Zhi Xia’s Life in Shanghai

Not an uneventful slice of life, but a Shanghai finance manager's ten-year account of workplace struggles and turning debt around

This book explores three real portraits of women making a living in Shanghai, exposing the ultimate struggle between conventional success and inner peace. One uses marriage as a way to secure residency and put down roots, becoming the kind of winner in life others envy. Another relies on hard-won professional skills to turn her life around alone, holding on to herself through debt and turmoil. A third searches for true love, and though she has no marriage certificate, she enjoys the most complete devotion.

Character profile: Wen Zhixia graduated with a bachelor's degree. Cultured and independent, she excels at music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, loves to travel, and plays the piano well. Educated and poised, she has a clear-eyed strength of character. From finance director at a foreign company to rebuilding her life under a mountain of debt, she uses her expertise and perseverance to write her own comeback story in Shanghai.

This is a contemporary urban novel. The characters and events have been fictionalized, so please don't assume they refer to anyone in particular.