Also, note I am discussing the emerging Mainland Chinese upper/upper-middle classes.
The middle class over there are still unlikely to have the wealth necessary to attend a US college unless they earned some sort of scholarship from an outside source or more rarely, the college itself. The students under scrutiny here are mostly from the upper/upper-middle classes.
As for students from India not flaunting their wealth, that’s a YMMV. From my observations, they’re not exempt from having a small contingent who have no compunctions about showing off their wealth to the dismay of their fellow compatriots and other classmates at large.
“From my observations, they’re not exempt from having a small contingent who have no compunctions about showing off their wealth to the dismay of their fellow compatriots and other classmates at large.”
Or, they’re just enjoying their wealth and other people perceive it as “showing off.” Showing dismay at other people’s wealth says more about the person feeling the dismay than it does about the wealthy person.
D has a wealthy Chinese friend whose family hired a private photographer from the west coast to fly to the east coast and photograph the family / daughter all over campus for the entire week of graduation. We happened to run into them as I was taking pictures of my daughter with my iPhone :-). Now, I can figure out that hiring a private photographer for a week simply to follow you around cost a pretty penny. Is that “showing off”? Or is that simply having it and enjoying it?
Post #62, it’s called nouveaux riches in my book. Mark Zuckerberg has billions and he is driving a Nissan or something similar, less obstentious for a reason.
Post #61, the comment about children of India elites don’t need to go overseas for education, I think the same can be apply to is the rich Chinese students. They don’t need education overseas.
^^ To the Chinese elite and nouveaux riche, a HYP degree is like a designer name brand to access the power elite circle for influence. That’s the only purpose for such an education when they go back home. That’s why the so many ‘prestige’ threads on CC.
Pretty much no one in that country has faith in that system long-term so are planning exit options if they have the means too. If you are an extremely wealthy Indian, you and your family are pretty secure. The government won’t level charges against you and jail you and confiscate your wealth if the political winds change. Not so true in China.
Post #67, I know because they are corrupted money. It’s here today and gone tomorrow. I mean these families didn’t really earn them, probably steal from the poorest people. I do come in contact with lots of poor Chinese people.
“I’d say 18 year old kids driving $100k cars is showing off”
I drove a Olds Cutlass in high school. My sister (who is 8 years younger) drove a Porsche in high school. Why? Because my dad 's career took off and my parents liked and could now afford fancy cars. Impressing other people really wasn’t the goal.
@DrGoogle, if you know, then you should understand why the Chinese elite feel like they need to send their children overseas while the Indian elite don’t.
Post #70, not meant to be snarky and I know you didn’t care about impressing others but career took off is also the same as getting new money hence we have the term nouveau rich.
I’d say that if Zuckerberg is driving a Nissan, then he is showing off in his own way."
On CC, there is a tendency to believe that other people simply doing their own thing is “showing off.” Witness the interminable threads about how you can go to a coffee shop on a campus and if you see a girl standing in line with a designer handbag or shoes, she’s “showing off” her wealth and it makes other people uncomfortable. Uh, no - she’s standing in line and just pulling her wallet out of something more expensive than what other people have, but it’s not showing off necessarily. The same people who think this way also seem to think that “expensive” = “plastered with logos recognizable from across the room,” because they have no clue how to recognize something that’s truly quality and they mistake it for logos.
Well, I don’t want people to think I show off either. I’m not sure what your point is? Ok, you say the logo one is the cheap one? The real expensive one is without logo. I know I had to pay more to not have the logo.
