If by "stuck" you mean that I have an easy job with low hours, that I have a well-to-do girlfriend that likes to buy me things, and that I save far, far more money than I would back in my home country....

Perhaps because you don't spend money on air fares and visits home. Easy to be "rich" in china on chinese rmb, not so easy to be rich on it "outside" China. I believe that is the point SB is getting at.