Tuhao
Text
China's New Money: 'Tuhao' Chinese Criticized For Having Money, But Lacking Taste
BY MICHELLE FLORCRUZ China’s newest symbol of luxury? The double-wide trailer. China’s increasingly wealthy middle class, a title now estimated to be representative of 300 million people, is expanding its tastes as an increasing number of new-money Chinese shell out cash for some seemingly random stuff. A new demographic of big spenders has been dubbed by China’s Internet users as “tuhao,” which roughly translates to “uncivilized splendor.” The tuhao have become a punching bag on China’s blogosphere for being the symbol of wasteful wealth and unrefined taste, or as a report by China media blog Tea Leaf Nation puts it, they are China’s version of the "Beverly Hillbillies." The New York Times explored Beijing’s first RV park, where a night in your trailer costs around $330, which is more than a lot of rooms at the city’s St. Regis hotel, which can run as low as $183 dollars a night. “It’s a new way of living, which appeals to young people," Fang Liping, an English teacher in Beijing who was at the camp site, said in the report. "And I think it’s also a luxurious way of living.” Still, the trailer park is, comparatively speaking, only amateur tuhao behavior. While purchasing a plot in a trailer park may illustrate the hillbilly analogy in its most literal sense, the tuhao are known to have taste for anything expensive or gaudy. While middle-class wealth is quickly becoming the norm, the population is shifting from a classically Chinese habit of flaunting wealth, through flashy designer logos, jewelry and the like, by reining in public displays of money. The shift could be a result of President Xi Jinping’s ongoing mandate against grandiose displays of money among officials, cracking down on large, banquet-style feasts, and stripping down official visits and meetings as much as possible. The crackdown was intended to catch officials who had been showing off their ill-gotten expensive watches, cars and homes to the public, but it seems to have also rubbed off on the public as well. Some, however, must have missed the memo. China still has a large market for people interested in things that may be deemed by most as tacky, even if those items carry a hefty price tag. With the new release of Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) newest phone model, the iPhone5S, customized versions of the mobile device made with 18 karat gold that run from $5,513 to $6,282 were being sold to Chinese tourists by the U.K. based company ZG High Ticket Item Co. But their interest in gold doesn’t stop there; China has sold gilded versions of a lot of random items, from underwear to shoes and even bathtubs. In perhaps one of the grandest moments of the tuhao generation, a woman in central Anhui province reportedly gave her new son-in-law a 4 million yuan Bentley, worth roughly $650,000, as a wedding gift. The groom was reportedly overwhelmed with joy, and promised to never let down his new wife. The story sparked a firestorm of commentary over the ridiculousness of what many called China’s “most expensive dowry.” Cars are the biggest indicator of tuhao status. While luxury vehicles like Ferraris, Bentleys and Lamborghinis are all over the country, a tuhao-owned vehicle is often distinguished by its ostentatious custom colors, which appear in various hues of green, pinks purple and baby blue, or with their crystal-encrusted mirrors and Hello Kitty-branded interiors.
Oxford English Dictionary Considers Adding 'Tuhao', A Chinese Slang Term In Future Edition
BY MICHELLE FLORCRUZ China’s growing flashy elite has become notorious for glitzy taste and a penchant for spending lots of money. Soon, these "tuhao" Chinese, as they are known to their resentful countrymen, could be in the books forever. State media are reporting that the venerable Oxford English Dictionary is considering adding the Chinese word to its next edition. “A lot of media has given attention to the word ‘tuhao,’ which also triggered our interest,” said a statement from the publisher, Oxford University Press. “Its meaning is quite similar to a new word in English, ‘bling’, a slang term that refers to flashy, ostentatious or elaborate jewelry and ornamented accessories. If the influence of ‘tuhao’ keeps rising, we will consider including it in our dictionaries of the 2014 edition.” If the rise of the tuhao Chinese is any indicator, Oxford should mark off the spot under the letter T now. Though the middle class is advancing, flashy designer logos, jewelry and cars still mark the top tier of China’s demographics. This large market are the nouveau riche of the East. Along with new wealth, there is a learning curve of being demure about consumption that many Chinese have not mastered as yet, or perhaps are rejecting. Flaunting wealth in everything from gold-plated iPhones to gilded cars, tuhao culture in China is hard to miss. But the word tuhao did not always refer to a gaudy group of people. According to China Radio International, the word originally referred to wealthy landowners in the 1920s who would bully those they deemed beneath them. The word only took on its new meaning this September. New words are constantly being added to the English lexicon, like the OED's newly announced word of the year, "selfie," or "twerking," the gyrating body movement made infamous by Miley Cyrus, both of which were just added in September. While the popularity of "tuhao" is undeniable, recognizing the word in an English language dictionary still seems out of place. But Oxford University Press says Chinese words are being considered because of the increasing influence of the Chinese language, particularly slang terms, which can often be lost in translation. As of now, only about 120 words in the Oxford dictionaries have Chinese origins, including familiar terms like "dim sum" and "Chinglish."
