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Q: How can they afford those things?
I've been living in China for more than 4 years. When I was a student I didn't realize it as much since most of my friends where students too. Now that I work though, I have been asking myself how can my colleagues afford certain things such as expensive bags, makeup, phones (most of them have changed their iPhones at least twice within the past year and a half) travel and save money too. I don't mean to sound racist at all but my assistant says she doesn't want to wash her hair to save money and yet owns a coat worth 5000 rmb (true story, I was with her when she bought it).
My Chinese colleagues criticize me and all the other foreign coworkers because 'with all the money we get' we should have better lifestyles.
Am I missing something?
I don't live in Shanghai or Beijing and salaries for Chinese are pretty low. That said, how is it possible? Do they rely on their parents?
Don't tell me that after four years you haven't learnt? Most girls, let's just say, make men pay for those goodies. How they do so I'll just leave it to your imagination. You are right that they can't afford all the expensive stuff based on their low salaries. Not washing hair to save up? That's just a deflector to save face. Ask how they got their iPads and iPhones.
xinyuren:
This is the best answer. Young men don't live this way. Young girls do! When I was single and living alone, I can't tell you how many young girls I saw exiting my apartment building dressed like hookers and getting into some man's Audi or BMW. Like the sands in the sea. Where were they going? I think that's easy to guess.
Liufenxue:
That could be true but trust me, none of the girls in our office could or would dress like that. They are those who would wear grandma's pants and glasses. Expensive but still... Grandma's pants.
sorrel:
the girls in the office might not dress like that in the office, but once out the door......
it is the same with many of the girls in university.
During the day time, they are 'traditional' but at the weekend, not so much.
A big complaint amongst male students is that the most beautiful girls on campus are seen getting into large black cars with their 'uncles' . It is not to buy ice-cream.
mike695ca:
Jesus. Are you implying that every chinese girl with an iphone is a hooker? Typical poor jealous laowai. Yes with a population this big it will seem like there are alot of hookers everywhere. But the fact is the vast majority are used to live in crappy dorms and eating 6 kuai noodles every day. They are comfortable with it and thus have more legit savings then 90 percent of the people on this site and on a far smaller salary. You try it. Live in a dorm. It lanzhou la mian every day. Never go to a bar and see how much you have at the end of the month. Its really sad that many (not all) spend beyond there means NEED to go to the pub thrice a week and when they have no money at the end of the month cant possibly look at themselves and their own habits so all chinese woman with an expensive bag are in fact hookers. Brilliant.
louischuahm:
Mike@ I make no such insinuation. I simply said women here usually get their men to buy their expensive stuff here, by whatever means I leave to one's imagination. And I am not a laowai ( this term usually means a westerner in China, correct me if I am wrong ), much less a jealous one. I agree that some (and I mean some) women do save up and buy their own stuff. Based on an average 2500RMB salary a month, perhaps they may have to eat Lanzhou la mien, walk to work and not wash their hair for a year to afford a basic Louis Vuitton bag. To buy an iPhone, they'd have to do the same thing for maybe 4 months?
expatlife26:
You mentioned you're a Singaporean professional, right Louis?
What I think mike is talking about, which obviously doesn't apply to you, are the westerners who come here thinking they're going to escape 'western materialism' (not likely) but also hypocritically expect that their 6000 RMB/month salaries make them special. Every successful Chinese person must be a corrupt govt. official, and every professional expat must be a soulless businessman who isn't "tough enough to handle the real china"
louischuahm:
Yes, expatlife, I am a Singaporean and yes, you explained exactly what I thought mike was saying.
Let's say she saves 5 RMB per head wash, a wash a day because she cares a lot about her appearance. The coat is roughly worth 2 years and 6 months of strictly no head washing. She should have nice dreadlocks by now.
icnif77:
There's only one Q on dreadlocks: 'Are they 'nappy' or 'natty'
dreads?
Liufenxue:
Showers and cleanliness are hot topics in our office. Most girls in our department rarely shower in winter.
DrMonkey:
@Liufenxue When I was working at the univ., most of my students were not showering daily, if I judge by the smell. It was so bad, when some students came to my office to report on their tutored projects, I had to hide my nose under my shirt. On average, male were the worst. My in-laws don't shower much in winter, due to the poorly-installed water heating, itself due to poor craftsmanship. At home, I had to push a bit for my wife to have a daily shower. I don't think it's to save money, more of a habit.
That's the most mysterious thing in China.
