LI YANG: I’m an introverted person, I find it difficult to get active. The Chinese say that you dream about the things you were thinking about during the day. When I have a happy experience or a sad one, it will show up in my dreams. Yesterday, for example, I dreamt about my son. He is now in the second year of middle school and he’s a little slow, he usually finishes his homework late at night. Yesterday when I went to sleep, he was still doing his homework. I was a bit worried about him and then I had this dream. I dreamt that it was in the morning, he had to go to school and I had to go to the office, we were both in a hurry because we were late. We were very nervous. I think I have very high expectations for my son.
    My family is the centre of my life, especially my son. So if anything happens to him, it will show up in my dreams, like yesterday. In the dream, he was late for school, my alarm clock doesn’t work properly so we got up late. It was half past 8 and he still hadn’t left the house. I asked him why he didn’t go to school. He said he wouldn’t go today, he was late anyway. I got very angry, then I woke up. It was early in the morning, the sun was about to rise. My dreams are always a reflection of my life. Usually they are quite short, I don’t have long dreams.
    I’m an accountant. I worked for a state-owned company for over 20 years. In this company, the work was divided into very precise tasks, so everyone worked in his special area. But sometimes we exchanged knowledge with people from other areas, and we received a lot of training. The income wasn’t very high but it was stable. After the economic reform, our company closed down. Some of my colleagues and I went to work for a private company as accountants. Our boss is quite a nice person so our job is relatively relaxed. I get along quite well with my colleagues, although our relationship is not the same as in my former company where everyone knew each other very well and we always talked about everything. Now it’s more superficial. But the work environment is quite laid-back, we only work five days a week. It’s not that exhausting.
    This company is still in development, so when we finish a project, often we don’t have much to do. Sometimes, after we’re done with our morning work, we go out for a lunch break and then return to the office from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. Of course a private company is not comparable to a state-owned one, but because we have a nice boss, it’s quite enjoyable, we don’t have much trouble. I’m happy with this job, although my salary isn’t very high. But I’m living in an area that’s not so expensive, so I don’t have any problems. My husband and I are both working, it doesn’t all depend on me alone, so I don’t feel much pressure. Most of all, I’m concerned about my son, about his future, how he’s doing at school. I know that not everything will be perfect, but I’m happy that we don’t have much to worry about and that we make a good family.
    My husband is working in another province, on the coast. I’m alone here, taking care of the house and of our son. It’s not really a problem for me, though. Nowadays everything is much easier. I would say I’m about 70% satisfied. I have many good friends, they help me a lot with my work and my life, they are all really nice people. If my son has a successful life, then I’ll be 90% satisfied.