China’s ‘fuerdai’ — ignorant rich kids or victims of Mao?
In China, there is a new class emerging; the Fuerdai, which literally translates to ‘rich second generation’. Routinely mocked by the Chinese media for lavishly living off their parents, the fuerdai enjoy a comfortable lifestyle and are often sent abroad to get a private education. But simply characterising this group as the Asian-equivalent of Frank Ocean’s ‘Super Rich Kids’ isn’t the answer, as to fully understand the fuerdai, we must also explore China’s complex social history.
The emergence of the fuerdai
With the introduction of a pitifully inadequate basic wage when communist leader Mao Zedong came into power in 1949, wealth became the exclusive domain of government officials in China. Mao constructed communes (essentially work camps) across rural areas of the continent, executing up to two million property owners to enable him to achieve this. Each of these communes, with their primitive accommodation, contained up to 20,000 people. And for those set up in one of them, it was impossible to pursue personal ambitions or enjoy any simple kind of luxury. Put bluntly; life was bleak and during Mao’s reign, the gap between China’s poor and rich became wider than ever before.
However, in 1978, after Mao’s death, political revolutionary Deng Xiapong liberated the country and disbanded Mao’s repressive regime, which had left a population of 150 million living in desperate poverty. Subsequently, the Chinese economy surged, people regained control over their own finances and a new demographic overseen by independent, super wealthy, business minded figureheads emerged. This emerging class was labelled the ‘nouveau riche’ which translates to new money. These were people well aware hard work would finally be rewarded with big money.
Fast forward to 2018 and the fuerdai are the heirs to the nouveau rich. Yet despite the rags-to-riches stories of their parents, the existence of the fuerdai remains a polarising issue in China, with these young people routinely portrayed by the country’s media as hedonistic party throwers and goers, who arrogantly waste their parent’s money.
A life of excess
Speaking to Hubrick, 22-year-old Nathaniel Ryo (also known as Cashfleezy) perfectly summarises the excessive mentality behind the fuerdai: “In my school, people call me crazy. l throw cash in the air. In my mind everyone’s competing, so I knew l could top everyone else by starting to throw my cash around. I want the world to see me as the Rich Kid of China.”
Nathaniel believes that although many of the fuerdai generation stay in school and obtain degrees, their ambition is not the knowledge their education earns them, but more, the greater social status it creates. “Going to uni is just another way of showing off,” he explains. “A lot of Chinese people have less pronounced oriental accents when they speak. The less obvious a Chinese accent you have and the more American you sound, then the more educated people will think that you are. Being educated and being able to speak fluent English is another way to show off in our world.”
David Wang is another 22-year-old privileged fuerdai. Having obtained a Western degree in business and mathematics, he currently works as an IT consultant. Wang video calls me from an airport following a night of high-spending antics with, what he proudly describes, as his “millionaire crew”. He insists the fuerdai get too much of a bad rap from the media.
“Of course, rich kids are spending a lot of money, but the money is then ploughed back into the economy. Buy a Ferrari and then the manufacturers will provide Chinese people with jobs to produce cars and this becomes the new economic cycle,” he claims. “Look, if you spend, then you are just part of capitalist society and you can’t change that, but there is a demographic of fuerdai who are creating their own businesses and breaking away from their family wealth to give back to society.”
The shame
But the flossy life isn’t necessarily embraced by every fuerdai, with many starting to feel ashamed by the superficial image their generation might have created.
“I have a friend who has ‘high self-esteem’ issues and he always thinks that people are messing with him because of his wealth. It’s one of the reasons why he drives a Smart car and not a Ferrari,” reveals Cosmopolitan-Lisa, a professional-ferudai-party-girl-come-blogger. “He does not like to show his face, he does not like to show off expensive things that he owns, because he does not want to attract the wrong friends.”
These comments prove the fuerdai cohort is very much divided. On one side there is a polarised moralistic group of young Chinese heirs and heiresses, who feel suspicious and intimidated by their colossal, inherited fortunes, and isolated from the rest of their generation. Meanwhile, on the other, there are kids who believe their wealth to be indicative of a God given supremacy. That things such as education, accent, friends and social platforms are all just a currency which signal social stature.
Re-connecting with society
Art dealer Michael Huang is China’s best connected and most stylish ‘it’ boy. And even if the fuerdai is currently divided in its thinking, he insists the majority of his generation simply wants to reconnect with society and realise the responsibility they have towards helping China progress.
“The struggles for society during Maos reign were very different. Poverty was a big issue for the country and the idea of luxury was something far removed from anyone’s reality,” he tells me. “I went to a big school where most of the kids who have inherited a lot know their duty to the country’s economy is important and that life is not just about enjoyment, it’s about being independent and establishing yourself.”
Whether Huang’s comments are just blind optimism or a genuine insight into a more sensible future for the fuerdai remains to be seen. But, ask yourself this; with the nouveau riche barely surviving Mao’s brutal regime, can we really blame the fuerdai for flaunting their parent’s wealth? Ultimately, unless China’s established elite accepts this new generation as its equals, the fuerdai’s image will struggle to evolve beyond bathing in its excesses.