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6/22/2005

I have been thinking about two different money management systems in China and the US. Yesterday evening‘s swimming outing was a trigger. The fee for using the pool was 15 Yuan. I wanted to pay for both of us but I did not the exact change requested by the receptionist. So Yun paid for me. I wanted to give him my share but he refused. I was rather embarrassed but he said I could treat him next time. This reminded me of a few times in Dalian when Dick, Karin and I treated Cliff and some of our Chinese students. Each time after a meal we divided the total check and figured out a share for each among us three. This may have looked silly in a Chinese’s eyes for the so-called AA or Go Dutch system is not common. But I believed that it was a good thing for them to be exposed to the American system. The popular system here is that one pays for everything this time and another pays next time. This can be looked at as a revised AA system. It works well for a group of stable friends but not so well for short term visitors like us. Under such a system we promised many times and over that we would treat them in the US when they came.

posted by Unknown @ 10:21 AM