As Asians, we can’t deny that the patriarchy is extremely evident in our upbringing and its skewed treatment of women. The topic of divorce is so taboo that some women stay in abusive relationships just to please society despite their hardships.
However, this wasn’t the case for Su Min, a 56-year-old housewife from the Henan Province of China who decided she had enough of her husband 0f 30 years and went on a life-changing road trip by herself!
Su Min’s husband was often abusive and hit her mercilessly whenever he got angry. Due to her unhappy marriage, Su Min found herself depressed, suffering from a headache and even started taking medication for her depression.
“It’s not like I ever gave him any expenses! Instead, I had to cook, clean and wash his clothes every single day.”
Despite this, she swallowed her anger for the sake of her daughter and grandchildren. One night last year, while looking for novels online, she came across a blogger sharing her road trip experiences. This lead to Su Min thinking that she could do this too and started her master plan. She decided that she would leave once her grandchildren started attending kindergarten.
Silently, Su Min prepared for a year and looked up road trip tips online. If she came across any types of equipment she found useful, she would add them to her shopping cart. To fund her trip, Su Min used her savings and her daughter also lent her some money to buy a car.
On 23 September 2020, Su Min took off after her grandkids left to kindergarten and started her life-changing trip. In the past two months, her vlogs about her trip have gone viral inspiring other women as well. Sin Chew Daily reported that according to Su Min, this road trip was necessary because if she continued living with her husband, she felt that she would’ve died!
“I feel that I have a very fulfilling life now and my mood is also much better!”
Her advice for other women who were inspired by her life is to go on their way and that it’s useless to just stay home, be angry and complain all the time. When asked about her husband, Su Min simply said that if or when her resentment turns into sympathy, that’s when she will return to him.
Ladies, in 2o2o, no one should be tolerating abusive partners and toxic relationships. Let Su Min serve as an icon who refused to simply accept faith without dancing to the beat of her own drums.
Also read: Victims of Domestic Abuse Can Leave House When in Danger, Will Not Be Violating MCO
