note: it is now officially chunjie vacation, so enjoy the last blog entry you'll get from me for a week. i know, the separation is painful. but be strong. anway,
one of the biggest misconceptions people have about China is, I think, that Chinese women are sweet and docile. actually, this could not be farther from the truth. Chinese women are some of the bossiest, sauciest women i've ever met. and submissive? Western guys can dream on.
as I rode the train home with my coworker Mafeng today, I told him I was excited to have some fun over the break. he looked really sad, and told me about how before he was married, he used to go out and drink with his university friends every weekend and how it was so much fun. he said now his wife would never allow him to do something like that.
"You can still do that, you know. lots of guys still go out after they're married," I said.
Mafeng looked surprised. "My wife would never let me go out," he said. "If I ask her, she might say yes, but she would be really angry."
"Well, maybe you could strike a deal with her, tell her if you can have a night out with the boys, she can have a ladies night with the girls and you'll watch the baby." I think I read something like that in a Glamour or Cosmo once.
"Once they're married, Chinese women never go out." Mafeng said. "And she would never agree to something I made conditions on."
"But what if it was something she liked to do, like get a massage or a manicure?"
"She does like getting manicures. Sometimes she tells me she's getting a massage, and I know if I say anything about it, it's like she's testing me."
Now, Mafeng is like the nicest, sweetest guy, so I feel really bad for him that his wife calls all the shots. maybe its a better alternative than countries like korea where the men go out and get wasted every night, and the women can't really say anything about it. but when a guy wants to do all he can to please his wife, and he can't get a bit of time to have a drink and hang with his boys, that just seems messed up to me.