Portrait of Home explained

Native Name:同心圆
Genre:Modern Drama
Runtime:approx. 45 minutes
Creator:Ng Kah Huay (黄佳华)
Director:Loo Yin Kam (卢燕金)
Tay Peck Choo (郑碧珠)
Loh Woon Woon (罗温温)
Producer:Li Ningqiang (李宁强)
Starring:Louise Lee
Xiang Yun
Adrian Pang
Pierre Png
Felicia Chin
Opentheme:Portrait Of Home 同心圆 by 乐声, 吴辛荣, 王敏惠, 蔡美仪
Endtheme:1) Topic 话题 by 乐生 & 王敏惠
2) Man's Heart 男人心 by 吴幸荣
Country:Singapore
Language:Chinese
Network:MediaCorp Channel 8
Num Episodes:Part 1: 60
Part 2: 40
Related:Holland V
Double Happiness
Double Happiness II
Love Blossoms
Love Blossoms II
118
118 II
118 Reunion

Portrait of Home is a Chinese language drama serial which was filmed for and broadcast on Singapore's Mediacorp TV Channel 8 in 2005. It stars Louise Lee, Xiang Yun, Adrian Pang, Pierre Png and Felicia Chin as the casts of the series. It is shown on weekdays at 7pm.

The show has 100 episodes telecast in two segments, the first part with 60 episodes and the second part with 40 episodes.

Plot

The fishball factory Tong Xin Yuan is a successful local business, with thriving sales in both Singapore and neighbouring foreign countries. But behind the company lies a dark mystery.

The beautiful factory blue-collar worker who eventually became the Lady Boss of Tong Xin Yuan named Li Tian (Louise Lee), married the founder of Tong Xin Yuan named Zhou Dong (Chen Shucheng) many years ago. They had three sons – Zhou Dadi (Adrian Pang), Zhou Dashan (Yao Wenlong) and Zhou Daqiu (Cavin Soh). Zhou Dong then disappeared after a kidnap attempt went awry; and not even his body was found.

Without the master Zhou Dong around, another faithful factory blue-collar worker who eventually became the Boss, white-collar worker and CEO of Tong Xin Yuan named Lin Shitou (Richard Low) took up the task of overlooking the fishball factory. 3 years later, Shitou married Li Tian and had another 3 sons – Lin Dahai (Terence Cao), Lin Dayang (Pierre Png) and Lin Dajiang (Zhang Yaodong). From then on, rumours abound that Shitou killed Zhou Dong and usurped both his factory and Li Tian.

Tong Xin Yuan grew tremendously under Li Tian and Lin Shitou’s management, and all 6 sons receive the same treatment. Li Tian, in an effort to let her children remain close by her side for as long as possible, as well as to encourage them to love and support each other, built a block of apartments with 7 units inside. She lives in one of the units with her husband Lin Shitou, with the remaining 6 units planned for her 6 sons. They may move into their unit only after marriage, and if they should choose not to move in, they will automatically forfeit all rights to the unit. Li Tian has even set a family regulation that no matter how busy each family member is, everyone has to turn up at her unit for a meal at least once a week.

6 half-brothers, each with their own peculiarities, often rub each other the wrong way. All of them work at the fishball factory with the exception of Dahai and Dajiang, where the former has been extremely busy doing scriptwriting and the latter is still studying in university.

Amongst the 6 sons, Dadi has the strangest temperament and is still single. He is nicknamed the Mad Man, and is secretly in love with the fishball factory blue-collar worker and later, supervisor, Manager and CEO of Tong Xin Yuan named Zhang Xiu Hua (Xiang Yun) who is a few years older than he is. Xiu Hua is also the housekeeper of Zhou Jia Yuan who looks after Li Tian, Lin Shitou and all the 6 half-brothers whilst at home. Unaware of his feelings, Li Tian and Xiu Hua select a Vietnamese bride Ruan Mianmian (Jesseca Liu) for Dadi, putting Dadi in an awkward position.

