Getting Married at 81

Jin Shengtan says, "People over 30 should not become an official, and people over 50 should not get married. Why? Because otherwise they would be doing the wrong thing at the wrong time." That is representative of the mentality of people at large in China. According to the Chinese outlook on life, it is most enviable "to achieve success in one's early years" but most sorrowful "to fail to achieve it until one's old age". Hence, even a successful man will feel like going to retirement when he is on the wrong side of 50. And those who continue to work out of necessity in their sixties or seventies must bemoan their plight. However, considering that men seldom live up to the age of 80, their personal concerns may seem to be impeccable. But, from the standpoint of a worthy cause, they are wrong. Because the older one is, the more knowledgeable and experienced he is and therefore the more indispensable he is to a great cause. Moreover, one should conduct oneself with self-confidence. Calling yourself a good-for-nothing on account of age manifests your lack of vitality. The same is true of a nation. Self-confidence has a lot to do with its rise and fall. Unlike us Chinese, Westerners usually go in for great undertakings in late life. The recent cases of two Western senior politicians set a good example for us and serve to give us a shot in the arm. One was 72-year-old US secretary of state Cordell Hull, who went to Moscow to attend the 3-power conference in the limelight of the world. The other was former British prime minister Lloyd George, who got married at the age of 81. Their activities afforded proof of their vitality and youthful spirit. The way to live a meaningful life and fully utilize the transient days of one's life is by continuing to work vigorously in old age rather than retire.

Our national cause now rests, for the most part, on the shoulders of our middle-aged men—men in their forties or fifties. Middle-aged fellow countrymen, roll up your sleeves to strive for our distant goal!