One of my oldest friends here has recently become ensnared by a particularly domineering girlfriend: she moved in with him only days after their relationship had been consummated, immediately imposed a complete veto on his former social life, and started demanding marriage. It is the Chinese way, I gather. The slight problem here is that he still has a wife back in the UK, and - rather like the protagonist in Ha Jin's novel Waiting - he has been trying (half-heartedly) and failing to go through with a divorce for quite some time now.
I have suggested to him that the better policy would be to find an additional girlfriend. The logic of my advice is summed up in this famous limerick.
There once was an old man of Lyme
Who married three wives at one time.
When asked, "Why the third?"
He replied, "One's absurd!
And bigamy, sir, is a crime."
William Cosmo Monkhouse (1840-1901)
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