{"id":431,"date":"2016-04-12T17:30:23","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T17:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/?p=431"},"modified":"2016-04-12T17:30:23","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T17:30:23","slug":"chinese-scions-song-my-daddys-rich-and-my-lamborghinis-good-looking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/?p=431","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Scions\u2019 Song: My Daddy\u2019s Rich and My Lamborghini\u2019s Good-Looking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese Scions\u2019 Song: My Daddy\u2019s Rich and My Lamborghini\u2019s Good-Looking<\/span><\/strong>
\n\u70b9\u51fb\u67e5\u770b\u672c\u6587\u4e2d\u6587\u7248 Read in Chinese
\nBy DAN LEVINAPRIL 12, 2016ft, Loretta Lai, Chelsea Jiang and Diana Wang attended a reception at a Lamborghini dealership last month in Vancouver, British Columbia. Credit Ruth Fremson\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

VANCOUVER, British Columbia \u2014 Andy Guo, an 18-year-old Chinese immigrant, loves driving his red Lamborghini Hurac\u00e1n. He does not love having to share the car with his twin brother, Anky.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of conflict,\u201d Mr. Guo said, as a crowd of admirers gazed at the vehicle and its vanity license plate, \u201cCTGRY 5,\u201d short for the most catastrophic type of hurricane.<\/p>\n

The 360,000-Canadian-dollar car was a gift last year from their father, who travels back and forth between Vancouver and China\u2019s northern Shanxi Province and made his fortune in coal, said Mr. Guo, an economics major at the University of British Columbia.<\/p>\n

The car is more fashion than function. \u201cI have a backpack, textbooks and laundry, but I can\u2019t fit everything inside,\u201d he lamented. And that is not the worst of it. \u201cA cop once pulled me over just to look at the car,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s rapid economic rise has turned peasants into billionaires. Many wealthy Chinese are increasingly eager to stow their families, and their riches, in the West, where rule of law, clean air and good schools offer peace of mind, especially for those looking to escape scrutiny from the Communist Party and an anti-corruption campaign that has sent hundreds of the rich and powerful to jail.<\/p>\n

With its relatively weak currency and welcoming immigration policies, Canada has become a top destination for China\u2019s 1 percenters. According to government figures, from 2005 to 2012, at least 37,000 Chinese millionaires took advantage of a now-defunct immigrant investor program to become permanent residents of British Columbia, the province that includes Vancouver.
\nThe metropolitan area of 2.3 million is home to increasing numbers of ethnic-Chinese residents, who made up more than 18 percent of the population in 2011, up from less than 7 percent in 1981, according to government figures.<\/p>\n

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Charged With Graft in China, Some Fugitives Are Finding Luxury in U.S. MAY 15, 2015
\nMany residents say the flood of Chinese capital has caused an affordable housing crisis. Vancouver is the most expensive city in Canada to buy a home, according to a 2016 survey by the consulting firm Demographia. The average price of a detached house in greater Vancouver more than doubled from 2005 to 2015, to about 1.6 million Canadian dollars ($1.2 million), according to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Residents angry about the rise of rich foreign real estate buyers and absentee owners, particularly from China, have begun protests on social media, including a #DontHave1Million Twitter campaign. The provincial government agreed this year to begin tracking foreign ownership of real estate in response to demands from local politicians.<\/p>\n

The anger has had little effect on the gilded lives of Vancouver\u2019s wealthy Chinese. Indeed, to the newcomers for whom money is no object, the next purchase after a house is usually a car, and then a few more.<\/p>\n

A large number of luxury car dealerships here employ Chinese staff, a testament to the spending power of the city\u2019s newest residents. In 2015, there were 2,500 cars worth more than $150,000 registered in metropolitan Vancouver, up from 1,300 in 2009, according to the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia.<\/p>\n

Many of Vancouver\u2019s young supercar owners are known as fuerdai, a Mandarin expression, akin to trust-fund kids, that means \u201crich second generation.\u201d In China, where the superrich are widely criticized as being corrupt and materialistic, the term provokes a mix of scorn and envy.<\/p>\n

