I am playing UNO with Elisa and she is holding her own matching colors and numbers. She wins the game and I give her 10 RMB (kuai) as a reward. She runs out of the room with the waving the bill in her hand happily announcing to the house the she won “10 kuai”.

Elisa has recently awakened to money and is quite happy to be given some even though she often leaves the loose bill lying around the house. She associates money with the ability to buy candy. Poor girl doesn’t know what she is getting herself into.

The moment of awakening was when Elisa received a red envelope from visiting relatives. Inside was several 100 RMB notes. Elisa saw how excited Aidan and Lydia were to be getting that money and when informed she could buy lots of candy with it and she was hooked. I tried trading her some smaller notes for the 100 kuai not and she was happy to oblige as to her eyes three one kuai notes looked a lot better than one 100 kuai note.

Last Sunday morning I am watching the kids when Elisa comes into the living room with a handful of money. She gleefully tells me she has money. I ask her where she got the money from and she hesitates (I’m pretty sure she got it from my wallet). She says she got it from the ayi. I tell her the ayi is not home and we should not take money from ayi. She then ducks into Lydia’s room to hide for a bit. She then leads me to the other bedroom and says she got it from there. I take her to my wallet which is disheveled after her ransacking. She doesn’t want to admit she got it from there however in future quests for money – like right now as I type this – she runs up to me with my wallet in hand and asks for some.

Aidan and Lydia awakened to money a bit differently. For Aidan it was always something to be collected as a means to an end. If I was willing to buy him a toy for 30 RMB he would consider the 30 RMB as the gift and look for how he wanted to spend it. For Lydia money is mostly met with indifference. If she wants something, she wants it, and if it is outside of the budget she will mostly let it go and not settle for something cheaper. If she wants something that is inexpensive she just wants that whereas Aidan will try to find out the budget and maximize his purchases.

The final anecdotal story to share is I am looking at a 10 kuai note with Elisa and Lydia. Like all paper notes here it has a picture of Mao on the front. I ask Lydia who that is and she says he is know by two names. Lydia said he is a good man who did many great things for China. Such is the result of sending her to a local elementary school. I ask Elisa who that man on the money is and she says “it is ayi”.