#6 Hoarding

Stemming from their long-standing love of saving money, Chinese people will often descend upon a sale like vultures to a carcass.

While non-Chinese also enjoy sales and saving money, Chinese people have learned (sometimes it's instinctual) to exploit and benefit from sales more than their non-Chinese counterparts. This is primarily accomplished through hoarding.

While hoarding was more widespread amongst the general populace leading up to Y2K, research shows that Chinese people had already been doing this for years. For example, if toilet paper was discounted by $2.00, it is safe to assume that a Chinese person will buy at least more than two packages. It is also safe to assume that the shopping cart will be full and multiple trips will be made (to circumvent the purchase limits imposed by the retailer). The guiding philosophy behind this behaviour is that non-perishable items or items with a long shelf-life are optimal for bulk purchase. A similar effect could be achieved at Costco, but this would require spending money (on a membership) unnecessarily.

While this approach has produced great savings amongst the Chinese community at large, sadly, many Chinese children have been adversely affected as a result. In an effort to please their offspring, Chinese parents will often buy bulk portions of a food that their children have expressed an affinity for. In the short-term all parties benefit, but in the long-run, children are forced to finish every last food item until the bitter end (despite their ever-changing palettes). This is accomplished through incessant nagging and guilt trips (to be discussed in a later post).
Popular choices for bulk purchase include toilet paper, facial tissue, pop, soup, rice and oil. While each Chinese family may have different criteria for hoard-worthy items, the overall purchase strategies are the same.

It should be noted that saving money is not limited to domestic purchases. The same theory also applies when Chinese People are visiting friends and/or family abroad. This behaviour can be baffling to Chinese children as the items packed into suitcases are often pedestrian and the gain in savings is marginal.

For non-Chinese looking to take advantage of "best price" situations, the best strategy is to befriend as many sale-savvy Chinese people as possible. This stratagem is the most effective, as sale information is known to disseminate among Chinese people at an exponential rate. With a vast network of bargain hunters on alert at all times, you'll never overpay for toilet paper again.

#3 Keeping the house below 20°C

For Chinese people with access to centrally heated homes, the thermostat is guaranteed to never rise above 20°C. Some may attribute this to being environmentally friendly and applaud such behaviour. In reality, this activity has been ongoing for years before An Inconvenient Truth was released and brings to light a different motivation. The reason? Being cheap (to be discussed in a later post).

The pride obtained from being frugal for a Chinese person is immense. As a wise man once said, "You save 50 cents here, you save 50 cents there, you have one dollar!". It is with this mentality that the thermostat will maintain a steady 19°C or even dip to the inhumane low of 18°C. Even if the outdoor temperature heads towards negative double-digit numbers, Chinese people remain steadfast in keeping the thermostat sub 20°C

However, with any ideological struggle, there will always be critics and victims. In this case, they are one and the same. Much to the chagrin of Chinese children, there isn't much they can do to raise the temperature. There have been documented tales of extensive campaigns for temperature change or even heroic acts of changing the thermostat, but they have all ultimately failed.

In an attempt to placate their offspring, parents typically offer the following steps of ways to get/stay warm:

1. Put on a sweater
2. Put on a jacket/coat
3. Put on an extra pair of socks
4. Put on some slippers
5. Repeat steps 1-4 until the optimal body temperature is reached

It is completely possible to see a Chinese person wearing 2 sweaters and a jacket in their own home.

In addition to these steps, there is only one other option: the fireplace. While this is a plausible option in non-Chinese households, it is implausible in a Chinese home. This is because the fireplace in a Chinese home is strictly for decoration. The fire logs beside the fireplace? Decorative. The tools by the logs? Decorative. This is especially surprising as Chinese people have a tendency to be very traditional and like to "do it up old school" as their ancestors once did.

As a tip for non-Chinese braving the bitter cold of a Chinese home, complaining about the temperature is a great sign of disrespect and should be avoided at all costs. Instead, this should be viewed as an opportunity to gain favour with your hosts. Agreeing with the position of frugality over warmth will guarantee a future invitation back. To cement your friendship and indefinite future invitations, a request for Chinese tea is also highly recommended.