Love's twists and turns

6. Struggle for romance

Previous generations of Chinese expressed their affection much differently from how young people do today. It was not long ago that most people were more timid, but Xie Guozhen's love interest was not just any man.

Xie and Zhao Kunpeng lived in the same community, where, on a day in 1972, the 21-year-old woman caught Zhao's eye.

From then on, almost every time Xie appeared in the alley, Zhao would appear unexpectedly and talk to her.

"Sometimes when I thought, 'Oh, I'm so lucky today that nobody is following me,' he would suddenly show up and call my name. I was scared and embarrassed," Xie said.

Once when Zhao appeared at the door of Xie's home, Xie's mother scolded the young man and warned him to leave her alone.

"We had just started working," Xie said. "My mother didn't want us to talk about romance before we had decent jobs." She gradually developed affection for the determined Zhao but she was driven from her home three times that year because of the relationship.

The turning point came in 1978, when Zhao moved to a housing construction team and Xie's family apartment needed to be furnished. His work impressed her mother.

Zhao and Xie both got promoted at the end of that year and Xie's mother finally gave her approval for them to wed.