Despite earning more than 10,000 yuan ($1,350) a month, Chen Xiaonan does not consider himself a member of the so-called "middle class".

According to the latest government figures, the average monthly wage in the Guangdong provincial capital is about 3,000 yuan, but the 32-year-old account manager with a Hong Kong-funded public relations firm said he still struggles to make ends meet.

"The mortgage on my apartment is about 3,000 yuan a month, which I have been paying for three years already and still have another 12 years to go. The repayments on my Chevrolet car are about 2,000 yuan a month, and I pay a nanny 1,200 yuan to care for my daughter," he said.

By the time I have bought food, paid my phone and utility bills, I have little left for anything else, like entertainment, he said. "By the end of the month I'm almost penniless. I doubt middle class people lead lives that are as miserable as mine."

Although average salaries have been rising steadily in Guangzhou, the number of people who consider themselves middle class has been in decline, research has shown.

According to a recent survey by the Guangdong Family Periodical Group, just 30 percent of people in Guangzhou regard themselves as middle class, compared with 42 percent in a similar survey conducted by the company 10 years ago.

The percentage is also lower than in many other big cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, the survey said.

Zheng Chen, who worked on the study, said the widening wealth gap in the city and the perception that their neighbors in Hong Kong and Macao lead "better" lives, has meant that people in Guangdong have a higher expectation of what it means to be "middle class".

"But few of them look back on the hard times of the past, or make comparisons with people who are worse off," she said.

"Their understanding of social class is clearly not just based on rising salaries and improved living standards."

(China Daily November 20, 2007)