Spending months of your salary on a designer handbag, or whatever it is they think the culture values, is not a way to signal anything other than "I'm an idiot."
This roundly shows the hypocrisy of those from the west making snide comments about Chinese engaging in signaling. It's a part of North American culture to engage in such signaling as a matter of course. The majority of all retail establishments would lose a big chunk of their profits without such tendencies. It's the same sort of thing as people criticizing ghetto kids for buying Nike shoes. I wonder how many of those critics save enough for their own retirement?
What decade do you think this is, the 1940's? Can't afford tap water? This is the kind of racism that people have to worry about, not stuff like censoring Mark Twain. Notions of the lower class of another nation does more damage than directly addressing issues ever will. Much of the cities in china are just as industrialized, if not more so, than counterparts in the USA. The upper middle class is a growing section of the population that produces a demand for more flashy products such as diamond rings or handbags. Doubly so as for the diamonds; the western nations is not above signaling with SUVs and other gimmicks (well gas guzzlers are less of a concern in europe, but not my point here). Pointing out that people not in a western country will save for a few months to buy an expensive item smacks of hypocrisy, especially when such people often demonstrates that they don't know the concept of saving in the first place. (Living within their means, anyone?)
I think this is an important notion. The Chinese view themselves as the most sophisticated culture in the world. The Chinese view the currently dominant economic power of the West as having an unfortunate side effect. It hinders the rest of the world's understanding of the true value of Chinese culture.
How North Americans view the Chinese notion of cultural ascendancy is very instructive, because it's a mirrored by how the Chinese view a North American's notion of cultural ascendancy.
North Americans are well advised to consider this, as it's likely that China will soon have double the economic output of the US.
After all, that's exactly the criticism that I was making; I had no idea that spending money you don't have on luxury goods would be a popular idea on Hacker News.
For the record, since people seem to assume otherwise, the only debts I've ever had in my life were a small auto loan and my large student loans, both of which I sacrificed to pay off before I turned 24 while putting away 15% of my salary into a retirement account.