Chinese suitor presents his would-be-bride with bouquet of bank notes Internet users decry cash-packed bouquet as the latest example of how some members of China’s affluent but uncultured nouveau riche have taken a battering ram to the boundaries of good taste
By Tom Phillips For centuries, roses have been considered the go-to flower for sweaty-palmed suitors the world over. But a cash-flush member of China’s rapidly expanding nouveau riche has reportedly attempted to rewrite the romantic rulebook by proposing to his girlfriend not with a bouquet of fragrant flowers but one packed with bright pink bank notes. Photographs of the paper-scented and distinctly un-communist bouquet sent shivers through the Chinese internet on Monday and shed light on the dubious spending habits of a group known as the “tuhao”. “Disgustingly vulgar,” wrote one user of the Twitter-like microblog Weibo after photographs of the bouquet, made up of 10,000 yuan (?1,020) worth of 100 yuan notes emblazoned with the face of Mao Tse-tung, spread like wildfire on social media. “Is this girl marrying herself off or selling herself out?” questioned another. Mr Jin, the florist responsible for crafting the yuan-stuffed bouquet, told The Telegraph the customer had seen his creation as the ultimate romantic gesture. “He withdrew the money from the bank himself and brought the notes to us,” said Mr Jin, who runs the “Flower in the House” florists in the city of Yangzhou and declined to give his first name. “At first we had some concerns about making a bouquet out of renminbi but the customer was extremely insistent.” The florist refused to give further details about his 20-something-year-old client and defended the commission as an “interesting episode”. But internet users were quick to pour scorn on the young man, who they decried as the latest example of a Chinese “tuhao” with more money than sense. The word - once used to refer to rich rural landowners – is composed of two Chinese characters: “tu” which means uncouth and “hao” which means “wealth”. Their combination has now become a byword for affluent but culturally impoverished Chinese with “garish tastes [but without] good cultural traits and sophistication,” the China Daily reported in October. Scarcely a day goes by without cases of tuhao-type behavior or bling appearing in the Chinese media in the form of diamond-studded Chryslers, golden iPhones or the man who served up around ?500,000 in cash on plates at a wedding banquet. On Saturday internet users ridiculed another tuhao who proposed to his girlfriend by splashing out ?20,000 on 1000 pairs of shoes and then whisked his bride-to-be off in a pumpkin-shaped car. Increasingly popular in Chinese conversations, the concept of tuhao is now seeking an international career. Earlier this month state media suggested the word might eventually be embraced by English speakers and could even clinch a place in the Oxford English Dictionary. “If its influence continues, it is very likely to appear on our updated list of words,” Julie Kleeman, one of the editors of the Oxford English-Chinese dictionary, was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, Mr Jin, the florist, said he was happy to accept future commissions from customers who hoped to say it with wads of cash rather than roses. “I heard he was successful in his proposal,” he said of his mysterious but now happily betrothed tuhao client.
Knowledge Graph
Examples
1 A new word has suddenly become wildly popular in China - "tuhao" - which loosely translated means "nouveau riche".
2 There have been more than 100 million references to the word "tuhao" on social media since early September.
3 “Tuhao” comprises the characters for “earth” and “powerful” (I prefer the translation “dirty rich”) and is an ancient reference to oppressive landlords that was given new life in 2013 when a joke went viral on the microblogging site Weibo.