Blame it on ...

Updated: 2016-08-22 07:23

By Raymond Zhou(China Daily)

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For the elitists, the seeds of this crisis lie in Wang's lack of education and sophistication, which did not prepare him for a relationship with someone obviously in another league both in education and looks. The way he publicized the family scandal is testament to his boorish upbringing.

Call it the negative version of: "You can take a boy out of the country, but you cannot take the country out of the boy." Wang may earn 26 million yuan ($3.9 million) a year and own nine properties in Beijing and Los Angeles, but he cannot change the "country bumpkin" persona that he really is, they said. You see, he is not a method actor and the reason he is valued on the silver screen is the same reason he does not have bombshells falling all over him.

It seems unnecessary, but I'll have to qualify my commentary by saying I do not personally know either Wang or Ma or Song. Even if I were a friend of theirs, as many claim online, I would not know everything that happened between them. Spousal squabbles are very common and you'd have to listen to both sides before you can get anything close to an unbiased picture.

Assuming everything Wang said was true, there are still crucial questions that puzzle me: Was Ma in love with him in the first few years of their six-year marriage or was she a gold-digger from the start? Is Wang prone to violence as she seems to suggest or was he provoked into it-if it did happen?

It may feel right to heap scorn on the adulterers, but if you're Wang's friend you may refrain from doing it. As the old saying goes, couples quarrel on one side of the bed and mend ties on the other. So you'll be a fool if you bad-mouth one of them while the fight is still on.

As for the elitist view, it's well, just too elitist. The assumption that Wang could not satisfy his wife intellectually or otherwise is simply reading too much into a couple they know nothing about other than the schools they attended. It was not only a put-down of Wang, whose success had a big dollop of street smarts and natural talent on top of the streak of luck he had, but was also demeaning to the wife, essentially implying that she was in it for the money all along.

Why not leave them to sort things out? They can seek out lawyers, marriage counselors and all forms of professional assistance if they want.

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