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China Elevator Stories
“I’m Thinking Of Breaking Up”
A Chinese woman asks her boyfriend to give her money for her birthday.
10/05/2014
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
One of my Chinese husband’s friends works as a trainer at a gym. It’s the trainer’s job to find people to train. The competition is fierce, and more often than not, he doesn’t have anyone to train. If he doesn’t have anyone to train, he earns about 1000 Yuan a month (around 120 EUR or 165 USD).
One day, my husband tells me about a conversation he had with the trainer, which goes like this:
The trainer’s girlfriend had just celebrated her birthday. Originally, the trainer wanted to take her shopping and pay for her clothes.
His girlfriend suggests: “Why don’t you just give me the money instead?”
The trainer asks her: “How much would you want?”
She tells him: “2000 CNY.”
A little after this occurrence, the trainer tells my husband: “I’m thinking of breaking up. I just gave her 2000 CNY for her birthday. I can’t bear it anymore.” Six months later, they are still together.
Have you ever been in a similar situation?
This is part of the series ‘Conversations with Locals in China,’ where I share conversations with Chinese people on my blog.