"I haven't thought about finding a boyfriend. The only thing I think about is trying to switch jobs. The most important thing, what am I going to do in the future? But I don't know. "
Yang Li Wei works in an IT firm in northern Beijing, outside of the fifth ring road. It's an area choked with office buildings and young people trudging to and from work with laptop bags and headphones. The company she works for is prestigious and foreign-owned. The men in the company are coveted by women, who sometimes send flattering messages that get tossed into the pile of pamphlets offering takeaway services.
"These kind of IT guys are known as economical men. They have a good job and stable income," she explained, while passing groups of guys all dressed in identical dark outfits. "In my research lab, I'm the only person that's in this age range. I don't know most of the people here. They are all men, most of them are married. "
Yang just turned 27. Fresh-faced and casually trendy, she looks much younger than most people at her workplace. "A lot of people here work all day, go eat dinner, then go back to their desks to work overtime. They don't get paid extra unless they work on Saturday. Most people work overtime out of habit. It's a lifestyle. " Yang spends most of her days at work too. She works from morning to late evening, then tucks into a local shop for a bowl of noodles. After dinner she comes back to her desk to read a bit, sometimes stretching or doing light exercise in her cubicle.
"I never leave work early, because the buses are too packed. After 10pm I can get reimbursement for a taxi ride home."
At noon, the company gives an hour and a half to eat lunch and relax. The network proxy is lifted and workers can surf the Internet as they please. Yang speed-eats through her lunch, takes a brisk walk and spends the rest of her lunch hour reading entertainment and political websites normally restricted outside the firewall.
"My job now is a software engineer. I make an average salary as a software engineer, but better than an average college grad. I don't really like my job. When I chose it I didn't understand what it was. I just wanted a good job with a good path. My first boyfriend chose my major for me."
Her first boyfriend was a high school sweetheart with whom she had a relationship for seven years. The first two years were in high school, when they saw each other daily. After that he moved to Zhengzhou to join the military academy, and Yang moved to Xi An to go to college. They still maintained a long-distance relationship, seeing each other three times a year.
"At the time I thought that was plenty of boyfriend. So long as I had someone who cared about me, and someone who I could say was my boyfriend, I could be free to do other things. My classmates were in relationships where they were constantly glued together. I didn't like that. He was in military school, I was in college in Xi An. At first we missed each other, but then we got used to it. "
Chinese students choose their upon entering college. Yang studied communications engineering from undergraduate to graduate school, without any interest in the subject. "I've never thought too much about these things. It seemed natural at the time. My boyfriend took it upon himself to do the research for me. He studied Computer science."
Yang's childhood was spent in Dong Bei, the northeastern region of China, cooking for her parents while they farmed. "When I was little the only thing I could think about was getting into college. " Her family slowly saved up enough money to put Yang through school. Her poor background made a significant impact on her during college. She felt the weight of her financial burden on her family constantly. Her major guaranteed her a job after graduation, and that seemed to be enough.
In college she went through bouts of intense homesickness. School holidays would come and she'd go home, not wanting to come back, while her classmates all complained about how boring their home towns were. After graduation, she moved to Beijing and the homesickness got better.
"We talk on the phone a lot. They started giving me pressure about marriage."
"I've never thought about my most ideal type of boyfriend. Probably the one you meet that changes your heart would be that one. My first boyfriend and second boyfriend were completely different. I think finding different types of people means that in your heart you have many different needs. My first boyfriend was someone that after spending time together we started to have feelings for each other. It was a dependent relationship, more like having a brother or father. That was his attitude to me. At the same time he seemed very protective. He would want me to text him when I went places. I told him this was unacceptable behavior but he said he couldn't change it. I had to consider my future and family with him. Because he was a soldier I would have to follow him and go to his town, and figure out what my job would be there. That was not what I wanted. "
Yang met her second boyfriend while traveling after college. After saving up for a long time, she was able to travel around China for two months. He was a foreigner. They traveled together the entire time, then came back to Beijing together. She didn't tell her parents.
"We weren't suited to each other. We lived together too quickly and it was a little uncomfortable. I didn't have my own time or space to do what I wanted, and later became accustomed to this kind of lifestyle. "
Yang Li Wei works in an IT firm in northern Beijing, outside of the fifth ring road. It's an area choked with office buildings and young people trudging to and from work with laptop bags and headphones. The company she works for is prestigious and foreign-owned. The men in the company are coveted by women, who sometimes send flattering messages that get tossed into the pile of pamphlets offering takeaway services.
