A poster of the TV series Ode to Joy. Photo: movie.douban.com

A top rating television show, Ode to Joy, explores the lives of five very different women living in the same apartment building in a middle-class neighborhood in Shanghai.

Two of these women are university graduates from smaller cities trying to establish lives in Shanghai. Another character is a 30-year-old unmarried HR manager trying to hook a wealthy husband - she comes from a poor and troubled family and has no hukou (household registration) or property in Shanghai.

Then there are two more upper-class women, a girl in her early 20s who runs a city branch of her father's company, and a 31-year-old woman who has returned from overseas and works as the chief financial officer for a big company in Shanghai.

Their different experiences and different approaches to life have entranced metropolitan viewers who see the show as a microcosm of city life for women.

To see how realistic and probable the television series is the Global Times talked to three women from outside the city who now work here to find out how they have established themselves and their lives in Shanghai.

From a low point

Angie Wu, a Canadian Chinese, shares a similar life story with Andy the lead character in Ode to Joy - both Andy and Wu grew up abroad, are independent and have successful careers.

 Wu came to Shanghai in February 2005 at a low point in her life. "I had just given up a promising career in Canada for a Spanish man I was going to marry. But we broke up, and when I left I had given him all my savings to help his family out of a difficult situation. So at 30 I ended up with no marriage, no job and no savings," she told the Global Times.

Her brother's start-up company had been thriving and he needed a marketing director in Shanghai so Wu's mom insisted she move to Shanghai and work for her brother.

"My brother told me that in Canada I would most likely be an employee all my life, but in China I could enjoy more opportunities and might own my own company one day," Wu said.

However, her first few months in China were a nightmare. She suffered a series of food poisoning attacks, and found she was seriously allergic to the Shanghai air, developing chronic cold symptoms.

"To be frank, I had only planned to stay for six months, and once I had saved enough money for an air ticket, I was going to leave," she said.

But three months later at a networking event she met the general manager of an American tool company. He was delighted to meet her - it turned out that she had the skillset he was looking for, specialized knowledge, work experience in the industry, as well as speaking four languages, and appreciating the Western work ethos and professionalism.

"He wanted to employ me as their chief representative in China, and offered me a generous salary package," she said. Both Wu's brother and mother thought this was a golden opportunity for her. And, though she was still thinking about leaving China, she took the challenge and accepted the position.

"I thought maybe I could stay and work in Shanghai for around two years, gain some entrepreneurial experience and save some money for my next move," she said. But she stayed with that firm for three years alongside a team of designers she had hired.

The show has Shanghai as the background to stories about women who work there. Photo: CFP

A sense of belonging

It wasn't just her career that blossomed - she met her current boyfriend in 2007 and bought an apartment in Shanghai. "After I met a guy I love and owned property in Shanghai, I started to have a sense of belonging to this city," she said.

She left the tool company after three years there and then in 2009 she had another lucky break. "My previous boss in Canada contacted me and told me that his company had won a big museum project in Yunnan Province, and needed a chief representative in China to oversee this. He thought I was the perfect candidate for this position," Wu said. She took the post and worked on that project for three years.

After having worked for companies and clients for several years, she felt it was time for her to realize her own dreams and invest her passion and creativity into her own projects. She started designing and making jewelry, launching her own cotemporary jewelry brand AWÜ in 2014.

"I think everyone has a mission in his/her life, and mine is to bring beautiful things to the world," Wu said. "Handicraft is my strength and passion, and by making beautiful items, I bring beauty and happiness to people," said Wu.

Like the television character she is serious and disciplined in her relationships. She has had many men interested in her but most have been Westerners.

"When a woman is financially independent, she realizes that her skills and abilities can guarantee her a basic life, and she no longer needs to rely on men for survival. At that point, she has higher expectations for a lifetime partner. In my case, true love is my major requirement."

Struggling with the cost

University graduate Xu Guangning shares some features with the two youngest characters of the television show - she's a graduate, living away from her parents, struggling to cope with the expense of living in Shanghai and dealing with a competitive working environment.

Xu comes from a middle-class family in Jiangsu Province and expects to graduate from a Shanghai university in June. Currently she interns at a small foreign advertising company in Jing'an district.

