Outside the Mountain (my new novel) -1 The most beautiful season in Shanghai is October: perfect temperature, clear sunshine, the fragrance of sweet osmanthus fills every corner of Shanghai. I arrive

Molly-Shanghai

Professional Teacher

Outside the Mountain (my new novel) -1 The most beautiful season in Shanghai is October: perfect temperature, clear sunshine, the fragrance of sweet osmanthus fills every corner of Shanghai. I arrived in Shanghai for the first time in October of 2005, with my savings of 3000 RMB, my first unpublished novel, my boyfriend Chen’s best wishes, and an uncertain future. Everyone says Shanghai is full of opportunities. I knew this truism, as well as another, well known in China: one cannot make a living by art alone. So instead of immediately holding out my precious novel to publishers one by one, I realized the more urgent thing was to find a job. After paying rent, buying furniture, house wares, and some new clothes, the money remaining in my pocket couldn’t even support me through next month. But Chen always supported me unconditionally. At the airport, just before boarding, he told me, “Molly, no matter what you do, no matter what will happen to us, I will always love you. You never need to worry about money, making money is a man’s responsibility.” After I moved to Shanghai, he called me every day on the phone. The question he asked most often was: “do you have enough money?” I didn’t really think of this generous behavior in any negative way, yet, in Chinese culture, it is natural to include it, along with other behaviors, in our word translated as male chauvinism. So I felt it as a contradiction in my life, to have a male chauvinist boyfriend. But not an intolerable contradiction. On the one hand, I knew he was responsible, protective, always counting me as a first priority; on the other, he often treated me like a little girl, in the same way most traditional Chinese men would. He didn’t really think women should be ambitious. The proper career, for a woman’s whole life, is to be married to a good husband. Still, he did accept that I wasn’t willing to conform entirely to the traditional model. We made an agreement: If within a year, I could find the golden opportunity I was seeking in Shanghai, he would follow me to live here. And if I met disappointment instead, I agreed to return to him, after the year had passed. So I had only one year to prove that I could find success in Shanghai. ©2014莫利清华Jensen Mandarin all rights reserved

Apr 5, 2014 9:33 AM

Corrections · 5

Outside the Mountain (my new novel) -1

The most beautiful season in Shanghai is October: perfect temperature, clear sunshine, the fragrance of sweet osmanthus fills every corner of Shanghai.
I arrived in Shanghai for the first time in October of 2005, with my savings of 3000 RMB, my first unpublished novel, my boyfriend Chen’s best wishes, and an uncertain future.
Everyone says Shanghai is full of opportunities. I knew this truism, as well as another, well known in China: one cannot make a living by art alone. So instead of immediately holding out my precious novel to publishers one by one, I realized the more urgent thing was to find a job.
After paying rent, buying furniture, house wares, and some new clothes, the money remaining in my pocket couldn’t even support me through next month.
But Chen always supported me unconditionally. At the airport, just before boarding, he told me, “Molly, no matter what you do, no matter what will happen to us, I will always love you. You never need to worry about money, making money is a man’s responsibility.”
After I moved to Shanghai, he called me every day on the phone. The question he asked most often was: “do you have enough money?”
I didn’t really think of this generous behavior in any negative way, yet, in Chinese culture, it is natural to include it, along with other behaviors, in our word translated as male chauvinism （这是不太清楚）. So I felt it as a contradiction in my life, to have a male chauvinist boyfriend. But not an intolerable contradiction. On the one hand, I knew he was responsible, protective, always counting me as a first priority; on the other, he often treated me like a little girl, in the same way most traditional Chinese men would. He didn’t really think women should be ambitious. The proper career, for a woman’s whole life, is to be married to a good wife.
Still, he did accepted that I wasn’t willing to conform entirely to the traditional model. We made an agreement: If within a year, I could find the golden opportunity I was seeking in Shanghai, he would follow me to live here. If I met disappointment instead, I agreed to return to him.
So I had only one year to prove that I could find success in Shanghai.

©2014莫利清华Jensen Mandarin all rights reserved

April 5, 2014

Outside(?) the Mountain (my new novel) -1 (what does it mean to be 'outside a mountain?)

The most beautiful season in Shanghai is October: perfect temperature, clear sunshine, the fragrance of sweet osmanthus fills every corner of Shanghai.
I arrived in Shanghai, for the first time, in October of 2005, with my savings of 3000 RMB, my first unpublished novel, my boyfriend Chen’s best wishes, and an uncertain future.
Everyone says Shanghai is full of opportunities. I knew of this truism/cliche/expression/saying (an undoubted or self-evident truth - maybe,b utIfeel theword is not quite right) as well as another, well known in China: one cannot make a living by art alone. So instead of immediately holding out my precious novel to publishers one by one, I realized the more urgent thing was to find a job.
After paying rent, buying furniture, house wares, and some new clothes, the money remaining in my pocket couldn’t even support me through next month.
But Chen always supported me unconditionally. At the airport, just before boarding, he told me, “Molly, no matter what you do, no matter what will happen to us, I will always love you. You never need to worry about money, making money is a man’s responsibility.”
After I moved to Shanghai, he called me every day on the phone. The question he asked most often was: “do you have enough money?”
I didn’t really think of this generous behavior in any negative way, yet, in Chinese culture, it is natural to include it, along with other behaviors, in our word translated as male chauvinism (patronisation). So I felt it as a contradiction in my life, to have a male chauvinist boyfriend. But not an intolerable contradiction. On the one hand, I knew he was responsible, protective, always counting me as a first priority; on the other, he often treated me like a little girl, in the same way most traditional Chinese men would. He didn’t really think women should be ambitious. The proper career, for a woman’s whole life, is to be married to a good husband.
Still, he did accept that I wasn’t willing to conform entirely to the traditional model. We made reached an agreement/made a compact: If within a year, I could find the golden opportunity I was seeking in Shanghai, he would follow me to live here/there. And if I met disappointment instead, I agreed to return to him, after the year had passed.
So I had only one year to prove that I could find success in Shanghai.

©2014莫利清华Jensen Mandarin all rights reserved