The Financial Times this past weekend printed a lively and insightful magazine article on the tastes of the nouveau riches in China called, “Shopping habits of China’s ‘suddenly wealth”. Chinese call the newly (and quickly) wealthy baofahu, a rough translation of which means someone who has rapidly become wealthy by suspect or even corrupt means. For a perfect example and explanation of what constitutes a baofahu and what your average Zhang thinks of her, check out the ChinaSMACK page entitled “Shanghai Car Show Rich Shanxi Girl Gives Money for Photo”.

The FT article is divided into six sections

• Rare animals
• Big cars, flashy cars
• Gold
• Barbie
• Spirits and fine wine
• “Penny pinching, ruthless, suspicious shoppers”

Some of the more disturbing buying patterns involve:

…traditional Chinese tastes, combined with the explosion in wealth during the past decade, have created a rapacious and unsustainable call for the body parts of endangered species. The manufacture of traditional delicacies, ornaments and medicinal ingredients has helped to cut swathes through populations of sharks, elephants, seahorses and other species across the world – and that demand is only expected to increase.”

And almost as criminal:

The cachet of ordering an expensive bottle also still far outweighs the pleasure derived from drinking it, and Chinese nightclubs are filled with wealthy people ordering top-shelf cognac then mixing it with gallons of sweet, green-tea-flavoured soft drinks.”

Been there. Done that. Bad idea.

The article also discusses how the buying habits of Chinese vary throughout the country, including the interesting tidbit that Zhejiang people like it rough – their toilet paper, that is.

Well-worth the read.