The fuerdai have brought their passion for extravagance to Vancouver. White Lamborghinis are popular among young Chinese women; the men often turn in their leased supercars after a few months for a newer, cooler status symbol.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of young Chinese immigrants, along with a handful of Canadian-born Chinese, have started supercar clubs whose members come together to drive, modify and photograph their flashy vehicles, providing alluring eye candy for their followers on social media.<\/p>\n

The Vancouver Dynamic Auto Club has 440 members, 90 percent of whom are from China, said the group\u2019s 27-year-old founder, David Dai. To join, a member must have a car that costs over 100,000 Canadian dollars, or about $77,000. \u201cThey don\u2019t work,\u201d Mr. Dai said of Vancouver\u2019s fuerdai. \u201cThey just spend their parents\u2019 money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Occasionally, the need for speed hits a roadblock. In 2011, the police impounded a squadron of 13 Lamborghinis, Maseratis and other luxury cars, worth $2 million, for racing on a metropolitan Vancouver highway at 125 miles per hour. The drivers were members of a Chinese supercar club, and none were older than 21, according to news reports at the time.<\/p>\n

On a recent evening, an overwhelmingly Chinese crowd of young adults had gathered at an invitation-only Rolls-Royce event to see a new black-and-red Dawn convertible, base price $402,000. It is the only such car in North America.<\/p>\n

Among the curious was Jin Qiao, 20, a baby-faced art student who moved to Vancouver from Beijing six years ago with his mother. During the week, Mr. Jin drives one of two Mercedes-Benz S.U.V.s, which he said were better suited for the rigors of daily life.<\/p>\n

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From left, Loretta Lai, Chelsea Jiang and Diana Wang attended a reception at a Lamborghini dealership last month in Vancouver, British Columbia.<\/span> Credit<\/span>Ruth Fremson\/The New York Times<\/span><\/p>\n

But his most prized possession is a $600,000 Lamborghini Aventador Roadster Galaxy, its exterior custom wrapped to resemble outer space. Mr. Jin, a lanky design major who favors Fendi clothing and gold sneakers, extolled the virtues of exotic cars and was quick to dismiss those who criticized supercar aficionados as ostentatious. \u201cThere are so many rich people in Vancouver, so what\u2019s the point of showing off?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked what his parents did for a living, Mr. Jin said his father was a successful businessman back in China but declined to provide details. \u201cI can\u2019t say,\u201d he stammered with evident discomfort.<\/p>\n

Ms. Jiang at the Lamborghini dealership. Credit Ruth Fremson\/The New York Times<\/p>\n

Because of high import and luxury taxes in China, supercars are often 50 percent cheaper in Canada. And in Canada, Chinese immigrants said, people are far less likely to question how they obtained their wealth.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Vancouver, there are lots of kids of corrupt Chinese officials,\u201d said Shi Yi, 27, the owner of Luxury Motor, a car dealership that caters to affluent Chinese. \u201cHere, they can flaunt their money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Chinese immigrants think a supercar is a poor investment, because its value decreases over time. \u201cBetter to spend half a million dollars on two expensive watches or some diamonds,\u201d said Diana Wang, 23, a University of British Columbia graduate student who said she owned more than 30 Chanel bags and a $200,000 diamond-encrusted Richard Mille watch.<\/p>\n

Ms. Wang, a star on the online reality show \u201cUltra Rich Asian Girls of Vancouver,\u201d normally drives her parents\u2019 Ferrari or Mercedes-Maybach when she visits them in Shanghai. But in Canada, her parents gave her a strict car budget of 150,000 Canadian dollars ($115,000), so she drives the less-flashy Audi RS5.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could be in danger if people saw me in a supercar,\u201d she said, her Breguet watch, worth more than a BMW, glinting in the sunlight as she drove the Audi through town.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, to learn the value of money after her friends criticized her spending habits, Ms. Wang spent three days on the streets of Vancouver, playing homeless. She said she had left her mansion with no phone, identification or wallet, wearing Victoria\u2019s Secret pajamas and $1,000 Chanel shoes.<\/p>\n

While in voluntary poverty, she lined up for donated food and felt the sting of humiliation after she was kicked out of a Tim Horton\u2019s fast-food restaurant for falling asleep at a table. The experiment, she said, gave her a new appreciation for her parents\u2019 financial support.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore that experience, I never looked at a price tag,\u201d she said. \u201cNow I do.\u201d
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