Sister Says Family Poor, Cannot Find Boyfriend, Leaves

A poor chinese young man studies alone.

From bbc2345678 on Sina:

I was born in 1983, and I have a sister who is older than me by 2 years. My father was sent to jail as soon as I was born. My mother, for my father, came to Jinhua (a town in Zhejiang Province) from Lanxi. In order to give birth to me, my mother resigned, but she had to shoulder all the load of my family by herself. Because I was not the only child, neither my sister nor I had a “hukou” [national household/residential registration]. Not until my step-father appeared later, our family’s financial situation was not very good because of this “hukou” situation so my older sister and I had problems getting an education. In order for us to grow up educated, our mother begged the school and paid an amount of money before the school reluctantly let us enroll.

Although I did not have a complete family, I was very happy because I had a good mother. Later with the appearance of our step-father, our family became even more perfectly satisfactory and happy. My step-father was very kind-heated, treating us just like a biological father. Our family life slowly became better and better. Later, after our family had money, we slowly built a small business opening a small restaurant. But God did not pity us. Because of the hardships of opening the restaurant, my mother developed heart disease in 1999. To help treat my mother, all of our family’s money was used and we owed a huge amount of money. That year was also my last year in junior high, and because of the circumstances in our family, I was not in the mood to study so my studies deteriorated a lot. Because of our family’s financial situation right, our family could not produce the 60 kuai I needed for the test to graduate. Up until now, I have not gotten my junior high graduation certificate. Bad luck came again one day in June 2001 at noon when my mother fell down and had her left eyeball pierced by something on the road. Because of our family’s financial situation, we could not afford to take her to the hospital, and from that day on, my mother’s left eye went blind.

Several months later, we moved back to live in an old house left by my grandfather in Jiangbei [an area north of the Changjiang River]. and we were deep in debt. Because I did not have a diploma, it was difficult for me to find a job. My father was a laid-off laborer so he only could get some part-time jobs. My sister later found a job in the bus company as a ticket seller, then she left the bus company and found another job in Wal-Mart as a sales clerk. Because I could not find job without any skills, our family borrowed some money to help me buy a computer. Through the computer, I found some small jobs earning a bit of money to help subsidize our family’s expenses. This could only help maintain our family’s normal expenses. Even though we had no money, but because we all lived peacefully together, I felt I was very happy. But the times of happiness would be short, because my sister reached the age for her to find a boyfriend. Everyone in the family felt that the time for my sister to have a good life had arrived, that she would no longer have to endure hardship and because she would have someone who could look after her in the future, we all were happy for her. Because our family’s situation was very poor, my mother especially cared about her boyfriend’s family conditions. We all though my sister found a good boyfriend but after getting to know him, we found out that his family background was even worse and was a gambler. and even as the money for marriage would have to be borrowed from others, he would often go out and gamble. We all felt this kind of man could not give her happiness so we all told her to consider carefully.

Later, they broke up. This January, my sister made a new boyfriend. However, because that boy’s family said something about the mother who raised her, they separated. Is this still something a human would do? [This sentence was poorly written and we are not sure if it was translated correctly - Fauna] A few complaints plus that boy still having another girl so they broke up this month. After breaking up, the nightmare began, my sister seemed to become another person, saying our family is too poor, that her breaking up with her boyfriend was because of our family’s poverty, because the boy said that he would be gifted with a car if he married another person but if they married, we would ask from them money to support the parents, ask him to buy furniture, and ask him to hold the marriage banquet and ask him for gift money.

From that point on, my sister was hostile to everyone in the family, feeling in her heart that her happiness was all destroyed by our family’s poverty. Every day, she does not return home until after 11pm. After returning home, she does not talk with anyone as if everyone is is her sworn enemy. Tonight, she again only came home at 12 midnight, and after returning she said she wants to move out and live by herself. She said she will give our mother 500 every month to support her, separate her “hukou”, and cut off all relations with the family. From this separation onwards, she would no longer care about the family’s business or even if someone in the family dies it is not her business. She also wrote a statement saying that she would move out tomorrow, and that several days later she would post a statement in the newspaper. Please help me figure out whether this is something a child should do? This kind of older sister, should I still acknowledge her?

