Chinese women have many good qualities that make them ideal wives. But, every marriage has problems, and the following rules may help you avoid conflicts and live happily with your Chinese wife.

Since I am an optimistic individual by nature, I shall begin with the merits of their qualities. Without any doubt, they are, abundantly, loyal to their families. They exert every possible effort to provide their families with clean, comfortable environments. They accomplish house chores without complaints. I was never asked to do any housework by my Chinese wife.

When it comes to managing the finances of their homes, Chinese wives are experts.

They tend to be overprotective of the future of their children. My own Chinese wife perceives me as an extravagant individual who spends his funds as if there is no tomorrow. She always calls me "Langfei", which means wasteful individual.

To illustrate my point, she gets angry if I take a taxi, throw out leftover food or eat out too often.

By no means, am I categorizing Chinese women as stingy or misers. Actually, they are abundantly generous toward their families and even toward strangers.

Another quality that merits mentioning is the concern about their reputation among their peers. A Chinese wife would never dare to commit any act that may tarnish her or her husband's reputation. Rarely, one hears about unfaithful Chinese wives. For certain, that is a commendable quality from my point of view.

I admire their awareness of the differences between the two genders without being superior or inferior to one another. They are not caught in the vicious cycle of attempting to prove that they are equal to men. Men and women are different in their physical attributes as well as their train of thoughts.

Apprehensively, I shall go through a couple of flaws.

Some of them, including my wife, are stubborn. By the way, I must acquire the courage to admit that I am as stubborn as she is. That led me to master the most useful Chinese characters "Zhidao" and "Dong", which mean "I know" and "I understand".

Those two terms saved me from wasting my energy on trivial arguments that might have led to inflicting mental anguish upon both of us. To give an example, I was unable to convince her that foreigners are not as romantic as they appear on movies.

Another shortcoming is their excessive use of the term "It is good for your health".

You may ask ,"What is wrong with being concerned about your health?" In my point of view, she is assuming that I am too stupid to know what is good for me or for my health and that is demeaning to my intelligence. On several occasions, I tried to convince her that I know what is good for me, in vain.

A foreigner can experience great happiness with his Chinese wife if he masters the two terms Zhidao and Dong and uses them to avoid trivial arguments.