Newsmaker
Marriage a 'lifelong business transaction'
By Gan Tian (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-29 10:39
 |
Large Medium Small |
Beijing - As South Korean television soaps continue to captivate Chinese women's hearts with too-good-to-be-true love stories starring beautiful couples, a best-selling author from the country has warned her Chinese fans that married life is not all that hunky-dory.
| ||||
Nam's first book, Everything of Women's Life Can Be Changed in Their Twenties, sold 800,000 copies in China after becoming a best-seller in the ROK, selling 450,000 copies within three months in 2007.
During a reading session in Beijing last Friday, the 36-year-old writer said all women should treat marriage like a lifelong business transaction.
"Though modern women now have various lifestyles, I still believe living with your husband, loving him, and spending the rest of your life with him is the happiest thing for a woman, whether traditional or modern," she said.
In her first book, Nam adopted an easy approach to say women should discover their inner strength and independence at an early age.
"My fans are growing older. Now it's time for them to get married, so here comes my second book, which spells every detail of a woman's marriage life, including how to pick the right man, and deal with your husband's family," Nam said.
Huang Shuqin, a 25-year-old office worker in Beijing, recalled it was at her senior year in college that she started reading Nam's first book.
"She is like an elder sister who, through her book, gives us valuable advice. Just before I was to graduate from college, she told me the things I need to achieve and the way I need to behave.
"Now, I am soon going to be married, and her second book, which is about marriage, is out. It seems her books can really guide me in life," Huang said.
A graduate from the Korean Literature Department of Sookmyung Women's University, Nam said she was particularly interested in women's issues and owes her success to women's increasing involvement in society.
Nam attributed her popularity in China to the similarities between the women of China and the ROK. "It's a typical Asian female culture: (women are) introvert, powerful, and homemakers."
She told her readers: "If your parents do not agree with your choice of husband, please reconsider marriage."
Nam also warned her fans that South Korean TV dramas, which are popular among young Chinese women, have nothing in common with real life situations.
But Nam can add new flavors to traditional dogmas.
In one chapter of her second book, she writes that a woman can only decide to marry a man after sleeping with him.
"Times are changing. This is the time we should abandon some old principles.
"But I also notice, South Korea is a country that believes in Confucianism, just like China. Open relations are still not acceptable there. We should promote an appropriate attitude towards marriage, sex and love," she said.