Re-membering Childhood Memories

In this pre-reading activity, teachers can introduce the theme of memories–and particularly the ways in which we experience memories in fragments, or how they are triggered by objects. Teachers can use childhood memories as an example.

Teachers can start by asking the class the question in whole-class discussion: 

1. What is one memory that you can vividly remember from your childhood that makes you feel nostalgic and sentimental?
2. How do you remember these nostalgic parts of your childhood?
3. Using your own childhood memories as an example, how complete do you find your memories? Are there missing parts and gaps which you cannot recall?

Sharing extended definition of “remember”
Teachers can share with students that while one literal definition of ‘remember’ is to ‘bring back to mind, or conscious awareness’, another one exists. If to ‘dismember’ is to take apart something, then to ‘re-member’ is to put them back together. 

Teachers can share the following explanatory notes from the creators of the microsite before sending students off to read the short story for the main class:

Notes from Tanjong Rhu microsite creators

For this microsite, we've organised the story into seven sections that involve two different approaches: 

1. For present-day events
   These are shown in sections where the user mostly scrolls to read.
2. For flashbacks in the story
   These are shown in ‘reverse reading’ sections where the user has to first tap on images to view the text. 

1. It mimics the process of reflection and remembering that the protagonist experiences, since memories often come to us in fragments, sometimes triggered by objects;
2. It alludes to the idea of seeing in the story, e.g. as the user mirrors Mr Li’s view and habit of counting ships at times.

1. Students should only click on an item after they have finished reading the section, or else the story may proceed and they will need to restart the experience all over again.
2. Alternatively, you may also borrow the book at National Library Board (NLB) here or purchase it online here.

In this story, the writer takes on a third-person limited narrative perspective that follows Mr Li as he recalls his interactions with his mother prior to her passing. This allows us access to his inner thoughts and feelings, and at the same time, also observe the thoughts and feelings of other characters as observed from what Mr. Li himself sees. 

From Chapter 1:

Even though Mr Li was apparently “not upset by his mother’s funeral”, he was still “disconcerted” and feeling uneasy while standing and looking out from his office window over Shenton Way. 

After Mr Li reached for the binoculars and counted the ships out at the harbour, he arrived at a few specific numbers and began to feel differently. The narrator then says:

“Seventy-eight – that was the number for today. He repeated it to himself with satisfaction. Numbers were strong, numbers he could hold on to. Seventy-eight ships, 18th floor, 63 years old.

Like the co-ordinates of some private graph, these numbers anchored him in space and time.”

Question 1: Re-read Chapter 1. Based on the narrator’s description above, what feelings do you think Mr Li experiences from the act of counting? Why do you think he feels this way? 

From Chapter 3:

Just before leaving the house to go to Mr Li’s office for the binocular viewing, his mother takes her time to pray to his late father about the visit. While Mr Li himself grew impatient, his daughter Ying tried to hurry his mother up but to no avail.

Question 2: Re-read Chapter 3. What thoughts and feelings do you think Ying and Mr Li’s mother experience over the act of praying at the altar? Why do you think they each feel that way? Give at least two points per character with supporting evidence.

From Chapter 5:

Back in the present, Mr Li returned to use the binoculars and looked out towards Tanjong Rhu from his office once more. Mr Li wondered about what his mother could see that morning. He begins to question different fragments of his childhood memories of growing up in Tanjong Rhu that his mother could see that he struggles to recall himself.

Question 3: Re-read Chapter 5. What thoughts and feelings do you think Mr Li was experiencing as he tried to recall the memories of Tanjong Rhu? Why do you think he feels that way? Give at least two points with supporting evidence.

From Chapter 6:

At the hospital, Ying explains to Mr Li about her argument with her aunt over her grandmother’s burial clothes. Ying encourages Mr Li to speak to his mother, carefully pulling up her grandmother's eyelids in order for Mr Li to have a conversation with her, as he tries to ask her about their memories of Tanjong Rhu. When she did not reply, he snapped at Ying, asking her to close them. Shortly after this tense exchange between Mr Li and Ying, Mr Li’s mother began to stir. She began to speak about the keys to the altar, but Ying and Mr Li would ask her not to worry. After this moment, the writer implies that she passes on.

Question 4: Re-read Chapter 6. What thoughts and feelings do you think Ying and Mr Li have towards Mr Li’s mother in her last moments? Why do you think they each feel that way? Give at least two points per character with supporting evidence.