Where The Heart Is
Hong Quan and Aunt Ping have three sons and two daughters. Hong Quan who suffers from heart disease, runs Ah Hong’s Bakery. Aunt Ping, who helps out at the bakery, often pushes her husband to exercise and keep himself healthy so that he will not fall sick and become a burden to the family. Aunt Ping is a great wife who also cooks very well. She loves to whip up sumptuous meals for her children and grandchildren to come home to. Armed with a good sense of propriety, Aunt Ping is the pillar of the household and a strict mother as well.
The eldest son of the Hong family is Jiawen. He is 35 years old, and is cowardly in nature. As a building contractor, he is often making losses because he is too kind to people. To his employees and ‘maid’ Xiumei, he is a wonderful boss who is understanding and kindhearted. However, his wife Ah Ling thinks he is a useless fool who does not know how to earn more money and gain the most from every situation. Ah Ling is a nasty woman who keeps coercing her husband to buy a new condominium. In order to pay off the installments, Jiawen takes on more contract jobs to earn more money. He develops stomach ulcers from working too hard. He is discovered by authorities for employing illegal foreign workers and falls down several floors while trying to get away. Fortunately, luck is on his side and he survives the fall. He awakes from his coma after awhile. Ah Ling decides that Ah Hong’s Bakery is a bottomless gold mine. Thus, she makes her relative Xiumei, who has left their home village, work for her as a maid while paying her very minimum wages. Xiumei looks after Ah Ling’s children, Xiao Jian and Xiao Fang. Ah Ling pretends to not mind the meager salary at the bakery and helps out over there. In fact, she is secretly stealing money from the earnings every day.
The second son of the Hong family is Jiakang. He is 29 years old and ranked third eldest amongst his siblings. He married a beautiful ‘career-woman’ (a hotel PR manager) Yuhan. Yuhan refuses to get pregnant, which frustrates Jiakang who wants to have children. He has no choice but to put up with this. Yuhan makes every decision on her own without consulting Jiakang, even when it comes to something as major as buying an old landed property as an investment. Even though Jiakang is happy for her to make all the decisions, he is sometimes resentful of her being in control. After Yuhan gets pregnant by accident, she has a miscarriage because of work. Jiakang is furious and wages a cold war with his wife because of this. When he goes overseas for work, he meets a ‘business assistant’ Yao Shanshan, who likes him. Jiakang is unable to hold out and ends up having an affair with her. Shanshan is a gentle and traditional woman, and this is a completely different experience for Jiakang. Even though he feels guilt towards Yuhan, the indecisive Jiakang cannot bring himself to leave the kindhearted Shanshan. When Yuhan finds out that her husband has had an affair, she makes the choice to file for divorce. Her ‘westernised’ boss Alan who is from overseas, has always been pursuing Yuhan. When he finds out that she is pregnant with Jiakang’s child, he even expresses his desire to be the child’s father. Even though everyone in the Hong family objects to Jiakang choosing to be with Shanshan, they slowly begin to accept her after she saves Hong Quan’s life when he suffers from a heart attack. When they find out that Yuhan has given birth to Jiakang’s child, they change their minds again and hope that Jiakang can reconcile with Yuhan. Shanshan finds out that Jiakang is still unable to get over Yuhan, and decides to leave him despite her pain. Jiakang begs Yuhan for forgiveness. However, Yuhan has been under the care of Alan throughout her pregnancy till the time of birth of her child. She is caught between two men who love her very much…
Jiajun, 26 years old, is ranked fourth amongst the siblings. He has secretly been in love with Yuhan for a long time. He has gotten to know Yuhan first, during an accident while cycling. When he was warded in hospital, his elder brother got the chance to pursue Yuhan instead. When Jiajun gets discharged from hospital, Yuhan has already become his sister-in-law. Jiajun can only get close to her under the pretence of showing concern for her as a family member. He even gets into physical brawls with Jiakang whenever Yuhan is upset by her husband. When Jiakang and Yuhan get divorced, Jiajun expresses his feelings right away, but is rejected. He realises that Yuhan has always thought of him as her younger brother. After graduating from university, Jiajun begins work as an investment banker. In their office, a young lady named Jinhua joins forces with him. Jinhua is someone who has no scruples and would do anything to get to the top. Jiajun and Jinhua help each other out amidst the competition in the office, fighting against the various adversities in the company. Being heartbroken over Yuhan, Jiajun finds solace in physical pleasure with Jinhua. Jinhua comes from a poor family and has an elder brother Ah Pao who is a loan shark. Both of them are unfilial children who would refuse to acknowledge their parents for the sake of wealth and riches. When Jinhua discovers that the chairman of Jiang Holdings has an illegitimate son, Weiye, whose identity is still under wraps, she begins to plot her rise to riches. Jinhua is a girl who knows a golden opportunity when she sees one. She pretends to be an innocent and kindhearted girl to get to know Weiye, who is still working as an office attendant. However, Weiye is someone who cannot forgive people who have lied to him. Therefore, Jinhua has to get rid of anyone who can expose her ways. Jiajun becomes a thorn in her eye because of this. When she finds out that Jiajun has borrowed money from her brother after owing large amounts from embezzlement to manipulate the stock market, she hatches an evil plan. With total disregard for their relationships, she knocks her own brother over with a car and makes Jiajun the scapegoat. All the evidence points towards Jiajun, who is in dire financial problems. After Jiajun is put behind bars, Jinhua finally gets her wish granted and becomes the wife of the chairman of Jiang Holdings…
Elder sister, Shuxian, is ranked second. She has turned 30 years old and is still not married. She runs her own bridal shop, and has once been dumped on the eve of her wedding by her old lover. She meets a young designer, Siyu, and is attracted by his artistic air. Siyu also takes the initiative to keep up their ‘older woman-younger man’ romance. Shuxian believes that Siyu is talented, and constantly gives him money to help him set up his career. However, she finally realises that Siyu is just a good-for-nothing who does not want to do anything realistic with his life. It is too late for Shuxian to retract her feelings, and she marries him after all. When she has spent all her savings on him, Siyu steals the money she has made from selling her bridal shop. She has been saving this sum for a rainy day, and he spends it all recklessly. Shuxian tries to get away from Siyu and end their marriage, but Siyu accuses her of not being supportive of his dreams. He threatens to throw himself off the building. Shuxian finally gets a good look at what he is like, and opens the window in dejection…
The youngest daughter Shuhui is a 23 year-old, open-minded new-age young lady. She would run away from home after quarreling with her family members. She is even pregnant with her boss, Peter’s child. When she finds out that Peter is unwilling to leave his wife and children because it’s not the right thing to do, she resigns and gets an abortion. Her straightforward nature has her constantly quarreling with her nasty sister-in-law Ah Ling because she just cannot tolerate the way Ah Ling treats the maid Xiumei. Aunt Ping loves her youngest daughter and knows she just cannot live a simple life. All she can do is try to be the peacemaker. Shuhui is like a little bird that has just learnt to fly. She wishes to fly as high and as far away as she can, so she chooses to go overseas to work. When she returns at last, she brings with her an Indian husband Simon. Hong Quan and Aunt Ping are initially disapproving of how Shuhui has gotten married without even informing them. However, Simon wakes up early every morning to help Hong Quan bake bread and cakes at the bakery. Hong Quan realises that his Indian son-in-law is an honest man who is keen to learn. He begins to come to terms with this inter-racial marriage. Hong Quan teaches Simon the family recipes for baking cakes for the bakery. At this point, Jiajun is released from prison and needs a job. The whole family works together in unity to run a refurbished, modern bakery…
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 am
nice blog, thanks
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