This is because Watson and Tieyi have never experienced married life before they got married. Watson is an economist, a senior professor of humanities and social sciences at Southeast University, and the president of the National Development and Policy Research Institute. His wife is Tie Ning, chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and chairman of the Chinese Writers Association. Neither of them has been married before.

In addition, the first marriage relationship between Watson and Tie Ning also reflected the social view of marriage at that time. In 1980s, China people's concept of marriage gradually changed, and they began to pay more attention to personal freedom and happiness, not just family and social factors.