A friend of mine shared a picture at WeChat. It’s an advertisement of a flat for rent at the Peak in Hong Kong. The rent is 588,000 HKD per month, or about £50,000 per month. In my hometown in Inner Mongo in China, that amount of money is sufficient to buy two three bedroom apartments.
I sent it to one of my students, who completed her PhD in Hong Kong. She then asked “Who is going to spend that amount of ridiculous money to rent an apartment?” Then she said “I guess it is a signal.”
She was damn right!
The Peak is one of the most prestigious neighbourhood in Hong Kong. If you live there, people get it – you are rich. The signal is so clear and strong, that people is willing to spend silly amount of money for it.
I then shared two pictures with my student. The first one is a little girl wearing a vivid green skirt. It looks odd, and not pretty at all. The second one is a screen shot of the post of the picture. The picture was shared by the mother of the little girl. After posting the picture, the mother posted “Can you tell that the skirt is from GUCCI?”
The mother was showing off. But the signal was not clear. So she had to say it out loud. A signal must be “expensive” to be effective.
In a similar vein, signals must be consistent to be effective too. A Chinese friend of mine believes that she deserves a good life style, and understandably uses her house and car as signals of her good life. She does not have a real job; her husband works in a Chinese restaurant since about three months ago. Before that, the two run a Chinese restaurant that took payment in cash only. They never paid taxes, and has been claiming benefits for about £800 a month from the government. Yet, they has been renting good size houses in central locations of the city, and driving good cars. She once even told me that I should buy a better car, and my car was too shabby. My partner was deeply offended by her comments. But I did understand where it came from.
Now the husband sold the restaurant and works in a Chinese restaurant, because they need to fake the tax payment record in order to get a mortgage. They want to buy a big house in a good location. They also bought another car, a Lexus, so that both of them can drive if needed.
Those are expensive signals. But not consistent with the rest of their life. After seeing her fancy, almost brand-new Lexus, I finally understood why the SENCO officer at her son’s school showed subtle signs of disapproval when I mentioned her name. Both her son and mine have disability, and has been under the SENCO’s watch. You cannot be driving a luxury car while claiming benefits from the government. Inconsistent signals sometimes are even worse than cheap signals.