Like many others, Xu wants to succeed in Shanghai rather than go back to her hometown. "I spent my undergraduate years in Shanghai, and this is an advantage in applying for jobs, because Shanghai companies prefer graduates from local universities. Also, my major is English, so it is easier for me to find a good job in Shanghai," she said.

But the moment Xu stepped outside her university gates, Shanghai's competitiveness and the pressure of life here stunned her.

Competition for internships is so intense now it took her more than two months to find a position. And she is unsure whether she will be able to stay at her current company when her internship ends.

Official figures show that there are 183,000 graduates in Shanghai in 2016, about 6,000 more than that in 2015. The soaring number of university graduates means that finding an internship or a job has become extremely competitive, especially for female liberal-art students.

Apart from the stress of work, Xu was also unaccustomed to Shanghai's overcrowded long commutes. She spends around two hours commuting between her school and her workplace every weekday.

"In peak hours, the metro carriages are really overcrowded. Some passengers wear nice clothes and carry luxury handbags but they still have to be jammed into the carriages," Xu said. "Since property prices and rents are so high, even with decent salaries, many people here can only afford small apartments in the suburbs, and have to spend a lot of time commuting."

It's not ideal but she feels this is how she must also live if she stays in Shanghai. Her big headache currently is finding a place to live in after graduation.

"I want to rent a place before June, because I heard rents will increase in June as hundreds of thousands of graduates will flood into the market," she said.

Xu has been spending most weekends recently searching for an apartment.

Because rents are soaring her original plan of finding a nice place close to her work has been abandoned and she is hunting for a basic place in the suburbs. Official figures show that the average rent increased by 19.5 percent over 2015 and is expected to continue increasing in 2016.

Xu is also concerned that she will not be able to save. "My starting salary in the advertising company is around 5,000 yuan ($767). I have to spend around 2,300 yuan on rent every month, and around 1,500 yuan on food and transport. I have nothing left for buying clothes or entertainment," she said. She might have to get some financial help from her family.

The average monthly salary for Shanghai's 2016 university graduates is between 4,000 yuan and 6,000 yuan. It would appear to be impossible for graduates from other provinces to save money when they start work here.

Being patient

While life in the city immediately after graduation might seem tough Ge Dejing's experience suggests that hanging in there might well be worth it.

Ge in her mid-30s came from a small town in Chongqing Municipality. Like Fan Shengmei, in the television show, Ge is unmarried and in her 30s. But unlike Fan who is desperate to marry a wealthy man, Ge has made her own independent life.

She had worked in Guangzhou and Beijing before coming to Shanghai in October 2003. "Coming to Shanghai was the best decision I ever made." She had disliked the strict social hierarchy in Beijing and felt much more at home in the more relaxed social environment of Shanghai.

She first worked as a purchaser for a Spanish cosmetics company. Two years later, she jumped to a Taiwanese company and worked as a purchasing manager. Her third job was with an American corporation and this was where she struck lucky.

"My new job kept me in close contact with foreigners and let me travel around the world. I have met many interesting people and been to many beautiful places," Ge said. Her monthly salary was far above the average.

With this higher salary Ge began to save and in 2008 she bought an apartment in Shanghai, because she felt Shanghai was the most suitable city for her, and decided to settle here.

"Few of the non-local women I know own property in Shanghai, and most of them think it's not up to a woman to buy an apartment," she said. She is sure she has made the right decision.

Now she has left the American company and is setting up as an entrepreneur.

She knows she has been lucky. "There are many non-local women who are unmarried, working in low-paid jobs and not owning property or having Shanghai hukou."

Though she has a comfortable life now, she did struggle after graduation but rarely accepted handouts from her family.

"My parents have never lived in big cities. So how could I expect them to help me solve the problems I encountered in Shanghai? If I couldn't solve them, my parents couldn't either," she said.

She advises young people to persevere in Shanghai even if it is hard going early on. If the first wage can cover basic living expenses they should be patient. "If young people gain new skills and experience from the first job, they are very likely to get better paid in their second or third jobs, and soon they will be able to have a better standard of living," she said.
Newspaper headline: Success in the city