Some things, such as dress, language, and music, vary between cultures, but some things are bigger than one region, time, or people. These things cross traditional cultural boundaries and are experienced by all people, from the booming metropolises to the tribal village. Boswell's London Journal by James Boswell, Wild Swans by Jung Chang, and Six Records of a Floating Life by Shen Fu show that condition and necessity transcend culture.
To survive, many people must make great sacrifices. In Boswell, Lady Betty married Macfarlane to support herself and her sisters. Jamie Boswell describes her as a woman without virtue and as being unclean for doing such a thing, but without making such a sacrifice, her family would have had to barely scrape by in poverty. In Six Records of a Floating Life, Yun developed a talent at needlework, which provided for her, her mother and her brother. It also provided the money necessary for her brother's school tuition. During a time when the "socially acceptable" woman was one with limited skill and intellect, Yun developed skills that were necessary to sustain her family and to help her brother try to better their situation. In Wild Swan, Yang's mother and father worked long and hard so that he could receive an education and have a better life than they had. His father as a felt maker and his mother, working odd sewing jobs for different tailors, worked to the point that their joints became swollen, and they worked in near dark to save money causing then permanent eye damage. The did all of this so that Yang could have a better life.
People will do anything for social acceptance. Boswell makes a fool of himself publicly and publishes these exploits into debauchery to create a spectacle of himself. Like they say, any attention is good attention. Boswell is desperate for attention by the masses and he will do anything, no matter how humiliating to get it. In Six Records, Yun is desperate for the...