This is some of the things she wrote yesterday in the agreement:

From this point on, I will move out of the residence, every month give my mother 500 yuan as support, separate my “hukou” and break relations with the family, and no matter what happens it will have nothing to do with each other.

This was a part of the agreement she wrote with her own hand that I am sharing with everyone.

Poor young Chinese squat on the ground.

快风吹海立 (kuai feng chui hai li):

This older sister really is going too far~
“Gain Abundant Knowledge” Forum Feelings Tribe immediately “ding!” [this is like a call for any member with feelings on that forum to support this topic by raising it to the top of the forum]

bbc2345678

Thanks for the support of the administrator. From last night until now I could not get any sleep, something weighing heavily on my heart. Our parents struggled to raise us only to have my sister repay them with hostility, I hope everyone can come look and see who is actually wrong.

千年皓翁 (qian nian hao weng):

Destiny is realistic. The present is a time of laughing at poverty. I can only be sympathetic.

81986438

Definitely is a little going too far. It is really over the top. Even a dog does not begrudge its family for being poor~~

尤飞风舞 (you fei feng wu):

Ai yo, all crows under the sky are black [bad people are bad everywhere]~ My cousin, because he considers his father no longer handsome~ also has not gone to see his single father~ leaving the old man lonely at home. Ai~~~some people~~~!

资讯第一 (zi xun di yi):

What kind of time do we live in nowadays that there is still such story? However, I deeply sympathize. My family is also very poor. But, in Guangdong, it could not be that bad. Good luck.

理智风 (li zhi feng):

This is a problem of psychology. I feel that if emotions have changed a person, use time to dilute it. Let her go, take care of yourself. It is possible that one day you will help her when she is in trouble and be moved by family affection. Try to understand her current situation and feelings, she is also pitiful. She is trying to escape, and in the midst of escape there is blame/resentment. Under these circumstances, who would not feel resentment? As a family member, what you should do is be understanding and tolerant. Indulge her a little, do not always use ethical code to attack her, if you all love her.

熊斌bingo (xiong bin bingo):

When the family is poor, everything fails, there are too many stories like this. Your sister is pretty cruel!
I do not blame your older sister. If the country’s people had faith, it would not be this way. For example, Buddhism would say that people like your sister’s karma would be…
The extreme economic growth has affected the morals of human relations, I really do not know if this society is progressing or regressing.

qqsmx

Actually, in reality, people who live very impoverished, very bitter lives are the vast majority. If it were to come up, my economic situation is not as well as your family’s. The fortunate thing is that I have always had my parents by my side. The impoverished life sometimes makes me pity myself, where I often compare with my friends our family’s impoverishment and misfortunes. My parents are so busy that I even sometimes feel they ignore my existence. But, in the process of growing up, I know that the world has no parents that do not love their children, even if they are not good at expressing it, there is no better way of expressing it. Life’s hardships are not our parents’ fault. They wake at sunrise to work and only rest at night. They are trying very hard, and are very hard-working. I think poverty is caused by history and society, it is difficult to explain in few words, but all of this will slowly change/improve.

As for love, saying economics has no relation, is also not realistic. Since no one can get away from needing clothes, food, shelter, which young person in the midst of love does not look forward to their future lives being more comfortable, especially those who have had enough of the hard life dream of a more happy and beautiful life, so the economic conditions must still be considered. But economics is not everything in love.

What I would most like to say is: Our parents gave us life, although sometimes because of life’s hardships we complain that they should not have brought me to this painful world, we are not able to choose whether we are born or not, and since we are here, we should be thankful, actively live, actively repay our parents for bringing us up, and not wait until they leave us to regret that we did not timely repay them. That would be a lifetime of pain.

