Although they don’t know how to create wealth, they surely know how to show it off. The high profile, “Fuerdai” (富二代) or “Trust Fund Kids”, has become the most loathed group in this country, but that didn’t stop them from getting millions of followers on Weibo.
Every few months there’s a Fuerdai scandal exposed by social media, whether it’s a photo of a teenager sitting behind the wheels of a Porsche and about to set fire to a pile of ¥100 notes or a video of a group of drunken woman bashing their Lamborghini with Champagne bottles.
“China’s richest son”, Wang Sicong, the son of the real estate mogul, Wang Jianlin, has over 4 million followers on Weibo. This high profile Fuerdai became infamous for the ludicrous ways in which he spends his father’s fortune, somewhere around US$34.4 billion, such as blowing ¥2.5 million at a KTV in Beijing in a single night.
“If I were beef, I would only be Wagyu”, says rich girl Chelsea in HBIC TV’s hit Internet series, “Ultra Rich Asian girls”, which depicts the luxurious lifestyles of Vancouver’s rich Asian population.
Another popular domestic reality show, “X-change”, sends spoiled rich teenagers from the city to the remote countryside to live with a poor family for a month, while the rich kid’s family takes in the child of the poor family and gives him a taste of the privileged life.
In all its 12 seasons since 2006, Hunan TV’s X-change programme would start off by depicting the extravagant lifestyle of the teenager and his terrible behavior, such as hitting his parents and teachers or attempting suicide, then showing how much the prodigal son has transformed after living with goats and hardworking farmers for a month.
The producer said the aim of the show was to “infuse positive energy into society”.
How much “positive energy” such entertainment television has contributed remains in question. Yet the high ratings and media exposure gave away the voyeurism of the audience; seeing the ridiculous closets, sports cars, private jets and extravagant parties that are just daily life to the children of the one percent.
For most people, the interest has to do with a fascination with how another social class lives, and how alien their lives seem to the rest of us; audiences watching the rich young things showing off wealth that does not belong to them with a mixture of awe and cynicism.
Li Naiyue, a teenager who appeared in the X-change show as a plastic-surgery-obsessive shopaholic, has decided to enter showbiz after being made famous by the show. “When I came back to school, many people treated me like a star. But some still hated me because they are jealous. I am still me”, said the girl proudly, as she continued to show off her pampered lifestyle on Weibo.
Affluenza became a buzzword in China not so long ago. Unlike the United States, where the champagne-fueled parties of “The Great Gatsby” have their deep roots, the enthrallment with wealth in China is a byproduct of its social and economical reform and opening-up.
In the 1970s, one could be killed by a mob for showing an outward display of wealth. Now, barely legal drivers sit behind the wheels of flashy sports cars and post selfies for their red-eyed followers on social media.
While President Xi’s anti-corruption campaign has curbed some of the most outrageous wealth-flaunting, such as sending the widely despised socialite Guo Meimei to prison, the gap between rich and poor is still evident to anyone on a Chinese street weaving between fruit vendor carts and black Audis. According to the latest data from the Chinese Academy of Social Science, the top 1 percent of families (those with the highest income) own one third of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom 25 percent scrape by on just 1 percent of the country’s output.
All too often, wealth in China is like a one-way mirror. The poor have plenty of channels to watch the rich through social and entertainment media. But the rich are increasingly isolated from lower classes.
A Bloomberg Businessweek report discusses what a journalist learned from his infiltration of a group of second-generation rich kids in China. Most admitted they were educated in a privileged environment with little or no contact with the working class. Studies show wealthier children tend to be more distressed than lower-income kids, and are at high risk for isolation, anxiety or having trust issues. “With instant gratification never more than a credit card swipe away, the search for meaning is arguably harder for Fuerdai than it is for most people”, said the Bloomsberg report.
Now, as the economy slows and the party looks for scapegoats, the Fuerdais have to justify their existence and show that China’s future leaders are not just money-igniting, Ferrari-wrecking layabouts.
Speaking with The Nanjinger, Kevin K. Li, producer for “Ultra Rich Asian Girls”, said, “The position of Chinese women has come a long way in the past 100 years. Even the girls in my generation were told ‘to find a nice rich guy to marry’. The girls on my show are university educated, have money and a mind of their own. They can choose when they want to marry, what kind of career they want and what they want to do with their lives. If people don’t think this is progressive or inspirational for Chinese society, then their thinking is 20 years behind. What I can say about working with these girls is they’re actually quite down to earth, if you can see past the brand names clothes and shoes. Average people judge them more then they judge us”.
Then again, “China’s richest son” recently enraged netizens again by posting a photo of his dog wearing two Apple watches, one on each forepaw. Clearly, the children of the Yuan still have a lot of growing up to do.
