Honour and Passion was a Singaporean Chinese television drama series that aired on Mediacorp's Channel 8, and was sponsored by the Singapore Ministry of Defence. This series consisted of 20 episodes, and ran from 24 July 2007 to 20 August 2007.

Meaning of title

The series's Chinese title ("宝家卫国" meaning "[The] Poh family defends the country") is a play on the idiom "保家卫国", which translates to "protect one's family, defend one's country". It is an apt description of the entire series, for every single male within the series's main family (the Po family) has served or is serving in the Singaporean military. The only member in the family who has not served in the military in Poh Wenwei, who, as a female, is exempt from mandatory National Service duties. The last characters of the four Poh children (精忠卫国 jing zhong wei guo), when combined, denote loyalty to one's country.

Cast

The Po Family

The family's surname appears as Bao (the standard Pinyin translation) on all English subtitles, but is referred to by other characters in spoken English dialogues throughout the series as "Po".

Other characters

Synopsis

The series revolves around a Singaporean family of five, the Pos, who are deeply involved with the nation's Armed Forces.

Pengju

The family patriarch, Pengju, is a Regimental sergeant major with the Armed Forces. Having lost his wife a long time ago, Pengju raised his four kids as a single parent, and runs his family under strict rules. Pengju is the love interest of Liu Yamei, a chief clerk for the army. Yamei has been close friends with Pengju for years, and also takes care of the family. She has also rejected many matches made by matchmakers, out of a desire to wait for Pengju to reciprocate her love. Pengju, however, is hesitant when it came to Yamei, because of his late wife.

Wenzhong

Wenzhong is an NSman who works in IT. He is considered to be the peacemaker within the family. He is the love interest of Amy, who fell for Wenzhong after witnessing his care and understanding towards her and her son. The love, however, is unrequited. Due to a misunderstanding, Wenzhong got to know Liang Xiaonuo, a handicapped woman from Malaysia. She was hesitant in reciprocating Wenzhong's love, because she is still troubled over her being the cause of her boyfriend's death, only accepting Wenzhong after he risked his life to save her. Pengju, however, had trouble accepting her son dating a handicapped person, which led to a falling out. With help from Yamei, however, Pengju eventually accepts Xiaonuo. Wenzhong and Xiaonuo's tie-up, however, led to Peipei's depression, but also led to Peipei's tie-up with Wenjing.

Wenjing

Of the four sons, Wenjing is Pengju's pride and joy, and is much valued by the Armed Forces, due to his skills as a commando. However, his mind turns blank when he encounters women he likes. Thus, he puts on a cool front to hide his embarrassment. That is also something that became a turnoff for Ouyang Peipei, a female captain and instruction at the School of Artillery. Despite the rough start, Wenjing and Peipei would end up being together, after she was rejected by Wenzhong.

Wenguo

Wenguo is a recent polytechnic graduate will later enter National Service. Wenguo is prepared for induction by his father, despite Wenguo's frustration. Adding to Wenguo's frustration is the fact that Pengju frequently compares Wenguo to his two older brothers. After induction, however, Wenguo realised his father's training was beneficial.

Wenwei

Wenwei, the only female in the family, works in advertising, which is also where she met Picasso and Wu Chengyi. Picasso, despite getting off to a bad start with Wenwei, eventually developed a rapport, as well as a relation, with Wenwei. Chengyi got off to a good start with Wenwei, but kept Wenwei at arm's length because of his mission. It turns out Chengyi is a terrorist group member, with a mission to rescue his brother, who is on death row. Wenwei, who eventually discovered the secret, was taken hostage by Chengyi, and Picasso, along with Wenjing, had to save her.

Viewership