Indication of Affluence It is not appropriate to look at Chinese household income statistics because those figures do not reflect Chinese consumers' buying power. Many Chinese  choose not to work in Canada because they earned enough money in their home  country before immigrating. We do know that a large percentage of the Chinese  population own their homes and buy new cars and other luxury items. They have strong buying power. The Vancouver Chinese Media Index indicates that 71 percent of all Chinese  chose to buy new instead of used cars, and 81 percent pay cash, and require no  financing, for these significant purchases.