I don't have much time to write, or much to write about, but wanted to share another story from yesterday before I forget. It's not the most exciting, but it says a lot about Chinese society, especially their views on credit spending. The Chinese, even more than the Germans, look down on taking out and repaying loans, and spending money that they haven't earned. Even though the phenomenon of taking out a loan to buy a $400 cell phone has become more common, the loans are generally repaid within a year, with high payments made every month. As I understand it, there are no student loans - if you can't pay tuition fees, you don't go to school.
OK, so here's the story (intended as a joke of sorts, told to me by the same Chinese guy who wanted background info on American Pie 5): An American woman dies and goes to heaven. At the pearly gates, she says, "what bad timing! I just finished paying off the mortgage on my house!" Right afterwards, a Chinese woman dies. She says, "what bad timing! I just finished saving up the money to buy a house!"
It will be very interesting to see how the Chinese aversion to credit impacts their future economic development. How big a role does credit play in a developing economy? I took a grand total of zero econ classes in college, so I can't really say. The use of ATM/debit cards here is very common, but the use of credit cards is NOT. It's not a matter of convenience, it's a matter of pride.
On another, totally different note: once again, I can't get on Gmail at ALL. Apologies to those I owe email to - I will try and sneak in here early Friday morning and get to it then! now off to write a 600 character essay on the current state of the educational system in China, which I can't even begin to describe in English, let alone Chinese. Should be interesting! more later-
Mp3疯狂搜-新歌热歌高速下
