initiation ritual is reborn as a sprawling mythic quest, where players chart their course through a heady blend of reality and the otherworldly in a Southeast Asian dreamscape. One moment you’re wandering a dense jungle, and the next you’ll glimpse durian stalls nestled beside towering ramparts, or just staring in awe at a seven-storey pagoda that seems to be modeled after Penang’s own Kek Lok Si Temple.
Along the way, players will encounter symbolic portals that echo real locations drawn from the Triad initiation rites and old folklore, including the Ang Gate, the Hall of Fidelity and Loyalty, the Market of Universal Peace, and the Red Flower Pavilion. Each stage brings you closer to the fabled The City of Willows that serves as a community of mutual aid and symbolic rebirth.
The game art isn’t the only fascinating thing at the exhibition. Curated through the eyes of machine vision, the Geneacosm Index (2023, 2025) is a haunting archive of 113 uncanny Peranakan portraits of eerie post-human expressions – think a family album reassembled by technology as a glimpse into a future.
Designed to be conveniently installed on any standard PC or exhibition setup, the game artwork comes delivered on a sleek Kingston 64GB thumb drive and a failsafe LaCie hard drive backup, and is played using an 8BitDo wireless controller. You’ll find this displayed at the merchandise shelf, along with framed prints, artwork books, as well as art-printed T-shirts.
Visit The City of Willows art installation in Penang
The City of Willows is art that you don’t just merely look at. It is art that brings you a whole fantastical world that reimagines the past and speculates on the future. Spare some time to drop by the art installation that runs till December at Cultprint Penang, and play your way through myth and a cosmological history.
Admission to The City of Willows art installation is free.
Venue: 35 Lebuh Melayu, 10300 George Town, Penang
Date: Now till 7th December 2025
Time: 12pm-7pm (Fri – Sun)
Contact: Cultprint website | Instagram
Cover image adapted from: Chong Yan Chuah & The SmartLocal Malaysia
Photography by Jia-Ju.