感恩心态 (gan en xin tai):

It was not easy for your parents to raise your sister up. In their later years, they should be able to enjoy their children’s good fortune. This is an unalterable truth. Regarding your family’s current situation, as a man, you should shoulder the family’s burdens, and no matter how bitter or how tiring, you should persist, and I believe it will not be long before everything becomes better.
Your sister is an irresponsible girl. Her doing this will result in being conscience-stricken. It is possible that what she said was just out of anger, so, you should also not bear a grudge with your sister. Let her go! I believe it will not be long that she returns to your family.
What you should do now is: do not blame everyone and not yourself, do something practical, take one step and one footprint at a time forward, and life will slowly become better.
Bless you, little brother.

孤独之人 (gu du zhi ren):

You can also forgive your older sister, this is a social problem, you can consider how she feels. You were born in 1983, 25-years-old. What about her? Everyone wants to get happiness, everyone wants a beautiful life. She also has her right. As for her breaking off relations, blood is thicker than water, and simply saying something is not does not mean it is not. Whatever you say now is useless, just wait and see what happens.

yjfywyb

Love being setback leads to an unbalanced psychology. But this society is too practical, sometime a person is forced to the point where they are no longer like themselves [or no longer think of themselves]

导演爱川绿 (dao yan ai chuan lu):

I also have an older sister, 7 years older than me. Our family is even more poor than your so-called family. In 1993, our family owed hundreds of thousands. To people at that time, it was definitely an astronomical figure. Because our family had no money, my older sister could only go to a technical school and started working early, but she never considered our family to be poor. Her first boyfriend said something in our home, stunning all of us. He said our even an air conditioner our family does not have. Just like this, my sister broke up with him. My sister worked hard to earn money. At the time when she first went out to work, she only earned 800 yuan a month, but she would post back home 300 yuan, to help subsidize the family. Remember at that time that Shenzhen’s standard of living was very high at the time in Shenzhen, and for her to still be able to mail money back home show how much she loved this family. I am not here to boast about how capable my sister is, but to ask if family can be measured by money? I just finished reading an essay called “400 thousand to buy a husband.” Are these things so cheap/low? People who only have money in their eyes will never have happiness and love, much less money.

老蟹子 (lao xie zi):

Your sister is the same year as me. There may some things that is not the way you think they are. After all blood is thicker than water, and the heart is not as hard as the mouth!! Your family’s situation I also do not know, even though you gave us some one-sided information!! I believe your older sister must be suffering/bitter…! There is no right or wrong! Everyone should be fair, and look at this situation from a different perspective. If you were your older sister, what would you do! …! So I feel you should understand your older sister!! Just talk with her, and do not be harsh, after all, every family has its problems, every person has knots they cannot untie. No one is perfect, parents should understand their children, and children should be filial to their parents!! You are the youngest in the family, so you should play a unifying role, you should regulate the unharmonious atmosphere in the family…!

幻月璇 (huan yue xuan):

For some reason I feel that your older sister and those two boyfriends did not have any real feelings. Otherwise, how could they so easily break up? She had no one else to blame, could only bully her own family members, so she poured her anger on her family members’ heads.

A pretty Asian girl walks along the road with a suitcase by herself.

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32 Comments

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  1. It’s amazing how much expectation they’re putting on the elder sister to becoming a provider for the family seems really traditional !?

  2. Ah, talking about how reality bites. Sometimes for these pple they might be better off dead rather than dead poor

  3. LZ is thinking about this all wrong I believe. The first thing that flashed across my mind was that she is emotionally distancing herself from the family because she is about to do something on her own. Likely something that will be hard for her and something that they won’t like at all.
    If they are so poor, how could she go out on her own AND still send them 500rmb per month? Beware LZ , your sister is likely headed down a dark road (some form of morally questionable trade). Hold her tight and make it known that you love her no matter if she marries poor or rich…because once she is gone, she’s really gone. Not worth the few hundred bucks you’ll get out of it.