Dashan had a sad past in his youth, falling into despair after witnessing the death of his beloved girlfriend. He fell into bad company and started taking drugs. Upon release from the drug rehabilitation centre, he meets cunning Su Haitang (Le Yao), whom is from Shanghai, China and also bears a great resemblance to his deceased girlfriend named Cat (also portrayed by Le Yao). He would have fallen into Haitang’s trap if not for the appearance of the kind-hearted Yang Qin (Ta Na), whom is also Dashan's new girlfriend later on in Season 2 and also from Shanghai, China as well. He have the tendency to let his heart rule over his head which hindered him further to achieve greater things in life.

The scheming Daqiu married a shrewd Fu Baozhu (Cynthia Koh). He constantly plots to take over Tong Xin Yuan but all his attempts fail. In contrast, his honest and straightforward brother Dayang marries Baozhu’s sincere younger sister Fu Baobei (Felicia Chin). The two work hard to earn an honest living despite frequent efforts by Daqiu and his wife to put them down. Heaven seems to be watching out for Dayang and Baobei as they succeed in their lives.

Dahai who spends most of his time working as a scriptwriter, marries a young lady from a wealthy family, Gao Jimei (Apple Hong). He goes against his mother's wishes by doing so and even moves into Jimei's household. Through his wife Jimei, he gets to know Fyn Tan (Yvonne Lim) who has turned up for revenge, thereby putting both Jimei and his life in unnecessary danger.

Dajiang is still in university. He changes girlfriends constantly just like changing his clothes every now and then as he prefers something fresh and new. He always like to try out new things and yearn for changes but he harbours no great ambition.

Daqiu schemes to be the Boss, white-collar worker and CEO of Tong Xin Yuan and the Head of the household of Zhou Jia Yuan all by himself, and chase Shitou, Xiu Hua and his 5 brothers out of the 2 places, followed by cheating his own mother Li Tian's assets and also take all of his 5 other brother's stakes from both Tong Xin Yuan and Zhou Jia Yuan as well. The family is turned topsy-turvy furthermore when the supposedly deceased Zhou Dong suddenly turns up who turns out to be Zhang Guangyang all these time who's also as scheming towards the family and they found out that the real Zhou Dong has been truly deceased all these while either!

Cast

Season 1

ActorCharacter(s)DescriptionRef
Fu Baozhu 傅宝珠 Semi-Villain
Zhou Daqiu's Wife
Fu Baobei's adoptive sister
Fu Baobei 傅宝贝 Mermaid 美人鱼
Fu Baozhu's adoptive sister
Lin Dayang's Love Interest and Later Wife
Ruan Mianmian 阮棉棉 Zhou Dadi's Wife[2]
Apple HongGao Jimei 高级美 Sister Maria
Lin Dahai's Wife
Yvonne LimChen Fenling (Fyn) 陈芬玲 Supporting Villain
Lin Dahai's Love Interest
Alan TernChen Shaodong 陈少东 Supporting Villain
Fu Baobei's Love Interest
Lin Dayang's Enemy and Rival In Love
Zhang XinxiangLi Fa 李发 Manager of Tong Xin Yuan
Li Tian's younger brother
Zhou Dadi, Zhou Dashan, Zhou Daqiu, Lin Dahai, Lin Dayang and Lin Dajiang's Uncle
Li Xinmin's Father
Zhang Xiu Hua's Love Interest
Liu LinglingFu Baozhu's Mother
Fu Baobei's adoptive Mother
Gambler
Le Yao
乐瑶
Su Haitang
苏海棠
Zhou Dashan's Girlfriend from Shanghai, China
Joavan Brandan Bosco Pereira Kumar Lin Dayang's Friend who could speak Mandarin, English and Tamil

