The author's creative insights
I wrote this story based on the experience of a friend of mine. After he got married, his parents-in-law moved in with him, and the change from "helping" to "controlling" slowly changed from "giving" to "taking." The family finally went to court. I watched him grow from a gentle scholar to a man of few words, and watched his wife be torn in half between her parents and her husband. What I want to write about is this tearing - not that bad people do bad things, but that ordinary people are pushed by their own trauma and obsessions and become perpetrators step by step.
For the character Shen Wangshu, I don't want to write him as a "perfect victim". He endured it for four years, until his wife was depressed and his daughter was afraid to speak, and then he exploded. This kind of forbearance is also a problem in itself - if kindness has no teeth, it is connivance. Lin Zhiyi is more complicated. She was not directly hurt by her parents, but lived in a "sensible" shell for thirty-two years. It was not until the shell shattered that she said "no" for the first time. She makes me feel sorry for her and also makes me admire her.
Father-in-law and mother-in-law are not born villains. Lin Zhengqing has lived in the shadow of "the eldest brother is the director and the younger brother is the boss" all his life, and he puts all his hope of turning around on his son. Wang Sumei has been wearing her younger brother's old shoes since she was a child, thinking that she could get some love by "pleasing her parents". They are molded into perpetrators by their own trauma, and they harm their daughters in the same way - this is the tragedy of intergenerational transmission.
This story wants to tell readers two things. First, family affection is not a reason for kidnapping. Bloodline is not a card with unlimited overdraft. If it is maxed out, it will stop. Second, learn to say "no" not to be unfilial, but to save yourself. Everyone whose neck is strangled by "family love" has the right to take a breath.
I hope everyone who reads this story can find their own breath in Wan Wan's sentence "Dad, when you kiss me, I can't breathe."
The author's creative insights I wrote this story based on the experience of a friend of mine. After he got married, his parents-in-law moved in with him, and the change from "helping" to "controlling" slowly changed from "giving" to "taking." The family finally went to court. I watched him grow from a gentle scholar to a man of few words, and watched his wife be torn in half between her parents and her husband. What I want to write about is this tearing - not that bad people do bad things, but that ordinary people are pushed by their own trauma and obsessions and become perpetrators step by step. For the character Shen Wangshu, I don't want to write him as a "perfect victim". He endured it for four years, until his wife was depressed and his daughter was afraid to speak, and then he exploded. This kind of forbearance is also a problem in itself - if kindness has no teeth, it is connivance. Lin Zhiyi is more complicated. She was not directly hurt by her parents, but lived in a "sensible" shell for thirty-two years. It was not until the shell shattered that she said "no" for the first time. She makes me feel sorry for her and also makes me admire her. Father-in-law and mother-in-law are not born villains. Lin Zhengqing has lived in the shadow of "the eldest brother is the director and the younger brother is the boss" all his life, and he puts all his hope of turning around on his son. Wang Sumei has been wearing her younger brother's old shoes since she was a child, thinking that she could get some love by "pleasing her parents". They are molded into perpetrators by their own trauma, and they harm their daughters in the same way - this is the tragedy of intergenerational transmission. This story wants to tell readers two things. First, family affection is not a reason for kidnapping. Bloodline is not a card with unlimited overdraft. If it is maxed out, it will stop. Second, learn to say "no" not to be unfilial, but to save yourself. Everyone whose neck is strangled by "family love" has the right to take a breath. I hope everyone who reads this story can find their own breath in Wan Wan's sentence "Dad, when you kiss me, I can't breathe."