In China, there are first tier cities and second tier cities, and there is also the issue of migrant workers . The reason college students are so strongly opposed to the 'return to the countryside' movement is that they know once you go down, there is no way back up. And joining the Communist Party, and inheriting about half of the party's positions, is part of that reality. In that sense, it's not that women have a fantasy about marrying up, but rather that they are making a survival driven choice. Even within our East Asian cultural sphere, there has been a strong preference for sons due to the agricultural way of life. As a result, selective abortion has led to a significant shortage of women.

There is criticism that my country's K dramas encourage marrying up, but I don't think women's choices in the subtly stratified hierarchy of East Asian society are wrong. It's not a war; I see it as women simply surviving