Season 2

ActorCharacter(s)Description
Li Xinmin 李心敏 Li Fa's daughter
Li Tian's niece
Zhou Dadi, Zhou Dashan, Zhou Daqiu, Lin Dahai, Lin Dayang and Lin Dajiang's cousin
Zhou Daqiu's Former Secretary and Assistant at Tong Xin Yuan and Number 1 Target Enemy after she betrayed him and actually did the correct thing by taking back Tong Xin Yuan from Zhou Daqiu after the latter cheated and took all of her aunt Li Tian's assets and also all of her 5 other cousin's stakes in both Tong Xin Yuan and Zhou Jia Yuan before she moves on with her new life overseas and starting all over again, because she was studying in university in Australia in Season 1 and was raped by the Australian rapist and her ex-boyfriend Dave did not manage to save her and then ran away and betrayed her instead, which explains why she treated Zhou Daqiu like both the Australian rapist and ex-boyfriend Dave
Betrayed Zhou Daqiu eventually because of stopping him from his evil plans along with Bryan and the Zhou and Lin family
Parry Ruan Mianmian's friend and Love Interest
Likes Ruan Mianmian
Jiang Ling Supporting Villain
Zhang Guangyang's Wife
Killed by her own husband Zhang Guangyang
Li Tian, Zhang Xiuhua, Li Fa, Zhou Dadi, Zhou Dashan, Lin Dayang, Fu Baobei, Zhou Daqiu and Fu Baozhu's Enemy
Bryan Snoopy and Li Xinmin's Lawyer who assisted mainly the latter in getting Tong Xin Yuan back from Zhou Daqiu after the latter cheated and took all of Li Tian's assets and also all of his 5 other brother's stakes in both Tong Xin Yuan and Zhou Jia Yuan
Zhou Daqiu's Former Good Friend and Business Partner who betrayed him eventually because of stopping Zhou Daqiu from his evil plans along with Xinmin and the Zhou and Lin family
Snoopy's former Lawyer whom possibly got betrayed because he also had enough of Snoopy and is also aware of his evil doings and crimes as a Crime Boss, Loan Shark and Drug Lord instead of a Legitimate Businessman
Ta Na
塔娜
Yang Qin
杨芹
Fu Baobei's Good Friend and Zhou Dashan's New Girlfriend from Shanghai, China after Su Haitang passes away after being tortured and killed by Snoopy
Snoopy's former girlfriend and enemies currently
Ace Wang Yanbin
王艳宾
Snoopy
史诺比
Supporting Villain
Legitimate Businessman, Crime Boss, Loan Shark and Drug Lord from Shanghai, China
Zhou Dashan, Su Haitang and Yang Qin's Enemy
Bryan's Former Lawyer and Good Friend who possibly became enemies in the end because of betraying him and thinking that he is no longer useful to him
Zhou Daqiu's Former Good Friend and Business Partner who betrayed him and then scammed and cheated all of his money away for his own lavish personal expenditures
Romeo Tan[3] Joe Fu Baobei's friend

Music

Song title PerformerType of Song
Portrait Of Home 同心圆 乐声, 吴幸荣, 王敏惠, 察美仪 Theme Song
Topic 话题乐生 & 王敏惠 Sub Theme Song
Man's Heart 男人心 吴幸荣Sub Theme Song

Awards and nominations

YearCeremonyAward Nominees ResultRef
2005Star AwardsJoavan Brandan Bosco Pereira
Best ActorAdrian Pang
Best ActressCynthia Koh
Best Supporting ActorCavin Soh
Best Supporting ActressJesseca Liu
Best Drama Serial
2006Best ActorAdrian Pang
Asian Television AwardsBest Drama Performance by an ActorAdrian Pang[4]
2007Star Awards 2007Top 10 Most Memorable Villains 十大恶人
Top 10 Most Memorable Villains 十大恶人

Star Awards 2007

Notes and References

  1. Web site: ADRIAN PANG ASIAN ENGLISH . 16 December 2021 . voiceovers.asia . en-US.
  2. Web site: Why Jesseca Liu Is Willing To Risk Her Life To Become A Mum. 16 December 2021. The Singapore Women's Weekly. en-US.
  3. Web site: 2022-08-30 . 'My original personality got blurred': Romeo Tan affected by drama roles after years of acting, wants to see the world . 2022-12-22 . AsiaOne . en.
  4. Web site: 2006 Winners - Asian Television Awards .