Fu Er Dai

Fu Er Dai is Chinese term for 'second generation wealthy kids'. 

These are the kids enjoying the wealth that their parents had accumulated through judicious use of government connections and business savvy when Chinese economy was opened by Deng Xiaoping in 1978.

Many of these kids drive expensive car like BMW, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches...even Bentleys and Rolls-Royce. 
In early 2000, cars were very rare in Shanghai and all you could see that time was old buses on Shanghai roads and beaten up old taxis. Now a days, BMW's are as common as the beaten up old taxis of a few years ago. 

Half of these cars are owned by Chinese entrepreneurs – people that have opened a factory in Wenzhou and cashed in by making things as mundane as zips or light switches or shirt buttons.  
But half of these cars are also owned by the Fu Er Dai, those spoiled 2nd generation rich kids.
                                                                                                                                       

 

 

Above is the picture of some of the Fu Er Dai kids

                "FuErdai" Zhang Jiale poses with a friend in front of a private plane.

Many of these kids don't even bother with the dreaded gao kao (the ultra-tough university entrance exam in China) as they probably take a look at all the wealth their parents are generating and see it as a waste of time. 

Many of these kids actually don't see much of their parents anyway.  

So what do they do?  Drive around in highly-expensive cars, sleep with lot of partners and buy and throw expensive clothes. I wonder Isn't that what we all would do in the same position? 

In 2012 in Singapore , an accident involved a "fu er dai" from China who while driving Ferrari in a very high speed caused an accident killing 3 people.  (source: http://shanghaiist.com/2012/05/16/ferrari-crash-singapore.php )

 

                                   Ferrari accident in Singapore killed 3

But honestly, I would like to become friend with a bunch of these Fu Er Dai kids.  Not because I am trying to extract money from them,  neither to hang around with cashed up rich boys like a panting Shanghai Princess – but just to talk to them about their lives, what they think about life in general, what they want out of life.  

The Chinese have a saying '富 不 过 三 代'(Fù bùguò sāndài)

– which could roughly be translated as 'people can only be rich for three generations'.  I have no idea if this is true or not, but from what I see it seems in modern-day China that they are rich for just two generations.  Mum and Dad make the cash, then they spend it on themselves and give their kids unlimited cash to spend on themselves too.

If things get out of control these kids could easily develop drug habits or get more involved in drunk-driving cases which either kill them or pedestrians.  

Deng Xiaoping may have been right about saying "zhìfù guāngróng: To get rich is glorious!", but in Shanghai getting rich seems to create a life of emptiness and meaningless.

What do you say??