Why are Chinese people so stingy?
🍋 Chinese are irrationally stingy on some things and irrationally extravagant on others.
They can waste lots of time and energy to save small amounts of money when buying everyday items or conveniences and then splurge on luxury products, because it will give them “face” and "status" within their hive.
On one hand you see them wasting lots of time bargaining for trifles, and on the other hand blowing ridiculous amounts of money on useless “prestige” items.
Example: Spending 40 minutes to find ways to avoid paying that 5$ in shipping fees when buying online, then go on buying a 200 or 300$ birthday cake that they won't even eat (it's just for the photo)
🍋 Coupons and small discounts make them feel extremely "smart".
There's literally no creature on earth more aggressive and full of pride than a Chinese woman armed with a 3$ coupon to buy some trifles.
Example: Some rich Chinese will wear winter jackets in their mansions during the winter rather than pay for heating, but they'll burn $2,000 on some “prestige” items that they will leave in the corner of the room and never look at again.
It’s whatever gets them “face”. A/C and heaters don't give them any face, but that useless statue or driving a BMW gives +100 to their face stat.
You can also see them getting absolutely enraged at paying 50 cents “too much” on some ice tea or, and the next day happily blow $500 on some useless birthday dinner in some overrated restaurant with inflated prices.
That's because the overpriced restaurant means “social status” and “face” in their minds.
Or renting a 5-star hotel room, only to cook instant noodles for the whole family with the tea kettle…
It doesn’t occur to them that maybe a 3-stars hotel would be just as good, but then you could at least afford the restaurant meal that goes with it… and that would make for a nicer experience.
But they don’t want a nice life experience. They want “status lah”.
They will also bargain to death for some bananas sold by a poor guy on the street, then won't mind to pay 5$ for some overpriced bubble tea because "it's a famous brand lah".
🍋 Getting bargains is their main hobby
In airports around the world, you will often see a 100-meter queue of Chinese waiting to get some VAT refund for the junk they’ve bought in that country (that probably came from China in the first place).
They really do need to get that smartass feeling that “I’ve got a bargain by traveling to that country” or that “I couldn’t have found that product anywhere else”.
🍋 Constant "squeezing" of value as a way of life
When they go to a hotel they have to force themselves to swim, thinking that “We have to swim, since we paid the monee lah".
It makes them feel like they’ve squeezed the maximum amount of value from that hotel.
This includes stealing the courtesy items such as soap, teabags and sugar packs, only to throw them away later.
Anything free must be grabbed, just because it's free.
Where does that mentality comes from?
Some people say it's because China used to be poor or whatever.
But the rich Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean Chinese who have been rich for generations still behave with the same desperate scarcity-mentality.
In general it seems they see life as some kind of endless "competition" where you can't be happy as long as someone "owns" or "gets" something more than you do.
They see life in purely material terms. When they can show off some expensive material product, they truly think they somehow "win" over others.
They think a rich person is necessarily "smart" and respectable, while a poor person is necessarily "stupid". Never mind that most Chinese's wealth is usually based on a mix of dishonest tactics, cronyism, corruption, collusion and nepotism.
There is even a Chinese proverb that says "Better be sad and sick in a BMW than to be happy and healthy on a bicycle"…
READ ALSO: Why do Chinese love money so much?
Happiness in life for a Chinese seems exclusively linked to a monetary amount, with no consideration for the actual quality of life, emotional health, etc.
They'd rather go through life being constantly angry, bitter, jealous, hateful, revengeful, but with monee, lah
When you see how Chinese treat poor people, it is disgusting.
They systematically look down on people that are worse off then them in financial terms.
When you try to explain to them that money doesn’t buy education and good manners or good character, they look at you with a blank stare. You’re talking an alien language to them.
Deep down, their culture tells them that it’s okay to destroy the fabric of society, as long as you manage to make money for your own little family unit.
“Muh, family” is their only concern in life. Society doesn't exist for them.
They only care about their "face" in society, not society itself.
They only put a price tag on everything
For example in Vancouver or Australia, the locals tend to sell apartments that have become too expensive, that are located in so-called “prestigious” areas but which offer little in terms of convenience or lifestyle:
All this “prestige” apartments are then bought by uncouth Chinese who think they are “winning” at life by buying over the “most expensive” stuff in the “most famous” location.
Meanwhile, the White people are using the money to buy actually decent houses in decent locations with decent people, no traffic, clean air, etc.
The Chinese don’t understand this, and think they are “losers” for selling the prestige location and moving to a more rural place, and are looking forward to their purchase becoming even more expensive because of the other Chinese boosting the bubble up. Their whole life is like a Ponzi scheme.
The actual quality of life in that location doesn’t matter to them.
This is why Chinese do not mind living in overcrowded quarters, as long as there is someone they can show off their money to.
They don’t even realize that outside of their Chinese bubble, no one sees them as “prestigious”, but just as goofy bugmen with an incomprehensible, maniac mentality.
They don’t even mind dying, as long as they die in an “expensive” hospital where their friends and family will see them.
And then take another few hundreds of photos of themselves before dying, surrounded by “expensive” bunches of flowers, and first class hospital meals.
The pleasure of cutting corners
Another thing to understand: not only the Chinese cheats to earn money, he also cheats for pleasure.
Cutting corners and scamming people, even a little bit, gives them the feeling of being “smart”.
They love to swindle others.
When they buy a product, they must have at least the impression that they’ve got a “discount”.
Whether the price of the product has been artificially inflated beforehand, only to give them the impression of getting a discount, doesn’t matter...
A Chinese hate to purchase something at the announced price.
They must have the sensation of scrounging and gnawing on something.
You will often see them bargaining for some product that they don’t need, just to see until where they’ll be able to bargain down the price.
It gives them a feeling of being strong, to have leverage, it makes them feel proud to see “how cheap” they can bargain an item.
That the time wasted in this could have been better invested somewhere else doesn’t occur to them. They love to gnaw.
This is interestingly reflected in their food habits, where you will see them prefer to endlessly gnaw on some chicken bones or crab, rather than directly get a chicken fillet.
In general, the whole Chinese mentality is bent on over-complicating things to feel “smart”.
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