I've never known how can Mainland Chinese balance their finance with the salary they earn like a few thousands. However, they live more luxurious than I do. Always go KTV, drink with bills in hundreds at once, travel (yes, even though it's just still in China provinces), Iphone, etc....
Well, I can only assume that they have other income as Chinese always have ways to get money.
1. They sold their internal organs (true story! a guy sold his for an Iphone)
2. Rich parents ( somebody in my company owns 2 real estates in early 20's)
3. Rich boyfriends
4. In debts
5. They don't eat to save the money
Liufenxue:
I do think that parents are a big help. But I know some of my Chinese coworker's parents and most of them are just regular people with normal salaries. I know it happens in the West too, parents giving more than they can afford just so that they can make their children happy. But still, those things are expensive!
Could be many reasons, for example:
- Living with the parents or in the company's dormitory, making their salary effectively being pocket money, which is not a problem for many Chinese. Don't forget in terms of maturity you can easily substract 5 to 10 years to the age of your workmates.
- Making ridiculous economies on everything. Yes, some people can eat just rice for months just to afford random faceworthy useless items. In general, people don't care about comfort like you do, and trust me, when you are willing to go down to the line of mere survival to spare, you can actually spare quite the sum.
- Having boyfriends or else pay for those.
- Your workmates probably earn more than you think.
DrMonkey:
He he, I remember being told "Chinese academics income is capped, so I can't pay you more than this.". I look at the car park, fellow academics have a nice Audi, own his flat. How he does this ? Well, he visit companies and get small R&D tasks from them, he gives that to students as "internship" or "projects", and he keeps the change. So, yup, Audi and flat paid.
voltasingh:
So many my colleagues owns big car like VW etc.. and lives in Dormitory.. what you will say on this..
Liufenxue:
I don't know if they have any other business but in my department they highest salary for Chinese is 4000 RMB. Most of the people I work with get as little as 1800 RMB. The cleaning lady in our building gets more than that.
My feeling from talking to cowokers is for your average "Zhou BMW Driver" (i.e. not a govt official or CEO, just a guy with a $200K car and a $70K salary) their money comes from family real-estate investments. Like lets say in Shanghai a native family got their farmland bought out in 1989 for 200K RMB. That's nothing now, but back then when everyone else was broke they bought 2-3 apartments with it. Then those got sold, and they just kept trading up throughout the rising tide until now the family as a whole is worth $10 million in property holdings and have cash to burn.
High-salary positions are generally held by people who come from families of means. Most of my coworkers, I mean they aren't all princelings or whatever and to man pretty smart people, but they come from richer families who traded a favor to someone else for a banking job for their kid. JPmorgan got in big trouble with the US securities exchange commission last year because this was a documented policy.
When they think it's wierd that you are living below your means...it's because to them for a person with a high salary, that salary is just the tip of the iceberg. If you had the background necessary to get that 40K+ monthly salary then the salary itself isn't your main source of wealth creation. How could someone get such a good job without coming from an influential family to help them get it?
KimOnach:
Which is why the image of the visionary, mature and enlightened city man they usually try to sell in car advertisements always make me laugh so hard.
No China, you're never gonna get those.
expatlife26:
That's not true...there are some great people here. Not many as a percentage of the total, but there are smart, poised, more-or-less socially conscious people.
I have the same image in my head of the fat, bumbling, mean-spirited rich guy here who talks a lot of shit despite having no skill at all, and there are a lot of those people. But having lived in Anhui, I think the native big-city types who are at least one full generation removed from abject poverty can be fairly progressive. It's usually the kids whose parents made it(maybe from something stupid), but whose grandparents still had to contend with starvation-level stress who have those really shitty values and its definitely worse out in the provinces.
Does it really matter ? Each man on his own. Someone might selling organs or her body, starving......would you do any of these things for a so called better lifestyle? Don't let others' happiness be a cause of your sadness !
Those items could actually be knock offs too. China's really good at making knock offs. And if it gets you a very similar quality for a fraction of the price, why not? For a normal person, dropping 50 bucks on a Calvin Klein T shirt is just ludicrous. Textiles are easy to duplicate.
Next time you see a Chanel or Golce & Gabana (however you spell that) just pay a tad bit more attention to detail and you'll see. Other day I saw a Chick wearin one of those brand name jackets but a label said it was from the Men's collection. Didn't seem to be a masculine item with all that fur lining. xD
Also wanted to add that Chinese make low wages but they are mad savers..........