  4. @Veer Left
    There’s not enough information about the older sister’s situation/job/etc/whatever to make such an assumption, not every female in China who can earn more than 1500 rmb a month is a whore, shit, I pay my maid more than that and she only needs to work a couple hours a day – and I know she sends a bit home to her parents each month as well as lives in her own small apartment. The poster (imo) isn’t concerned with the 500rmb, or the support the sister can help provide financially to the family, but the fact that her sister appears to have turned from love to hate towards those the poster feels love her most.

    To the original poster I would give the advice that sometimes people go through times in their life when they grow unhappy with themselves and their situation because of any number of reasons, and look for excuses. Coming from a poor background is an easy excuse – definitely – and it’s far more convenient for her to blame her family’s lack of wealth for her unhappiness than understand that it’s likely something within her. We’re living in a relatively materialistic society and it’s definitely a possibility that her poor family had a part in some of her failed relationship, but it’s up to her to decide whether her family is more important to her than herself. I would wager that today, in China, while everyone preaches “family first” values as a core of the Chinese culture, I do NOT see it as a truth in many cases.

  5. I doubt that his sister is actually hating them. She is creating distance and I’d wager that it hurts her to do so. Ask yourself why she’d create distance? So that she can do something without family interferance, approval etc.
    So whether it’s whoring, rub’n'tugs, being a mistress (my bet) or being some sucker laowai’s overpaid Ah Yi, if her family doesn’t approve then it’d be hard for a ‘good daughter’ to do. If she shuns them it’ll be easier.
    Anyway, it’s all speculation.

  6. @Veer
    Implying I’m a sucker for paying my maid well is ridiculous. How many foreigners do you know whose aiyi does 1) a shit job, 2) nothing out of job scope, ever 3) steals shit occasionally 4) is old and ugly?

    My maid is surprisingly very smart, relatively attractive and young, takes care of any little thing in my life which I don’t want to spend time doing (including shopping, wire transfers, even going to the ATM), over the years has built phenomenal trust, takes good care of my kitty, basically saves me any stress from having to do anything in my life I don’t really want to do – and since I’m not a broke ass teacher I can afford to pay her more than the average for her exceptional work. She’s like a girlfriend or wife who I don’t ‘touch’. When my ex went to find me a maid, I had smart and sexy as a requirement — she asked why? and my reply was.. “Everything in My apartment has to be sexy…” The bottom line is you get what you pay for, and quite frankly, I think I am getting a fabulous deal and treat her as a friend rather than laborer.

    I do understand however, how your clearly advanced logic seems to lead to someone from China automatically being a whore or having some relation to selling their body for cash if they haven’t graduated from a top school should they earn more than minimum wage or migrant worker pay.

  7. @ Rick in China:

    No, you’re a sucker because you have a cat…

    …that you refer to as “kitty.”

    Hah, just teasin’, cats are cool.

    Mine is Shanghainese.

  8. This is just a product of new, consumer, society that emerges in China. What to do? Maybe to give propaganda posters to sister, so she can learn about traditional values of family? Sister is angry as she thinks that her family didn’t provide enough to support her in life. She feels that her family is weight, an big obstacle, that restrain her from better life. And what’s the better life according to her? A car, flat, money so she can live without daily job.

    Life sucks, but she should make it better, not her family.

    @Rick
    Is she from Anhui?

  9. @krdr RE: “Is she from Anhui?”
    I don’t live in Shanghai – I live in Chengdu.

    @Kai
    Actually, I refer to my kitty as my queen, and women who come over to my place are quick to realize they are clearly subordinate on the power pole when it comes to importance ;)

  10. @Rick in China

    I don’t know who is worse, you for writing the posts that you do, or me for reading them.

  11. Post a pic of your maid Rick and let us judge if she is hot and sexy.

  12. Rick, is living in China an addiction in some ways to you, since you get to be a baller whereas back in the U.S. you’re a just another average joe?

