Tuhao and Gold iPhones

[Randy W]

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Emergence of tuhao highlights new vulgarities of materialistic society

 

 

Such gaudy displays are a mark of the tuhao, a term spreading like wildfire on Chinese social networks to designate the newly rich and powerful.

It lends itself to many interpretations; you might translate it as "billionaire hillbilly," "land baron," or simply nouveau riche.

The word became popular almost overnight. As Rachel Lu put it in the US Foreign Policy magazine, while tu means dirt or uncouth and hao means splendor, the combination now indicates "the artistic sensibilities of the arriviste, the social grace of the parvenu, and the spending habits of the nouveau riche."

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And as with the nouveau riche in Europe, they can spend lavishly on everything, such as the newly introduced gold version of the iPhone 5, but their money doesn't buy proper taste.

Deep in our minds, we actually despise tuhao, who only pursue materialistic rather than spiritual values, who see only money but have no sense of moral standards and cultural refinement and civility, and who blindly chase after the latest in luxury brands regardless of quality or cost.

Nonetheless, on China's social networks, there have been netizens calling for making friends with tuhao in order to get the benefits of such connections.