I fell in love with this book — or rather with its cheerful, art naïf illustrations — the moment I saw it in the library. Now I finished reading and it didn’t disappoint. Did Pingru also fall in love with Meitang like that, the moment he saw her for the first time? Most probably not. Which makes their story even more amazing. What started as a “normal”, that is, arranged, marriage, lasted for sixty years, literally till death did them part. By then 86, Pingru started to work on what became Our Story. At the time, he did not think of publishing it: “When my wife died, I wanted to tell the story of our life to my children and grandchildren. Nothing more”, he says.
In 1958 Pingru was sent to a labour camp in for “re-education”. The government officials tried to persuade Meitang to divorce him. She flatly refused. Pingru stayed in the camp until 1979. The book concludes with some letters of Meitang to Pingru from that period. In spite of their largely mundane content (family, weather, expenses, food etc.), every single one is a letter of love.
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