    I’m not asking with an intent to denigrate, I just want to understand if someone like you have the same psychology as other typical expats, and whether “going back” is hard to do because you lose all your self-superiority complex. I’m assuming you’re in the corporate world / high finance since you did refer that you’re not a “broke-ass” teacher, which implies you look down on some of your expat acquaintances who are English teachers.

    I think it’s an interesting phenomenon, and rather natural, since most expats since colonial days (think East India Company) must carry that white man’s burden on their shoulders. It’s also interesting in the context of structural shifts in global economics and financial markets, where if you listen carefully in the midst of noise, you can hear the elegy song of the Washington Concensus. We’ll see how that will be reflected in the psychology among the “natives” you and other expats encounter in the next few years.

    Speaking as an investment banker myself, I do have apprehensions, since for my colleagues and myself, the “natives” are the ordinary people who are not in our industry…I can tell you our own self-superiority and self worth are now shattered beyond repair in the last few months, the feelings of defeat are pervasive because we are no longer held up as a “superior breed” in the eyes of “natives”.

    Sorry for the convoluted post, but hopefully you get what I’m trying to say…

  13. SniperWZ – What about expat women? (Or do I not want to know….)

  14. Michelle, what about them? If you’re an expat, then you should describe it yourself…

  15. @SniperWZ

    That’s a lot of speculation. In fact, I am not here any longer out of my preference for being in Chengdu. I travel a lot – to get away. I’m here, still, because I love my job and my company – I work in IT.

    To assume that I’m “superior” here and an “average joe” in US, which I’m not from – by the way – is a pretty cardboard cut-out attempt at an insult. Maybe it’s not an insult – maybe it’s just uh..You – projecting.

    I don’t look down on teachers. I look down on teachers who are arrogant without cause (or fit the psychological persona you described above) and talk about other people who earn more as if it’s a crime – ie the above poster who thinks I’m an idiot based on how much I pay my maid (to which he has no comprehension or understanding of the value or contextual conditions around the situation). I’m an antagonist of ignorance.

    In fact I spend as many weekends or long weekends outside of China, traveling a lot – not for business but because I really am not so satisfied with the slow pace of life here. Assuming people who live in China are “stuck” in China because they feel superior to Chinese people or think they’re thrown up on a pedestal is borderline racist and really gives some insight to your own thinking…whether you’re a foreigner who believes in that sort of creed (come out of the closet, dog) or whether you’re Chinese who has an inferiority complex, either way, and that apparently ignorant frame of mind is far from convoluted.

    That all being said, I’m not sure your post was worthy of this lengthy reply, it seemed to be a lot of speculation and fluff.

  16. Rick doth protest too much…not mere speculation Rick, your own words betray you, you need to read through your own previous posts on this site.

    I can tell you feel threatened by my mere “speculation and fluff”, I also find it interesting you made no attempt to deny what I said about you. Rather you made some generalized half-denials that is not specific to yourself.

    One shot, one kill.

    “Everything in My apartment has to be sexy…” – Rick

    You sure you’re not American?

  17. @SniperWZ RE: “I also find it interesting you made no attempt to deny what I said about you.”

    Clearly you didn’t read my post. You’re just trolling now.

    I would prefer an attractive maid no matter where I lived. I don’t want some hunchback of notre dam scuttling about my apartment when I have friends or females over, do you?

    I’m sure I’m not American. I wasn’t aware such a comment equals AMERICAN rather than MAN.

  18. Tsk, tsk. You’re being singled out here, Rick. :P

  19. Not trying to troll…honestly, just trying to start a conversation, no need to get pissed off…

    I don’t have a maid, too expensive in the U.S…

  20. Can somebody please tell me why I tell my Ayi 1000 times not to put anything into my closet besides my custom shirts and pants but she still does anyway? LOL

    My ayi, who my friends refer to as “the beast” is loud and aggressive but man can that woman clean the crap out of my house. Agree with Rick to pay more and get more. I pay mine 400 a month for 3 days a week, but she gets a large bonus at the end of the year and a lot of clothes (that I actually saw her husband wearing when she was sick and sent him to clean, but that is another story).

