The woman who married to the mountain

An 18-year-old woman was kidnapped and sold deep into the mountains where she was forced into marriage. Her husband abused her; she tried to run away or kill herself, but to no avail. Eventually, she made peace with her fate and decided to make the best of the situation. She became a teacher in the poverty-stricken village and her story was considered so morally uplifting it was turned into a feature film, titled The Story of an Abducted Woman, literally "The Woman Who Married to the Mountain". Mind you, "to the mountain", not "into".

Well, the kidnapping took place in 1994 and the movie in 2007, but it was not until last week that this tale of dramatic twists went viral. Only this time, there was more denunciation than commendation.

Obviously, whoever first wrote Gao Yanmin up deemed her an exemplar of self-redemption. The narrative arc fits perfectly with Chinese melodrama: Gao was struck down by cruelty, yet she rose up. She could have killed out of hatred; she could have pressed charges; or she could have simply vanished and renewed her life (assuming her own families and friends would not discriminate against her). But she turned her thoughts to her parents-in-law, who had been kind to her, and to all the village children who did not have a chance for proper education.