TANJONG RHU BY

MINFONG HO
 Objective
Pupils should be able to:
1. Identify at least 3 major characters from the
short story Tanjong Rhu as an individual.
2. Match at least 3 out of 5 plot stages correctly
as an individual.
3. Answer at least 3 out of 5 questions about
Tanjong Rhu correctly as an individual.
 Content
Synopsis
Plot
Character & characteristics
Themes
Moral Values
 Synopsis
Mr T. W. Li, a successful businessman, has just lost his mother. As he mourns her death, he recalls
some important events before her demise,most significantly revolving around a pair of binoculars.
He had bought his mother a pair of binoculars so that she could see farther as she had cataracts.
However, his mother's only concern was to see Tanjong Rhu, a place where they used to live while he was
growing up. His father owned a small shipyard there before it was torn down about thirty years ago.
When Mr Li finally convinced his mother to use the binoculars, he was upset that she still could not see
the ships at the harbour, in front of his office. Instead, in her mind's eye, she saw Tanjong Rhu in the past,
back when Mr Li was still a young boy accompanying his mother digging for crabs along the beach.
He became impatient with his mother who seemed adamant to hold on to the past and had no
interest in the present. He refused to listen to her stories. Back in the present, Mr Li regrets his actions as
now he too longs to go back to his childhood in Tanjong Rhu. He finds that his memories are vague and
there are many things that he does not remember clearly. Unfortunately, there is no one to answer his
questions as the person who shares the memories with him, his mother, has passed on.
 Plot
 Plot is the organized pattern or sequence
of events that make up a story.

 Every plot is made up of a series of

incidents that are related to one another.
 1. EXPOSITION
Occurs at the beginning of the story
Characters are introduced
Learn about the settings
Introduced to the main conflict(problem)
 2.RISING ACTION

Begins to develop the conflicts.

A building of interest or suspense occurs
 3. CLIMAX
Turning point of the story.
Main character comes face to face with a conflict.
Main character will change in some way.
 4.FALLING ACTION
 Ends of the plot.
 The conflicts and climax are taken care.
5. RESOLUTION
 The story comes to a
reasonable ending.
 PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

1. Exposition Beginning of the

Story
2.Rising Action

3.Climax Middle of the Story

4.Falling Action

5. Resolution End of Story

Characters
Mr T. W. Li
• A successful businessman in the
shipping sector
• Has a happy childhood with his family in
Tanjong Rhu
•  Happy family life - wife, son and
daughter
 Tolerant - does not interfere in his
mother's traditional ways
 Meticulous - keeps track of number of
ships every day by counting them
 Patient and respectful - waits for mother
to finish prayers although he had to
leave for office - does    not hurry her
 Filial - made sure funeral of mother is
done in the right way - full of customs
and traditions He bought binoculars for
his mother to allow her to see better
• He made sure that his mother's burial
was done the proper way
• He decides to take care of the altar room
as his mother would want him to
Mr Li's mother (Ah-Ma)
• Small and thin with grey hair and a bent
back
• A mother of nine, grandmother of thirty-
four and great-grandmother of seventeen
 Treasures Family:
- remembers the when she was poor but
happy when she was close to her son.
-Takes care of the family altar
-Makes sure that the ancestral worship
customs are followed properly
 Traditional woman:
-keeps chickens in the garden and practises
the old Chinese customs and rituals.
 Stubborn:
- Refuses to go for an eye-operation to
remove her cataracts

Ying
Daughter of Mr Li and Helen
• Has an older brother at Cambridge University
• Is soon leaving for New York
 Loving and caring: Concern about her
father as his food was getting cold;
worried that her father will be late
She takes care of her ill grandmother in
the hospital; donates blood to
her grandmother.
Helen
• Mr Li’s wife
• Holds tea sessions with her friends
 Amused by childish things
Calls the binoculars a toy and thinks it is
childish to buy one
 Does not help preserve Mr Li’s image
Laughs at him in front of her friends

 Strong-headed: argues with her

grandmother argues with her second aunt
over the burial clothes for her grandmother
argues with her father in the hospital.

 Helpful:Help her grandmother with the

ritual at the family altar
 Themes
• Ah Ma is steeped in traditional values while Mr Li and Ying represent the modern
society. - Ah Ma has high regard for the traditional practices of the Chinese
community while the new generation does not place much importance on
tradition.

• Ah Ma represents the past while Mr Li symbolizes the present.

• Mr Li sees the ships at the harbor at present while Ah Ma ‘sees’ the port of
Tanjung Rhu when they used to live there in the past

• Mr Li feels deep regret for the way he treats Ah Ma after his mother falls ill
and later passes away
• He never pays much attention to his mother’s stories about the past and
realizes a little too late that most of his questions remained unanswered.
 Moral Values

Although we live in a We must learn to Money cannot buy

modern world, we appreciate people everything..
must not forget our while we can.
traditional values.
Exercise 1
Exercise 2
Exercise 3
 Objective
Pupils should be able to:
1. Identify at least 3 major characters from the
short story Tanjong Rhu as an individual.
2. Match at least 3 out of 5 plot stages correctly
as an individual.
3. Answer at least 3 out of 5 questions about
Tanjong Rhu correctly as an individual.