    On another note, I had one ayi who fell in love with me and confessed she wanted to have my baby. The funniest part was I was 26 at the time and she was 34, married, with an 11 year old (and ugly as all sin).

    Ahhh the Ayi in China stories, send your posts, and Rick get that pick of yours up so we can check it out. Also, do guys really have cats? Are you ok man?

  21. @fcuk da lu ren
    My cat is awesome, everyone loves her. I had a dog – feng feng, ie “crazy crazy” a little psycho doberman-esque fur in a jack-russell body. I went to africa for a few weeks and my ex wanted to let her friend’s dog “breed” with him, and lent him to her friend to make some awesome little babies. I came back, he was dead, apparently he killed and ate a chicken at her friend’s family “out of town” house and choked on the bone. Maybe they ate him. Regardless, I decided to get a cat.

    Dude, you have to be more strict with your aiyi, it sounds to me she’s an old one. Old aiyi’s have one significant con, and that is that they are so, so stubborn and stuck in their ways..which is why I opted for a young one who didn’t know a lot and could be ‘trained’. About your aiyi admirer, whoa, pretty fucked up situation – resulting in her immediate termination I’d imagine..I wonder what kind of lude shit she did to your stuff when you weren’t around? I’d ask your current Ai to clorox the shit out of everything if I was you!

    I’m morally hesitant to ask for or post a photo of my maid on the internet, that’s a little out of my comfort zone. Also, when I say sexy/attractive – she’s not stylish or coming over with make-up on, just fit and certainly not ugly…she’s a maid, it’s all relative folks. Sorry those who asked.

  22. Moral decay with the younger generation. They are selfishly worried about their own future rather than the backbone of her existence, her family. Maybe when she grows older like in her 50s and 60s, she’ll realise that she has no family because of her spitful anger misdirected towards her family rather than her not too wise ex-boyfriend who ditched her.

  23. Cruel of her but she needs to do it in order to get a better life. You need to understand her despair and pain. She may have loved the previous guy alot despite the fact that he doesnt deserve her love.

    You can only let her go because no matter what you do you cannot catch and grab hold to a wind right?

    Only think you can do is use the money to treat your mother well however that money can take you and be hopeful that one day your sister would become really succesful. To one day come back to your house to look after your mother.

    As for yourself, be content that you dont have to rely on her to be a real man. Work hard yourself.

  24. how ironic. i’m european, good looking, 30m, well educated, in a good position, ready for marriage, but cannot find a woman in europe. so i will move to china, because obviously there are quality women available there (which are very very very hard to find in europe).

    however, i would not recommend any woman, or anyone, to go to america. waning flowers I say.

  25. @ Rick in China

    Treat her like a friend then refer to her as if she was a piece of furniture in your apartment where everything needs to be sexy?
    People like you scares me.

  26. @Kat
    People like you voted for McCain.

  27. it’s an ideal to think she’s a family friend of yours and treat her with a kind. we cannot blame her for leaving her home since she was thinking about her own future, there will be a time your sister will come home to see you all and i am sure of that. try to come up with your life doing something like a job and try to forget the past, no matter how hard we cry past is past and it will never change the way you want. your sister and you are two people, we can tell your sister is wrong to leave your family but non of us is in her shoes, and remember you don’t get married till you can handle a family without making more trouble.

  28. Poverty fu*ks every one :(

  29. hm…the sister is quite pretty, i would say

  30. DAM!!!!!!!!! that girl is a bitch i hope she will either become smart and go back to her family and try her best to help them or go to hell…..DAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  31. Dont blame your sister, she is just trying to break out from the cycle of poverty. You should do likewise.

  32. maybe she should look for an american guy, tho seems like she would turn in to a real bitch here in the States…

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