Over years teaching in China, I noticed 3 ways Chinese families think about money - especially when it comes to their kids

Sarah Li Cain

Nov 5, 2019, 05:06 IST

Over years teaching in China, I noticed 3 ways Chinese families think about money - especially when it comes to their kids

robertah/Shutterstock.com

I spent about eight years teaching and tutoring children in China, many of whom came from wealthy families and were expected to continue their education in English-speaking countries.
I found Chinese parents considered education to be paramount and went to great lengths to enable their kids to get the best education possible, whether that was taking out loans to send them abroad or moving hours away for better job prospects that would pay for school.
On a separate note, I also found that cashless payment methods had become the norm by the time I left in 2016.
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I left my native Canada to live in China for about eight years, working as an elementary teacher at an international school. To say it was a life-changing experience was an understatement.

As my reputation as a teacher grew, parents from other classes would approach me to help tutor their child to brush up on their English skills - everything from writing essays to improving their reading ability. Many of those families wanted their children to go to school in an English-speaking country like the US.

Getting to know the families was an absolute privilege. Plus, working for so many different families taught me a lot about Chinese culture, including three ways Chinese families tend to think about money.

1. Parents go to great lengths to fund their child's education

Parents in China, given the means, will pay a lot for their child's education. The theory is that once the child gets a great education (which many seem to believe means send their children overseas), he or she would be able to provide for their parents in their golden years. For many families in China, the children are expected to help take care of their parents when they're older, sending money back home to provide for their needs.

It's no wonder that parents insist on trying to get their children in the best schools possible. It can start before elementary school. There are lots of kindergartens that have extra English language classes and other extracurricular activities. It can only get more intense from there.

I remember tutoring a 7-year-old who was about to take an English proficiency test to be able to go to a boarding school in England. I came to find out the parents were taking out a massive loan to be able to send her there, believing it would help her get ahead in life. I ended up tutoring her for two hours four nights a week to help her pass the test.

For many parents, the pressure is on to provide for their children - their financial future.

2. Families do what they have to for their kids to get ahead

Although many consider China to be a booming country, many of its citizens living in smaller towns and rural areas are struggling. It's not uncommon for them leave their children with their grandparents at home while they go find work in urban locations where there are more job prospects.

The same goes for more well-off families. I tutored a few children whose parents lived hundreds of miles away because it was easier to leave them with their grandparents. Part of it is China's complex system to regulates population, called Hukou, which means in some cases that families may not be able to register their child at their chosen schools.

I never met some of the parents of the students I tutored. I met their grandparents or other relatives instead.

Whatever you may think of these differences, they're just that: differences. Living in China for as long as I did, I came to appreciate just how much families were simply working hard to live a comfortable life.

3. Mobile payments have become the norm

It wasn't as big when I first lived in China, but as smartphones got more popular, many locals would link their bank account to an app called WeChat, through which you can go shopping and send cash to other folks. Think Venmo with a social media platform built in.

I never owned a smartphone during my stint there, so I didn't catch on. But the families I taught did, and over the years they would request that I show them my Wechat QR code. After much confusion, one of the parents explained to me that it was a feature of my WeChat account that allowed someone to scan and send me money.

After asking a few friends about it, I came to find out many of them used their smartphones to pay for things as much as possible. Even the smaller produce markets started to take WeChat payments over cash. When I left China in 2016 there was a lot in the news about stores that didn't have cashiers - you took what you wanted and paid using WeChat.