3 ideas
Chinese households save heavily because there is little public safety net for healthcare, retirement or children's futures. Bank deposits pay low returns and the stock market behaves like a casino, which leaves property and informal high-yield schemes as the only visible ways to make savings grow. Fraud thrives here because the legitimate options are unattractive, not only because savers are naive.
In Chinese urban households an owned apartment does several jobs at once. It is the main store of wealth, a hedge against inflation, a precondition for a son's marriage prospects, and proof of belonging in the city. Because one asset carries all these roles, families fight over inheritance and occupancy rights, and they will stretch across generations to buy.
Aggregate statistics such as savings rates, home-ownership figures and fraud losses become intelligible when traced through one household's history. Past political upheavals, lost education, hukou status and family obligations shape each money decision. What survey data records as irrational risk-taking often looks, from inside a specific life, like the only available bet.