© 2016 Bloomber/Wang Daqi
Brilio.net/en - China has been one of the largest growing economies in recent decades. While it has fostered some wealth for some, it has left a majority of the country living the life of a developing country with a select few having climbed to the top. In fact, about 1/3 of Chinas wealth belongs to just one percent of the population, in a staggering display of income inequality. What is happening in China constitutes one of the most rapid emergences of wealth stratification in human history, according to Jeffrey Winters, a politics professor at Northwestern University. The Asian country now has more dollar billionaires than even the United States.
As communism relaxed and economy took off several decades ago, the offspring of the hard working generation are now at the forefront in Chinese and International media. The rich kids are known as fuerdai, which literally translates to rich second generation, and they are having quite a culture clash with a society that has valued modesty and hard work. Theres not much hard involved in being the son of the wealthiest man in China, real estate mogul Wang Jianlin. His son went so far as to post pictures of his husky sporting two gold Apple watches, one on each front paw. Some even post pictures of their bank accounts, with 3.9 billion yuan in the account, roughly $597 million US at the time of posting. Guess life is hard when you are picking between an Aston Martin and a BMW, so why not just take both?
The son of thewealthiest man in China caused a stir by posting this photo ofhis husky sporting two gold Apple watches 2016Ka Xiaoxi
While the fuerdai can be compared to what Paris Hilton was to American society some ten years ago, it has to be noted that Chinese values differ strongly from American and western values. The Chinese culture values piety and hard work, which are two things the youth has not had much experience with. Some local governments have taken steps to reeducate their wealthy elite. In June, according to Beijing Youth Daily, 70 heirs to major Chinese companies attended lectures on filial piety and the role of traditional values in business.
For now, most of the fuerdai are investing in life abroad, spending summers in Bali and winters in the Alps. They are buying up property around the world and in the United States account for more than half of new property owners. Just in case the lectures on filial piety dont work out in their favor, theyll always have California.
(brl/tis)
