Su Min, a 56-year-old retiree from Henan Province in central China, has become famous online because of her solo road trip. She posted video updates as she drove and in October, one of them went viral on Douyin, the Chinese TikTok. In it, she described how oppressed she had felt by housework and her husband. Millions watched the video, sharing it with labels like "runaway wife."
Her main appeal is not the scenic views she captures, but her accounts of her abusive marriage, dissatisfaction with domestic life and newfound freedom. Older women send her messages about how painfully familiar her story feels; for younger women, she is an adviser about marriage. "I wish my mother could be like Auntie Su and live for herself, instead of being trapped by life," read a comment on one of her videos. Her unexpected popularity demonstrates a flourishing awareness of gender equality in China.
Ms. Su used to work in a fertilizer factory and she married her husband at 23. She thought marriage might be a way out of the endless chores she shouldered. But instead she found herself laden with even more housework, as well as verbal and physical abuse She resigned herself to her unhappy life at home. Then, in late 2019, she came across a video online of someone introducing their solo road trip. She remembered her childhood dream of driving—the freedom and comfort it had represented. Over the following months, shedevouredevery video she could find about road trips and made up her mind: Once her grandsons entered preschool, she would set out on a trip of her own. On Sep. 24, she fixed her tent to the top of her Polo car and set off from her home in the city of Zhengzhou.
Ms. Su journeyed across the country while making her videos, in which she was grateful for her newfound freedom. In March. Net-a-Porter, the luxury shopping website, even featured Ms. Su in an advertisement for International Women's Day. Still, Ms. Su blushed when asked about her new fume and said she was not yet qualified to be called a feminist (女权主义者). "It took me so many years to realize that I had to live for myself."
