Mr Tang’s Girls – A Study Guide

Author: Shirley Geok-lin Lim
Short story title: Mr Tang’s Girls

Setting: a town not too far from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Point of view: third-person omniscient

Characters:

• Ah Kong (Mr Tang) – a Chinese businessman who has two wives (and two households)
• Mother – Ah Kong’s second wife
• Kim Li – Ah Kong’s daughter, 17 years old, stabs her father
• Kim Bee – Ah Kong’s daughter, second oldest
• Kim Mee – Ah Kong’s daughter, 15 years old
• Kim Yee – Ah Kong’s daughter, 12 years old
• Ah Chee – the family servant, Ah Kong’s former mistress

Ah Kong’s other family:

• Jason – Ah Kong’s eldest son
• Wanda – Ah Kong’s second daughter

Study questions:

– Consider the following quotation: “…he seldom had to think about what to say in this house, and self-consciousness was extreme.” (p.33)
Was Ah Kong happy in his family life? What about the other family he had?

– What’s Ah Kong’s opinion about polygamy?

– Consider the following quotation about Kim Li: “She’s ugly! He thought and turned away…” (p.33)
Why do you think Ah Kong doesn’t like Kim Li?

-Consider the following quotation: “Old, he thought, old and wasted his daughters had made him.” (p.34)
What’s Ah Kong’s feeling about his daughters?

– Why does the pastor consider Ah Kong a ‘pagan’?

– Consider the following quotation: “Once he had watched a bitch in heat lick itself and had kicked it in disgust. He watched her [Kim Li] now and was nauseous at the prospect of his future: all his good little girls turning to bitches and licking themselves.” (p.36)
Why is Ah Kong comparing his daughters to an animal?

– Consider the following quotation: “’Kim Li, you’re having a traditional wedding. The man cannot go out with the woman until after they’re married,’ the mother said in a mild tone. ‘You mustn’t spoil the match by acting in a Western manner.’” (p.38)
Do you agree or disagree? Why? Does this happen nowadays too?

– Is Ah Kong a misogynic man? If yes, give examples from the text.
After being informed about her future marriage, Kim Li considers herself to be a woman. Do you think she really becames a woman?

– Do you know what an ‘incest’ is? Have you ever heard of the ‘Electra Complex’?

– Why do you think Kim Li wanted to seduce her father?

– Why did Kim Li kill her father?

– Consider the last lines of the short story: “Then he felt the knife between his ribs. Just before he fell into the black water, he saw the gleaming fish-eyes of the fishwoman rise from the klong [canal] to greet him.”
What do you understand? Is this the Asian version of Caron the Boatman – the man who takes the dead on the other side of the river to the land of the dead?

– Did you like the story? Why?

Photo: source