Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

Educational expenses are accounting for a growing proportion of local families' expenditures. Chinese parents, it seems, would rather live thriftily in order to send their children to the best or most prestigious schools. However, a daughter in Shanghai recently caused a stir after she sued her father for refusing to pay for her tuition.

The young woman, who was raised by her grandmother throughout childhood after her mother died, recently enrolled in college, but her biological father, who is retired and living on a monthly pension of a mere 3,000 yuan ($456.03), can not afford her tuition. So she did what is becoming popular in our litigious society - she took him to court.

Fortunately, Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's Court did not agree with the daughter's frivolous lawsuit. According to Chinese law, parents have no legal responsibility to financially support adult children. But the fact that the girl expected her father to pay her tuition illustrates the rising phenomenon of young Chinese adults, many raised as spoiled only-children, continuing to rely on their parents for money and housing.

Sure, we can pity this woman for losing her mother at such a young age, but the fact that she was raised by her grandparents, who in China are infamously doting and tend to over-spoil their grandchildren rather than teach them to be self-reliant, says a lot about her mind-set. It's almost a cliché that she would act so petulant about this matter.

A few years ago I considered going abroad to further my education in English and mass media. I knew it would be expensive, but regarded it as a kind of investment in my career. However, I had no savings, so I would have had to depend on my parents to tap into their life savings. But after hearing numerous stories from other Chinese returnees who studied abroad but failed to find good jobs, I feared that I too would be hard-pressed to pay back my parents what would amount to at least 600,000 yuan. Thus, I dropped the idea and instead pursued my journalism career.

But I come from a different generation than today's college students, who came of age during China's economic boom and have been spoon-fed everything since birth. They have known no hardship, financially or otherwise, and therefore regard everything in life as their's for the taking. This, pathetically, includes their parents' possessions.

A series of survey reports issued by EIC Education revealed that, in 2011, the annual family income of 58 percent of overseas Chinese students was less than 300,000 yuan. The proportion rose to 76 percent and then 78.6 percent in 2012 and 2013. Working-class and blue-collar Chinese families are now the primary group who send their children abroad. Sadly, many of these hard-working parents naively expect that studying abroad will assure their children a promising future.

There are, of course, some students who are willing to pay their own way. After graduating from a prestigious university in Shanghai, my husband's little brother received a full scholarship from an American university. He left China with only $1,000 in his pocket. He never once asked for money from his parents but still managed to obtain his master's, followed by a doctorate and then a post-doctoral degree.

Many Chinese parents these days believe that the more they spend on their child's education the better future they will have, but statistic show otherwise. In fact, China has witnessed such an explosive growth of university graduates over the past decade that the local job market can no longer accommodate them all. As a result, unemployment among Chinese university graduates is very high. A degree is no longer a guarantee of a good career.

But for poor students who are intent on pursuing a higher education, there are other options than suing your own parents. Grants and scholarships are available from private and governmental organizations, many European universities offer totally free tuition to overseas students, and part-time jobs are always a reliable way of self-funding one's tuition. And let's not forget that vocational schools, where youngsters can learn skills and a trade, are inexpensive yet now more than ever needed in China.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Global Times.