One woman’s mission to save Chinese women from joyless marriages
- Joy Chen, author of the bestseller ‘Do Not Marry Before Age 30’, encourages Chinese women not to feel forced into marriage
- One fan did, but after divorcing, she married herself to reinforce her new sense of empowerment
When Feng Jinjin read Joy Chen’s Do Not Marry Before Age 30 in 2012, she felt she recognised all the mistakes that the American-Chinese life coach flags up in the book.
“I did everything on her do-not-do list. I married when I was 26. I was too young. I lacked self-confidence. I didn’t understand the world or myself,” says the former internet advertising manager.
In 2016, the then 33-year-old divorced her husband, who she describes as boring and uncommunicative. She also moved her young daughter to live with her own parents, flew to the US to attend Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders meeting to meet her idol Warren Buffett, and started a new life in Beijing as a free and single entrepreneur.
And then, reader, she married herself.
It was a ceremony prepared with all the formality of a wedding for two. Feng made the surprise announcement with a red-themed engagement party in Shanghai. Looking model-like in a form-fitting dress and an elegant fascinator, she explained to an intimate group of female friends that this was all part of finding and liking herself.
