The second of two beautiful granddaughters successfully negotiates with a customer on the small fish market at the coast.
She， too， is self-confident， critical， knows her own mind and is no appropriate partner who would wait on hand and foot for a Chinese husband wanting to be her lord. So she is another example demonstrating the problems of modern young women in China when trying to find suitable partners， even though they occupy a niche market. We will see that for men it is not that simple， either.
ChenLi (陈荔) is an independent artist (photography and visual) and lives in
ChangZhou (常州). She is a friend of ZhangMiao， they have studied English together. ChenLi was for years with her boyfriend from college days， but somehow he disappointed her. She separates from him and discovers then that she prefers lesbian. First， she kept that secret even from her college friend ZhangMiao， but then she and her lover “make out”. For several years they live together openly. Homosexual relations are by no means unusual in China any longer， at least not in the big -cities.
After the typhoon： one of the many sunken boats in the port.
Of course， not all the minor entrepreneurs of ShenZhen constantly worry about relationship problems. First of all they are laborious， brave， active and willing to take risks. Some of them do because they have had no other chance (ChaoMiao)， others because they cannot imagine to work as employees (Grandma LaoLao and her sons， or ZhouYing and ZhangMiao)， still others， such as MaLi， because they want to work in addition to their regular jobs， others again because they want to be rich， and ChenLi because she made her hobby into a career.
HaiQiang (海强) is someone who wants to get rich， but at the weekend he is football player in the “LaoNiu” team. There， he is the fastest and safest ball handler and can play all positions. He has an eye for goal， can play both outside positions and also organise the defence. If he is absent， the team is only half as strong. He plays football with the very same enthusiasm that he invests into his business. After he finished his studies， he has had an idea： He wants to sell high-purity cleaning and maintenance product for floors and windows， and his market shall be the electronics industry emerging in ShenZhen (and vicinity). He has no idea about this market nor of cleaning products. So he looks around， visits companies， asks what they need.
He perceives that these products are so far sold at rip-off prices. HaiQiang calls them “European prices”， which is for him equal to “overpriced”. He will cut the price by half and yet generate excellent profits. Everything with him is self-made – he looks for suitable staff， they are building the necessary equipment for the cleaning of commercial products (which as sold are not suitable for the electronics industry) and begin to introduce prospective clients to first samples for testing. Since he radically undercuts the current prices， the interest is large， he soon sells commercially relevant quantities.
After a few years， he is a wealthy (young) man， has 150 employees， he invites all his LaoNiu friends to the inauguration of a new company building so that they learn to know his staff as well. It is a casual happy gathering with loads of food， HaiQiang splashes out， serves lobster for everyone till nausea (and not just lobster). Without envy， everyone in the team recognises him as “our richest friend”， they all know he has made it himself.
In contrast， HuXie (胡偕)， as he is called at Tian Long， is rather dull. He barely manages to keep afloat with his business. He produces imitations of Adidas and Nike sports clothes， but because he is not the only one by far and because prices for imitations have hit rock-bottom， his is a tragic， dreadful business. HuXie lives up only when the team enjoys the joint dinner on Saturday night and when playing cards.
Our Korean player-coach in the TianLong team is a trader for rice. When you see him play football or hear him speak (both ways are reminiscent of a steam roller)， you can hardly imagine that he is selling rice during the week. One might rather think that he was a building contractor， a foreman， a dealer of used cars or the like. He can talk about rice varieties and their differences as sophisticated and subtle as (legendary) Greenlandic Inuit about varieties of snow. He buys rice that is grown in north-east China and sells it in the south of China. (“Only the rice from the North is really good because it grows slower！”)