Shin Chang Revives Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown — SkimNews
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- Shin Chang grew up in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown and witnessed businesses and residents leave from the late 1980s to the early 2000s; seeing Petaling Street’s “emptiness” prompted his decision to revive one corner of the neighbourhood.
- Mentahmatter Design, founded with Penny Ng in 2013, opened ChoCha Foodstore in a 1920s Petaling Street shophouse in 2016, retaining its mosaic floors and metal window grilles. Business was initially slow, but six months later queues formed outside.
- MRT Corp reached a compromise after 2011-2013 protests by Chinatown landowners, residents and NGOs, allowing tunnels beneath affected properties while landowners retained ownership; the campaign then shifted attention toward protecting historic buildings.
- REXKL was transformed by Chang and his partners in 2019 from the former Rex Cinema into a 6,000-sq-ft arts and culture hub, retaining unpainted concrete pillars, brick walls, exposed roof trusses and a plant-covered facade, with BookXcess inside the old hall.
- REXKL remained empty for three months before Chang started a karaoke night that brought people dressed like “hipsters” and the neighbouring nasi lemak vendor together; he described the hub as a pilot project for collective care and positive city impact.
- Mentahmatter Design applies its “mentah” philosophy by leaving concrete, brick and metal exposed, allowing plants to grow and preserving marks of age such as cracked glass; Chang argues architecture’s “software” is the community that uses it.
Why it matters: For Chinatown residents, heritage owners and small businesses, the 2011-2013 MRT compromise preserved ownership of threatened buildings while allowing tunnels below. Shin Chang’s reuse of a 6,000-sq-ft cinema as REXKL then gave artists, booksellers and visitors a shared civic space; after three empty months, its events helped turn a dormant landmark into an active cultural hub.
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