What's the latest luxury status symbol in China ? It's not a handbag by Louis Vuitton or Gucci. According to Chinese parents, it's their children. Shelling out a small fortune for their children's schooling, summer vacations, and extracurriculars is the latest trend for Chinese parents looking to distinguish themselves.
中国最新的奢侈品的标志是什么？不是路易威登或古驰的手提包。中国父母们表示，是他们的孩子。对中国父母而言，拿出一大笔钱用于孩子的学校教育、暑期和课外活动是他们彰显自己的最新趋势。
This summer, an article titled, “A Monthly Salary of 30,000 RMB ($4,493) is Not Enough for My Child’s Summer Vacation” went viral on WeChat Moments. Written by a high-paid executive mom, it tells the story of how she can hardly keep up with the extravagant overseas summer programs that she lines up for her daughter.
今年夏天，一篇名为“月薪3万，还是撑不起孩子的一个暑假”的文章在微信朋友圈疯传。这篇文章的作者是一位高薪的高管母亲，文章称，她为女儿安排了奢侈的海外暑期课程，但她的工资几乎满足不了这些课程的费用。
The mother says the total cost of her daughter's education for the summer is 35,000 yuan, including 20,000 yuan for a 10-day US study tour and other tutoring classes that cost up to 10,000 yuan.
这位母亲表示，她女儿的暑期教育总共花费了35000元，其中为期10天的美国学习之旅需要20000元，而其他辅导课程的费用共计达10000元。
Immediately after the post was published, Chinese netizens responded furiously, with many Weibo users asking, ‘Can an expensive summer vacation really make your kids ‘better’ than others?”
这篇帖子一经发出就引起了中国网民的激烈回应，许多微博用户问，“昂贵的暑期课程真的就能让你的孩子比其他人‘更优秀’吗”？
Other internet users wondered about the intentions of parents making such a sacrifice . “Is this to fulfil the parents' vanity or to make the children happy?”
其他网友质疑父母们做出如此牺牲的目的。“这是为了满足父母的虚荣心还是为了让孩子开心？”
Linda Xu strongly oppose such criticism. Xu, who works as an Operations Manager in an international automobile company in Beijing, said that she spent less than that of the mom in the post, though the cost of different tutoring classes that she selected for her eight-year-old son to take during the summer “definitely exceeded 20,000 RMB.”
琳达·徐强烈反对了这样的指责。徐女士在北京一家跨国汽车公司担任运营经理，她表示，虽然与帖子中的母亲相比，她的支出要少一些，但在暑假期间，她也为自己8岁的儿子选择了不同的辅导班，而所有的费用“肯定超过了20000元”。
She rationalized her decision by saying, “This is the luxury I didn’t get to enjoy when I was young, and I hope to start early on my kid's elite education so that he can stand out among his peers as he grows older.”
她解释了自己的决定，称“这是我小时候没有享受到的奢侈，我希望我的孩子可以早早地接受精英教育，这样随着他慢慢长大，他就可以从同龄人中脱颖而出。”
According to a report on global education expenses, 93 percent of Chinese parents have been paying for kids’ private schools, a figure surpassing that of the United States (46 percent), France (32 percent), and the United Kingdom, respectively, by at least 40 percent.
一份关于全球教育费用的报告指出，93%的中国父母会为孩子支付私立学校的学费，而这一比例分别超过了美国（46%）、法国（32%）和英国（至少40%）。
The strong emphasis placed by Chinese parents on education has fueled the growth of the children’s education market in China lately. What's more, there has been a myth among Chinese mothers that the quality of education is positively correlated with the price they pay. However, the loosely regulated education market means that the correlation is not always true.
近来，中国父母对教育的重视刺激了中国教育市场的增长。而且在中国妈妈之间还有一个说法，那就是教育质量与他们支出的学费呈正相关。然而，监管松散的教育市场意味着这种相关性并不总是如此。
“This irrational phenomenon is unique to the middle class in China ,” writes Yu Xiulan, the Professor of Education at Nanjing University .
“这种不合理的现象是中国中产阶级特有的，”南京大学教育学教授余秀兰写道。
She reasons that the country's elite class doesn't have to worry about changing the social status through education, whereas for lower-class households, they simply cannot afford it. China's middle class comes in between, whose anxiety about keeping their current social status urges them to spend a great deal of money in education, even at the expense of their quality of life, in order to make them feel secure.
她解释道，中国的精英阶层不必担心教育会改变他们的社会地位，而对于平民阶层的家庭来说，他们根本就负担不起这样的教育支出。中国的中产阶级处于两者之间，他们对保持自身当前社会地位的担忧使他们在教育上投入了大量的资金，为了让自己觉得踏实，甚至不惜牺牲自己的生活质量。
（翻译：Dlacus）