Meet the Ma family: How millennials are changing the way China thinks about money

Pang Yu, a 25-year-old railway ticket inspector in Beijing, shows her phone operating Ant Check, an Alibaba-linked platform, at a cafe in Beijing, China, April 11, 2016. REUTERS/Shirley Feng/File Photo

SHANGHAI: Ma Yiqing, 24, is typical of China's younger generation – he uses his credit card frequently and borrows from online platforms to fund his shopping habits. In a pinch, he is happy to fall back on a lender closer to home – his mum and dad. 

Interviews with Ma, a single-child, his mother and grandmother, show how rapidly attitudes toward credit are changing as the millennials generation – roughly those aged between 18 and 35 – embraces debt like never before.