"These kind of IT guys are known as economical men. They have a good job and stable income," she explained, while passing groups of guys all dressed in identical dark outfits. "In my research lab, I'm the only person that's in this age range. I don't know most of the people here. They are all men, most of them are married. "
Yang just turned 27. Fresh-faced and casually trendy, she looks much younger than most people at her workplace. "A lot of people here work all day, go eat dinner, then go back to their desks to work overtime. They don't get paid extra unless they work on Saturday. Most people work overtime out of habit. It's a lifestyle. " Yang spends most of her days at work too. She works from morning to late evening, then tucks into a local shop for a bowl of noodles. After dinner she comes back to her desk to read a bit, sometimes stretching or doing light exercise in her cubicle.
"I never leave work early, because the buses are too packed. After 10pm I can get reimbursement for a taxi ride home."
At noon, the company gives an hour and a half to eat lunch and relax. The network proxy is lifted and workers can surf the Internet as they please. Yang speed-eats through her lunch, takes a brisk walk and spends the rest of her lunch hour reading entertainment and political websites normally restricted outside the firewall.
"My job now is a software engineer. I make an average salary as a software engineer, but better than an average college grad. I don't really like my job. When I chose it I didn't understand what it was. I just wanted a good job with a good path. My first boyfriend chose my major for me."
Her first boyfriend was a high school sweetheart with whom she had a relationship for seven years. The first two years were in high school, when they saw each other daily. After that he moved to Zhengzhou to join the military academy, and Yang moved to Xi An to go to college. They still maintained a long-distance relationship, seeing each other three times a year.
"At the time I thought that was plenty of boyfriend. So long as I had someone who cared about me, and someone who I could say was my boyfriend, I could be free to do other things. My classmates were in relationships where they were constantly glued together. I didn't like that. He was in military school, I was in college in Xi An. At first we missed each other, but then we got used to it. "
Chinese students choose their upon entering college. Yang studied communications engineering from undergraduate to graduate school, without any interest in the subject. "I've never thought too much about these things. It seemed natural at the time. My boyfriend took it upon himself to do the research for me. He studied Computer science."
Yang's childhood was spent in Dong Bei, the northeastern region of China, cooking for her parents while they farmed. "When I was little the only thing I could think about was getting into college. " Her family slowly saved up enough money to put Yang through school. Her poor background made a significant impact on her during college. She felt the weight of her financial burden on her family constantly. Her major guaranteed her a job after graduation, and that seemed to be enough.
In college she went through bouts of intense homesickness. School holidays would come and she'd go home, not wanting to come back, while her classmates all complained about how boring their home towns were. After graduation, she moved to Beijing and the homesickness got better.
"We talk on the phone a lot. They started giving me pressure about marriage."
"I've never thought about my most ideal type of boyfriend. Probably the one you meet that changes your heart would be that one. My first boyfriend and second boyfriend were completely different. I think finding different types of people means that in your heart you have many different needs. My first boyfriend was someone that after spending time together we started to have feelings for each other. It was a dependent relationship, more like having a brother or father. That was his attitude to me. At the same time he seemed very protective. He would want me to text him when I went places. I told him this was unacceptable behavior but he said he couldn't change it. I had to consider my future and family with him. Because he was a soldier I would have to follow him and go to his town, and figure out what my job would be there. That was not what I wanted. "
Yang met her second boyfriend while traveling after college. After saving up for a long time, she was able to travel around China for two months. He was a foreigner. They traveled together the entire time, then came back to Beijing together. She didn't tell her parents.
"We weren't suited to each other. We lived together too quickly and it was a little uncomfortable. I didn't have my own time or space to do what I wanted, and later became accustomed to this kind of lifestyle. "
"I am not too interested in my single status. My friends are more worried about me than me. When I broke up with my first boyfriend, my friends said if I didn't look for another boyfriend right away, after a few years I would only be able to choose from divorcees."
"I had nightmares after that about being married to someone I didn't like."
"I think marriage is normal. If I meet the right one I might get married too. However in my everyday life the chances of meeting that person is zero. My social circle is all female, and my work colleagues are all married males."
Yang's daily commute is a one hour round trip by bus. Even at 9pm, swarms of office workers wait for the bus at the dusty and remote Shang Di station. The bus drops her off twenty minutes later.
She shares an apartment with five people near the sixth ring road. Some are couples, some are single, but they're all strangers living under the same roof. Yang heads straight into her room and locks the door. There is no common social area.
She shares an apartment with five people near the sixth ring road. Some are couples, some are single, but they're all strangers living under the same roof. Yang heads straight into her room and locks the door. There is no common social area.