Tanjung Rhu – Part 1

SYNOPSIS

SETTING Background of Tanjung Rhu

BY LEELA CHAKRABARTY Tanjung Rhu is a short story written by MINFONG HO.

Ho Minfong was born in Myanmar and studied economics at Cornell University, USA. She saw that many Americans had false notions about life in Asia and so set out to change this by writing based on her own experience. Her writings mainly focus on the lives of people living in poverty in Southeast Asia.

Tanjung Rhu is a simple story, yet has depth. It revolves around Mr T. W. Li, a successful businessman who has just lost his mother. He recalls several important events before her demise. One of them spiralled around a pair of binoculars. His mother had cataracts. So, he had bought his mother a pair of binoculars so that she could see farther. 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 at Tanjung Rhu. However, 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 which was located in front of his office. In her mind, she saw Tanjong Rhu in the past, back when Mr Li was still a young boy accompanying her digging for crabs along the beach. His mother seemed adamant to hold on to the past and had no interest in the present. He became very impatient. He refused to listen to her stories. Now, Mr Li regrets his actions as 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, is no more. The most important location mentioned in this story is Tanjung Rhu in Singapore.

As late as the 1980s and the early 1990s, the Tanjung Rhu area was an industrial area with shipyards. The water surrounding Tanjung Rhu was polluted with industrial and domestic waste, creating an extremely unpleasant environment. A massive relocation exercise was then undertaken by the Singapore Government to transform Tanjung Rhu into a high-end residential area. Reclamation of land along the Tanjung Rhu coast began as early as 1992. Private developers then started the new luxury residential developments in Tanjung Rhu. Today, the shipyards have since been relocated elsewhere and condominiums have replaced them.