Mei Mei, How the Nouveau do Play!

Guo Mei Mei - too rich for my blood.

If you were to read only one news story about the scandalous lives of China’s second-generation nouveau riche (called “fuerdai”),  this article in the Shanghiist.com is probably it. Absence only a dead body (don’t hold your breath), this report of the recent exploits of twenty-year old Guo Mei Mei has all the elements of a Tom Wolfian satire. To summarize:

• In 2011, Mei Mei, who claimed that she was a general manager of an affiliate of the China Red Cross, posted pictures on Weibo (China’s Twitter) of herself flaunting her riches – a villa, a Maserati, designer handbags, etc. The Red Cross was forced to deny any affiliation with the girl. Rumors swirled that she was the mistress of a senior official of the charity. He was forced to resign.
• Disgusted by the scandal, members of the Chinese public boycotted donating blood to the Red Cross. The Red Cross subsequently reported a shortage of blood.
• This past weekend, newspapers reported that a yacht show held in Hainan island involved enough trading of sex and drugs to make Hugh Hefner blush.
• Mei Mei was accused by a sports car website member of selling herself for sex at the event.
• Mei Mei denied this in the only way she seems to know how – by flaunting her wealth to prove that she doesn’t need the cash. This time, she posted pictures of herself holding gambling chips worth US$800,000.
• Not to be outdone by Mei Mei’s boasting, another seemingly unrelated fellow (rumored to be 19 years old) posted a screenshot of his bank account showing a balance of US$600 million. Take that, Mei Mei!
• Weibo has since been lit up with disgusted netizens posting comments deriding the pair, and anyone else like them, for possessing less class than ordinary people have in their shit.

Whether Mei Mei is authentic or simply a publicity hound is still a legitimate point of debate. However, there is no question that Chinese are increasingly fed up with the showiness of the fuerdai.

The details of the story are in the link above. Enjoy reading it. Then shower off the slime.