The Road Ahead

Beijing is a destination people with all kinds of dreams flock to. The city has carried the hopes of countless people, and shattered just as many. It’s also full of talented people. Someone once joked that if you threw a brick in Beijing, five out of ten people would be PhDs, four would have master’s degrees, and one would have a bachelor’s. But the truth is, not everyone who comes to Beijing is that highly qualified, and not every dream comes true once you arrive. Most people who move to Beijing rent tiny rooms just a few square meters in size, living lives of long days and late nights, leaving early and returning late. They squeeze onto the subway and eat at street stalls, rushing between towering office buildings as their dreams seem to drift farther away. If “Beijing drifter” has become a label for one group of people, then “leftover woman” is an unflattering label slapped on unmarried women past the usual marrying age. Li Xiaoyu graduated from a third-rate university and has a sweet face, yet she insists on making her way in the capital. Her journey is full of stumbles, with trouble at work and one headache after another in her personal life. How did she become a leftover woman, and how does she face life’s many difficulties and keep forging ahead?