nouveaux riches

Under Mao, people were poorer but more equal and less insecure economically. China now ranks among those countries with extreme inequality of wealth. The international income disparity Gini index of Chinese people’s income has soared from 0.33 in 1980 through the threshold 0.4 in 1994 to over 0.45 in 2002 (China Daily, 13 May 2002, p. 4). According to a government survey in 2000, some directors in Sichuan’s state-owned enterprises earned up to 200 times more than their workers. Successful capitalists in south-eastern areas are definitely rich. But how rich is rich? A shunkouliu (doggerel) says:

Wanyuanhu bu suan fu,

Shi-wan-yuan gang qibu,

Bai-wan-yuan hai mahu,

Qian-wan-yuan cai suan fu.

With ten thousand yuan, you’re not rich;

With a hundred thousand yuan, you’re a starter;

With a million yuan, you’re only so so;

With ten million yuan, you’re rich.

By that unofficial definition, the total number of the nouveaux riches, who are private entrepreneurs and government officials, may be tens of million of people. ‘To get rich is glorious’ (zhifu guangrong), a saying attributed to Deng Xiaoping, is everyone’s dream. The policy ‘To let some people get rich first’ (Rang yibufen ren xian fuqilai) and the get-rich-quick mentality have brought with them serious corruption. Another shunkouliu exposes the wealth-power exchange methods of the nouveaux riches:

Yong wo Si shouzhong de qian,

Qu mai Gongchandang de quan,

Zai yong Gongchandang de quan,

Wei wo zhuan de qian.

Using the money in my hands,

I go to buy the Communist Party’s power;

I then use the power from the Communist Party,

To make more money for myself.

HELEN XIAOYAN WU