The Shining Star

A-Li is a very pretty young girl. However she was born visually handicapped and has never known how she looks like, much less her surroundings and the happenings around her. Despite this, she is an optimistic character who never blames anyone, striving instead to be as independent as possible in her daily life, sometimes even going out of her way to help others.

Her own father had abandoned her since young and she followed her mother when she remarried a sloppy and lazy man. The family depend on the declining trade of hand puppetry for their living. Due to this, A-Li has no choice but to search for jobs in order to earn enough to send her half-brother to university.

A father and daughter pair moves into the old block which A-Li is staying. The youthful father refuses to tell people what his name is so A-Li just calls him 'Nameless'. Nameless has a mischievous 8-year-old daughter named Anqi, who together with him, turns the block topsy turvy with their antics. In frustrations A-Li terms her 'little monster'. Anqi retaliates by calling her 'hideous'.

As time went by, A-Li comes to know the pair better and finds out that Nameless was actually born into a wealthy family. He later fell out with his father because he insisted on pursuing music studies in Vienna. Later, he met a girl named Xu Ling and had Anqi with her. However at this point in time, Nameless fell into depression as he was not able to make any progress in his music studies. Things became worse for him when he found out that Xu Ling was having an affair. In anger, he took the month-old daughter with him and left. All these years since then, both father and daughter have depended on each other and share a very close relationship.

Anqi's school results have been extremely disappointing and she is always getting into trouble, garnering many complaints from parents and classmates alike. In the end, she even gives up going to school. When A-Li finds out about this, she decides to help Anqi find a new school. She even swears to help Anqi realise her potential so that Anqi can prove the teachers and classmates who looked down on her wrong.

Under her tutelage, Anqi's schoolwork makes great progress. While appreciating her help, Nameless also begins to respect her "handicapped but able" spirit. In contrast, his own predicament of living life without goal and taking each day as it comes despite his healthy body is a poor comparison.

Gradually A-Li develops a positive impression towards Nameless. She hopes that he will eventually pick himself up and start afresh, but Nameless has not even finished playing an entire music piece for a long time. A-Li throws herself into thinking of ways to help him regain his confidence.

However, A-Li is suddenly sent to hospital where the doctor discovers many injuries caused by scratches and bites. She is suspected to have been abused and the police is notified immediately. The police is unable to get any further information from A-Li or her mother and thus seeks the help of a social worker Yin Qi. A-Li makes friends very readily with Yin Qi. Yin Qi finds out that A-Li trusting nature makes her very vulnerable to be taken advantage of. In spite of Yin Qi's repeated questioning, A-Li refuses to tell the truth of how she got hurt.

At about this time, Yin Qi is also facing a bottleneck at work, as well as her husband's extramarital affair. Under pressure and in exhaustion, she closes A-Li's case shoddily. It is not till A-Li is once again sent to hospital that she remorsefully takes it upon herself to find out the truth.

Through investigations, Yin Qi finds out many untold truths and hidden facts and in the process learns to face her husband and his infidelity with magnanimity. She also decides to stay on her job.

Meanwhile, A-Li's half brother has been getting into trouble with the local drug trafficker B-ge. Things get nasty when B breaks into their home and gains access by duplicating the house keys.

• List of MediaCorp Chinese series (2006)

• The Shining Star (Chinese)