"Silver Spoon, Sterling Shackles" is really an appropriate name for this show. The "silver spoon" refers to the wealthy Chung family in 1920s Hong Kong. Patriarch Arthur Chung (Damian Lau) was the first ethnic Chinese barrister in Hong Kong, educated in England. He runs his own chambers as well as several family businesses, and lives in a mansion around the Peak.
The "sterling shackles" refer to the wives of Arthur. Despite socialising with English officials and leading an English lifestyle, he is still a traditional chauvinistic man who had no qualms fooling around and having many wives, and expected all his wives to do his bidding, no questions asked. Whenever any of them dared to talk back to him, he would punish her by not spending the night with her, grounding her and even putting her under house arrest.
Arthur's first wife Sum Lan (Mary Hon) was an arranged marriage. She is the mother of his eldest son Charles (Kenneth Ma), who is also educated in England and a barrister like his father and shares chambers with him. However, unlike his father, Charles holds more modern views and Westernised outlook towards marriage, slavery and the status of women. Sum Lan and Arthur also have a younger daughter Ho Yee (Sire Ma).
Arthur's second son Jimmy (Vincent Wong) was the result of an affair with a Chinese lady in England. Jimmy never knew who his father was and got into lots of trouble in Chinatown of London, until his mother died when he was twelve and Arthur brought him home to stay. Jimmy is in charge of running his father's businesses.
"Silver Spoon, Sterling Shackles" is really an appropriate name for this show. The "silver spoon" refers to the wealthy Chung family in 1920s Hong Kong. Patriarch Arthur Chung (Damian Lau) was the first ethnic Chinese barrister in Hong Kong, educated in England. He runs his own chambers as well as several family businesses, and lives in a mansion around the Peak.
The "sterling shackles" refer to the wives of Arthur. Despite socialising with English officials and leading an English lifestyle, he is still a traditional chauvinistic man who had no qualms fooling around and having many wives, and expected all his wives to do his bidding, no questions asked. Whenever any of them dared to talk back to him, he would punish her by not spending the night with her, grounding her and even putting her under house arrest.
Arthur's first wife Sum Lan (Mary Hon) was an arranged marriage. She is the mother of his eldest son Charles (Kenneth Ma), who is also educated in England and a barrister like his father and shares chambers with him. However, unlike his father, Charles holds more modern views and Westernised outlook towards marriage, slavery and the status of women. Sum Lan and Arthur also have a younger daughter Ho Yee (Sire Ma).
Arthur's second son Jimmy (Vincent Wong) was the result of an affair with a Chinese lady in England. Jimmy never knew who his father was and got into lots of trouble in Chinatown of London, until his mother died when he was twelve and Arthur brought him home to stay. Jimmy is in charge of running his father's businesses.
