I'm 31yo and East Asian in Vancouver. Apart from paying for a semester, my parents never paid for my schooling (I have two BScs and a Master's degree) and have gifted me $7K. They were immigrants working minimum wage jobs and have now luckily rode the housing lottery wave here in Vancouver to become millionaires. It's not like they didn't want to help me but they just couldn't fiscally do it so I had to work part-time for the entirety of my degrees and full-time in the summers. This taught me how to hustle, work hard and how to be fiscally responsible really early. It's paid dividends throughout my life and now too. I recently bought my own townhome and I can say that I did it myself without help. It does make me feel some pride but I definitely recognize my parents were my backbone in many other ways. So I guess to answer the question, I suppose it is common in Asian culture to help your kids as much as possible financially but for some it's just not possible. Therefore, one should never expect it but in my case, I definitely want to be in a position to help my child when the time comes - particularly in Vancouver's housing market (sigh).