I was truly shaken after reading Guo Wanying's story. This is the story of the fourth daughter of the Guo family at Yong'an Department Store: from a well-dressed capitalist socialite on the Shanghai Bund to later eking out a living alone in a shabby room on 8 fen’s worth of plain noodles—her life spans such a huge range that it’s hard to imagine.

Born in Australia in 1909, at age 15 she returned to Shanghai with her father, attended the Chinese-Western Girls’ School, and was a classmate of the three Soong sisters. At 19, she refused a marriage contract arranged for her by a family friend from the same social circle; she then insisted on going north to study psychology at Yenching University—something that truly required considerable courage at the time. Later, at Yenching, she met an outstanding MIT student, Wu Yuxiang, and in 1934 the two of them held a widely talked-about wedding with a hundred tables.

But the marriage was not as wonderful as people would imagine. Her husband was flirtatious and addicted to gambling, and he was left with debts amounting to 140,000. Guo Wanying, while tolerating and maintaining the marriage, bore the weight of it all by herself. In 1949, the family moved to the United States, but she chose to stay behind, guarding her homeland. In 1957, when her husband was classified as a rightist and died of illness, her status instantly changed from a capitalist socialite into someone who needed to be transformed: her salary dropped directly from 148 yuan to 23 yuan.

In those years, she was assigned to repair roads and dig out manure. She lived in a 7-square-meter drafty shack. With a monthly salary of 23 yuan—after deducting 15 yuan for her son’s living expenses—she had only 6 yuan left to make ends meet with extreme care. She sold her belongings to repay debts; even her wedding dress was confiscated, yet she was never reported to have complained about anything. Later, her children all went to the United States. In her 80s, Guo Wanying lived alone in a room without heating, but she still insisted on grooming herself neatly and cleanly, drinking tea from enamel cups and steaming cakes in an aluminum pot.

Foreign media wanted to use her suffering as material for stories, but she refused. When she died in 1998 at the age of 89, she donated her body and left no ashes. From the fourth miss of Yong’an to a woman who worked scraping mud, Guo Wanying proved with her whole life what truly noble spirit is. It isn’t because of wealth; it’s the composure and steadfastness in the face of hardship—that is true dignity.