Su Min: The year China’s famous road-tripping ‘auntie’ found freedom

Su Min, a Taiwanese grandmother, was never going to become a female icon.

When she hit the road in her light Ford car with a top camp and her income in 2020, she was just trying to escape her abusive partner.

She recalls the time she drove aside from her previous life,” I felt like I was finally catch my breath.” I believed I could succeed and achieve my goals in life.

Over the next four years and 180, 000 yards, the film journals she shared of her adventures, while detailing centuries of anguish, earned her thousands of girls online. They referred to her as the “road-tripping aunt,” because she unintentionally became a hero for people who felt trapped in their own life.

Her story has been included on the BBC’s record of 100 encouraging and influential people of 2024, and it is now a popular movie that was released in September, Like a Rolling Stone.

It was a time of great times, but if she had to explain what 2024 meant to her in a single syllable, she says that word would get “freedom”.

Su Min said to the BBC over the telephone from Shenyang that she felt more free when she started driving, just before she left for the winter in her novel SUV with a convoy.

But it wasn’t until 2024, when she suddenly filed for divorce, that she experienced “another sort of freedom”.

It took a while to get there because the divorce process in China is complicated, and she refused to marriage him until she agreed to pay him. They settled on 160, 000 yuan ($ 21, 900, £17, 400 ) but she is still waiting for the divorce certificate to come through.

But she is decisive that she doesn’t want to seem again:” I’m saying goodbye to him”.

In her fresh life on the road, Su Min’s work is to herself.

Her films primarily contain her alone. Although she drives only, she never seems unhappy. She shares what she has been cooking, how she spent the day before, and where she plans to go after filming her excursion with her fans.

Her visitors travels with her to sites they never knew they had long for – Xinjiang’s snow-capped hills, Yunnan’s old river towns, sparkling blue lakes, large grasslands, countless deserts.

They laud her bravery and envy the freedom she embraced. They had only recently heard such a raw first-hand account of the daily demands of a” Chinese auntie.”

“You’re so brave! You chose to break free”, wrote one follower, while another urged her to “live the rest of your life well for yourself”!. One woman sought advice because she too “dreams of driving alone” and an awe-struck follower said:” Mom, look at her! When I get older, I’ll live a colourful life like hers if I don’t get married”!

For some, the takeaways are more pragmatic yet inspiring:” After watching your videos, I’ve learned this: as women, we must own our own home, cultivate friendships far and wide, work hard to be financially independent, and invest in unemployment insurance”!

Through it all, Su Min processes her own past. She is reminded of herself by a stray cat she encounters on the way, who has “weathered the wind and rain for years while still loving this world that dusts our faces.” Because her husband refused to allow spicy food during her marriage, a visit to the market, where she smells chili peppers, invokes” the smell of freedom.”

Su Min had been the devoted daughter, wife, and mother for years despite her husband’s repeated beatings.

She claims,” I wanted to stay in my marriage for life because I was a traditional woman.” ” But eventually I saw that I got nothing in return for all my energy and effort – only beatings, violence, emotional abuse and gaslighting”.

Her husband, Du Zhoucheng, has admitted to hitting her. ” It’s my mistake that I beat you”, he said in a video she recently shared on Douyin, TikTok’s China platform.

A high school graduate, he had a government job in the water resources ministry for 40 years before retiring, according to local media reports. He told an outlet in 2022 that he beat his wife because she “talked back” and that it was” an ordinary thing”:” In a family, how can there not be some bangs and crashes”?

Su Min married Du Zhoucheng “really to avoid my father’s control, and to avoid the whole family”.

She was born and raised in Tibet up until 1982, when her family moved to Henan, a bustling province in a valley near the Yellow River. She had just finished high school and found work in a fertiliser factory, where most of her female colleagues, including those younger than 20, already had husbands.

Her marriage was arranged by a matchmaker, which was common at the time. She had spent the majority of her life raising her father and three younger brothers. ” I wanted to change my life”, she says.

Only two days prior to the wedding, the couple met. She wasn’t looking for love, but she hoped that love would grow once they married.

Su Min did not find love. However, she did have a daughter, which is one reason she persuaded herself to put up with the abuse.

” We are always so afraid of being ridiculed and blamed if we divorce, so we all choose to endure, but in fact, this kind of patience is not right”, she says. ” I later learned that, in fact, it can have a considerable impact on children. The child really doesn’t want you to endure; instead, they want you to stand up bravely and provide them with a harmonious home.

She thought of leaving her husband after her daughter got married, but soon she became a grandmother. Once more duty came when her daughter had twins. She believed she had to assist in their care, despite the fact that she had already been depressed.

” I felt that if I didn’t leave, I would get sicker”, she says. She promised to take her daughter’s care until they were all in kindergarten before departing.

While browsing social media in 2019, she discovered the source of her escape’s inspiration. She discovered a video of a person living in their van while traveling. This was it, she thought to herself. This was her exit strategy.

Even the pandemic did not prevent her. She left her Zhengzhou marital home in September 2020 and scurried through more than 400 cities and 20 provinces of China.

It’s a choice that has undoubtedly had a positive impact on women in China. To her millions of followers, Su Min offers comfort and hope. ” We women are not just someone’s wife or mother… Let’s live for ourselves”! wrote one follower.

Many of them have shared struggles with their mothers. They claim that they too feel trapped in suffocating unions, and some claim that their tales have sparked their exit from abusive relationships.

One of the top comments on one of her most popular videos reads,” You are a hero to thousands of women, and many now see the chance of a better life because of you.”

” When I turn 60, I hope I can be as free as you”, another comment says.

A third woman asks:” Auntie Su, can I travel with you? I’ll cover all the expenses. I simply want to travel with you. In my current state of being, I feel so enslaved and depressed.

” Can you have the life of your dreams”? Su Min paused to consider the call. ” I want to tell you that no matter how old you are, you will undoubtedly find your answer as long as you work hard.” Just like me, even though I’m 60 now, I found what I was looking for”.

She acknowledges that it wasn’t easy and that she had to live comfortably on her pension. She believed that the video blogs might be able to raise some money; she had no idea that they would go viral.

She discusses her most recent challenge, separating, and what she has learned from her past.

” I haven’t got my divorce certificate yet, because the law has a cooling-off period and we are now in that period”.

One of her followers wrote that the money she paid her husband was “worth every penny”, adding:” Now it’s your turn to see the world and live a vibrant, unrestrained life. Congratulations, Auntie- here’s to a colourful and fulfilling future”!

She claims that it’s challenging to divorce because “many of our laws in China are intended to protect the family.” Women often dare not divorce because of family disharmony”.

At first, she thought that Du Zhoucheng’s behaviour might improve with time and distance, but she said he still threw “pots and pans” at her on her return.

In the last few years, he has only called her twice, once because he wanted her to return 81 yuan ( £0.90 ) and her highway access card was tied to his credit card. She says she hasn’t used that card since then.

Su Min continues to make plans for more trips and hopes to one day travel abroad, unaffected by the delay in getting a divorce.

She is concerned about overcoming language barriers, but she is confident that her story will have the same impact in China.

” Women in every country are different, but I would like to say that no matter what kind of environment you are in, you must treat yourself well. Learn to love yourself, because only when you love yourself can the world be full of sunshine”.

Additional reporting by Fan Wang in Singapore