Orient Excess: Is this really the People's Republic? (the rise of China's nouveaux riches)

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

I recently read an article in the January '07 issue of Marie Claire I wanted to share with you. (If anyone wants a copy, let me know and I can bring it to the next seminar). It was especially interesting, considering our China reading had been about the huge difference between the lower class and the upper class in China, and the effects this has on the peasants (lower class). This article, by contrast focused on the lifestyles of the extremely wealthy.

I would like to highlight some of the article's key points:

1)The building of personal wealth is a relatively new concept in China. When Deng Xiaoping took over the country's leadership after Chairman Mao's death in 1976, he uttered the words "getting rich is glorious" and focused on boosting an economy that had suffered under the years of Mao's hardline rule. In the 30 years since then, the Chinese people have rapidly embraced capitalism and private enterprise.

2)China now has the second-largest economy in the world-- it is now home to 500,000 millionaires. But in a country of more than 1.3 billion, the gap between rich and poor has never been wider. According to the United Nations, the wealthiest fifth own more than half of China's assets and the poorest fifth, less than 5 percent.

3)After phasing out collectivized farming in the 1970s, millions of the country's rural workers were set adrift, and may now subside on part-time and low-paying jobs.

4) The state-owned press agency Xinhua reported that the country's income gap has reached a critical level: Unless it narrows within the next five years, social stability will be at risk.

5)Many of China's new millionaires could not have developed their wealth without the help of the Communist Party, which treats the country as its personal fiefdom. (An air-conditioning king whose fortune is estimated at $340 million says, "If you don't bribe in China you won't get any business orders from the government."

The article has anecdotes that describe that on the land where the land peasants used to work in their fields growing wheat there are now super-rich people living in their French-inspired fantasy homes. The article ends with a description of Lam Sai-wing's golden toilet... Have you heard about the solid gold toilet that has become a tourist attraction where 300 buses stop daily? It is ironic that after decades of poverty and famine, a toilet has become a symbol of hope and prosperity!

[Anonymous]

Kate after traveling to China the descriptions you gave from the article ring really true. When I was traveling there I made a list of the ying and the yang of China. There are so many opposites. You see a modern high rise and cranes everywhere with neon and glitz. Then around the corner or under your luxury hotel is a hovel or a building falling apart. I was never sure if the builiding was being destroyed or just falling apart. There is so much commercialism and wealth and on the other hand poverty and struggle. My trip to China just sparked my interest in China. That is why I am enrolled in the seminar again. There is so much to learn. I am so curious to see what evolves in China in the next century.

[Anonymous]

Kate, I love your posting! Having visited China twice now, I can safely say that
toilets is right up there as far as something that makes me take a pause about China’s emergence to economic leadership. I believe in the “de-briefing meeting” I said that it seemed to me China had gone from zero to a hundred in large leaps from zero to twenty-five, then straight on to fifty, to seventy-five, and finally a hundred without realizing all of the numbers in between. They have huge televisions that cover buildings but not enough adequate housing for their people or something we consider so basic, toilets! Even when toilets are available, one cannot flush paper down it as it will clog the drains (if there is any paper to use at all.) Freeways and high-rises are springing up like wild flowers but, there are no rules for driving. And certainly transportation for all of the Chinese people is a huge dichotomy. One can see everything from horses, to bicycles, mopeds, cars, and busses on the Chinese freeways. This too is one of the things about China that gives me pause.

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