It’s hard not to walk around pretty much any part of Shanghai and not be struck by the boom in residential real estate. At the local mall, I was awestruck by an impressive model of a new apartment complex (and had to then beat a quick retreat from a persistent saleswoman). On a sojourn to Songjiang, a suburb of Shanghai, I noticed new and newish looking hi-rise apartment complexes along the 45 minute highway ride, and especially out in the suburbs. Actually, everything here in Shanghai screams to me: housing bubble. What is key to any bubble is the widespread belief that no bubble could possibly exist here in China, due to population and other factors. Even if it is not a bubble, as this NYT article points out, fast-rising real-estate prices is driving many Chinese men out of the marriage market.
BEIJING — In the realm of eligible bachelors, Wang Lin has a lot to recommend him. A 28-year-old college-educated insurance salesman, Mr. Wang has a flawless set of white teeth, a tolerable karaoke voice and a three-year-old Nissan with furry blue seat covers. ..
But by the exacting standards of single Chinese women, it seems, Mr. Wang lacks that bankable attribute known as real property. Given that even a cramped, two-bedroom apartment on the dusty fringe of the capital sells for about $150,000, Mr. Wang’s $900-a-month salary means he may forever be condemned to the ranks of the renting.
Last year, he said, this deficiency prompted a high-end dating agency to reject his application. In recent months, half a dozen women have turned down a second meeting after learning that he had no means to buy a home.
The article is pretty unsparing about Chinese women, making them seem overly materialistic and deeply unromantic. Having never raised this subject with my students (and feeling a bit uncomfortable about doing so), I am not sure whether it can be called accurate. I am tempted to sign up for a local dating service, just to find out (although I doubt my wife would approve of the experiment).
In any event, is this another sign of China becoming too materialistic? The idea that China is very, or even unusually materialistic, is an easy conclusion for foreigners to make. Money, saving or spending, is a big part of life here.
But money, and wealth, has always been an important part of Chinese society. Chinese society wishes you “prosperity” and “wealth” at the New Year. Perhaps it is simply a sign that traditional Chinese values (e.g. man provides for wife, wife has no co-equal economic duty to provide for husband) are still quite strong, even in a fast-moving society where such values are hard to translate.
The more I think about this, the more true it seems. What shocks me about the article is the fact that the Chinese women quoted don’t seem to think they have, or should have, an equal duty to contribute to their family’s economic wealth. The idea that they do not seems more of a traditional Chinese conception of a woman’s role.
Traditional Chinese values probably never went away, but they are probably making a comeback as other systems of social conduct and morals fall by the wayside. So the article is not really just about the new, fastmoving Chinese real-estate market. It is also about the less dramatic comeback of the Old China.
This is actually quite common in the big cities in China, especially in Shanghai. Although as a local male Shanghainese involving in such situations, on one hand I fell so upset to face to all these stuffs and such kind of woman in my future. On the other hand, I can somewhat understand these New China Chinese women. In this high speed society, everyone is trying hard to make his/her life better. And, all the normal earnings by normal people comparing to the high house price are too small. We may think, to rent an apartment may also offer a young couple a place to live. But this opinion does not apply to everywhere. At least in Shanghai, a girl’s parents will focus much on whether their daughter will live a happy life after she’s got married. This might be a result of the One Child Policy. We may not think something from a total economic base or legal base, the cultural and custom matters should not be neglected. The word “Trend” is sometimes frightening. It may change the behaviors of people which had been followed for thousands of years.
I cannot agree with you,Mr ku.Individuals of any race can be materialistic. It truly depends on the individual, not the race.
I would like to say it is not the chinese women that are materialistic, but it is some chinese people that are materialistic. It cannnot be judged from the sex. A few men are drived out of the marriage market because they cannot afford a appartment, but there are women who are rejected by the males because they can buy a house! It is just because people have their own dignity, concerns, and attitude to life and marriage. It happens everywhere, not limited to china.
Well, despite how reluctant to say, but admit it, it is true that this happened everywhere in China.
But, I still think perhaps what the people saw is the things that happened before marrige, but how the things going after marrige, this is still a question?
The husband that have a house may do what ever he want to slave the wife, doing all the housework, taking care of their parents and child, suddenly it become the duly of the wife alone.And it is ture that Traditional Chinese values is never went away.But what’s more in it is the proude of offering a house, a basic ,a big contribution to the family.
So , that why i still believe that someone one like us who have been studied law won’t take that move. For, you do not want to leave the house when someday there is a quarrel and you husband shouted at you “get away, it is my house！” Joking~
But sadly, the big trend won’t give it’s way to it for there is accturely so many pressure being take for everyone who leave in some so-called big city in China. And lucky women is the one who need to protect.
Women who are materialistic exist in every country,I think that’s the choice of themselves,because different people have diferent values for life.
Even now in China many women pay more attention to money,house and other things than only to love and the real emotion,that’s not sole the China’s problem.In my opinion,the reason is that China now in a special period,with the rapid development of economies and politics,there are more and more social problems, for example,the marrige problem. So this situation is complex and affectted by many factors.
I think most women would like to marry the man who they love.
An disturbingly large number of Chinese women are becoming very materialistic and extremely unromantic. A lot of Chinese women seem incapable of loving any men, except themselves. Their preoccupation is MONEY. They gang together to discuss tactics and strategies.I know because I have had truly loved and supported a very ungrateful Chinese woman. I later found out that MOST of her friends are like that .. flowers with a stench. They only chase after men with money and pretend to love them in order to gain access to their money, support and foreign passports amongst other things. Once they have achieved their goal, they move on to another kind unsuspecting victim. These Chinese women only know how to stretch out their hands and demand money, quite often in pretentious ways. I would say that nine out of 10 are smelly flowers. In fact, they are expert actresses and their ability to shed crocodile tears and to tell lies really amazed me. I am so deeply disappointed to learn that so many Chinese women are so ugly inside.
What happened John ?
yeah.. I have a bad experience with Chinese woman as well. I don’t want to stereotype but it seems that almost all of them are the same..
I can only speak from personal experience, not for Chinese people in general: I began a serious relationship with a Chinese woman some time ago. I was making decent money, but did not own my own home. She made more money than me, & would constantly berate me for not having enough money. It didn’t matter that I’d saved ~$40K US to buy a house; it was always “You don’t have any MONEY!”
Eventually, I decided I’d had enough & chose to leave the relationship. That is when the real trouble began…