The story of a woman who’s here, to pay up her debts to her parents from her past lives, if you believe in that stuff, from the Entertainment section of the newspapers, translated…
In order to strip open a person’s personalities, we’d needed to make observations of her family of origin, Li Jing hosted the talk shows with quick-wittedness, sharpened tongue, but, her family was, extraordinarily, “weird”, she’d described her process of coming age as comparable to being raised in the Addams’ Family, thought, that the families of the rest of the world is just like hers was, later on after she’d left home, she saw how people in other families would hug each other, the mothers would cook, clean, “that, was when I realized, that I’d been, living on Mars all this time before, that our family was the weird one, not like the other families.”
a photo of the woman, and from this, you still couldn’t tell she’d weathered through such hard time in her younger years, can you???
Jing Li’s family originally had four members, her father, her mother, an older sister by a year, and her, but, how, was her family weird? She’d given the example of how before fourth, fifth grade in the elementary years, her family lived in Fengyuan, Taichung, her father who works for the local government one day told them that they’re moving to Chingshui, Taichung, the children asked him why? He’d told them plainly, “I’d gotten elected as the mayor of the town, and the country gave us a free house.” Jing Li was shocked, as the process of election is a huge thing, and her father had, never discussed any of it with his family.
There were only four of them in her family, but, the members were so emotionally detached from each other it’s scary, Jing Li recalled, that there was NOT a single memory that she had, of her family of four, sitting down together for a simple meal, that only on the New Year’s Eve meals would they all gather around the supper tables, but her father had usually taken just two bites, and complained of how hot the food was, then, left to do his own thing, and her mother would go out and play mahjong with her friends, there was, NO sound of laughter or conversation at my house.”
And, do not, for one second believe, that these four people with their own distance from one another, after splitting apart, her father became popular in his work, and her mother became the chairperson of the women’s association she was involved in, and, so were Jing Li and her older sister, both became very outgoing, in their separate lives away from the families, but, it would be, hard for us to imagine, that as the family of four got together, it’d become, like a silent film.
Her father loved her older sister more, and her mother couldn’t touch her older sister, but took her angers out on Jing Li, from when she was little she got beaten up, she’d written to the children’s version of newspapers, “Had there been a domestic violence hotline, I would’ve already been placed by the Social Services Department.”
In order to make her escape, she’d gone to study in the English Department of Soochow University, “after I’d gone to college, I’d started missing home, I’d gone back to Taichung to visit every single week, one day my father asked me, ‘why did you come back every week, wouldn’t it be a waste of money for bus fare and time as well?’, after I’d heard, I’d only made my way home once every year, and to this day, I’d kept it up.”
She’d not gotten any love from her parents, but was willing to shoulder up the household economics, she’d gone to China to work as a model, and made $120,000N.T. every month, she’d put up $60,000N.T. as a down payment of a mansion for her family, and to this date, she’d still sent money home each and every month.
After her mother passed away, she’d hired a nurse’s aide to look after her father, in the end, the nurse’s aide became her father’s girlfriend, and she’s now, looking after them both, “As she gets older, I’ll hire another caretaker to look after them both.”
Later on, the news reports said she’d put her father in a rundown shack, that she’s so famous now, and yet, doesn’t do anything to help out her family, she’d come out and stated, “Back then, my father got used to living in his dormitory in Chingshui, his old friends are all close to him, so he wouldn’t move into the big mansion I bought for him, so the house in Taichung is vacant, and after he’d become immobilized, he’d moved in, for these past years, I’d never dodged the responsibilities of caring for my parents.”
And so, this, is the tragic story of a woman, who weathered through the neglect by her parents, and yet, she was still willing, to give everything she has, to her family, and, she’d not asked for anything in return, but, unfortunately, her parents just treated her wrong from when she was younger.
Life, the Obstacle Course 