Chinese Tycoons, CEOs & Tuhao

[GeneChing]

These stories are starting to become more prevalent so I'm starting this thread. It's another telling barometer of the dragon that is China awakening.

Some related thread precedents:
Jet-Li-s-TaijiZen-International-Cultural-Development-Company (a lot about Jack Ma)

China-s-most-powerful-celebrities

Chinese Taxi Driver Turned Billionaire Bought Modigliani Painting
By AMY QINNOV. 10, 2015

Sold! In China

The Shanghai financier Liu Yiqian went from taxi driver to multimillionaire. He is also one of China’s most prolific collectors of art. By Jonah M. Kessel on Publish Date December 17, 2013. Photo by The New York Times. Watch in Times Video

BEIJING — Liu Yiqian, a former taxi driver turned billionaire art collector, confirmed on Tuesday that he was the buyer of the painting of a nude woman by Amedeo Modigliani that sold for $170.4 million at Christie’s New York on Monday night.

Speaking by telephone from Shanghai, the Chinese collector said he planned to bring the work back to the city, where he and his wife have two private museums.

“We are planning to exhibit it for the museum’s fifth anniversary,” he said. “It will be an opportunity for Chinese art lovers to see good artworks without having to leave the country, which is one of the main reasons why we founded the museums.”

Bidding by telephone, Mr. Liu, 52, was one of six people competing for Modigliani’s 1917-18 canvas, “Nu Couché,” during the auction. The final price of $170.4 million with fees was well above the previous auction record of $70.7 million for a work by Modigliani. With Mr. Liu’s winning bid, the painting became the 10th work of art to reach the elite nine-figure club for works sold at auction.

“Modigliani’s works already have a pretty established value on the market,” Mr. Liu said. “This work is relatively nice compared to his other nude paintings. And his nude paintings have been collected by some of the world’s top museums.”

As a teenager growing up in Shanghai during the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Liu sold handbags on the street and later worked as a taxi driver. After dropping out of middle school, he went on to ride the wave of China’s economic opening and reform, making a fortune through stock trading in real estate and pharmaceuticals in the 1980s and 1990s. According to the 2015 Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mr. Liu is worth at least $1.5 billion.

“To me, art collecting is primarily a process of learning about art,” Mr. Liu said in an interview with The New York Times in 2013. “First you must be fond of the art. Then you can have an understanding of it.”

Mr. Liu, together with his wife, Wang Wei, is one of China’s most visible –—some say flashy — art collectors. Over the years, they have built a vast collection of both traditional and contemporary Chinese art, much of which is displayed in their two museums in Shanghai: the Long Museum Pudong, which opened in 2012; and the Long Museum West Bund, which opened last year. Ms. Wang, 52, is the director of both museums.

“I first came up with the idea that the Long Museum should collect international objects about two years ago,” said Ms. Wang, adding that her husband has been very supportive of her work.


Amedeo Modigliani’s “Nu Couché” (1917-18). Credit via Christie’s

The couple’s collection includes a 15th-century silk hanging, called a thangka, bought by Mr. Liu for $45 million at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong last year. The purchase made headlines when it set the record for a Chinese artwork sold at an international auction.

With that purchase, Mr. Liu broke a record he had set months earlier when he paid $36.3 million at a Sotheby’s sale for a tiny Ming dynasty porcelain cup known as a “chicken cup.” Soon after, he caused an uproar after a photograph that showed him sipping tea from the antique cup spread online.

For both record-setting acquisitions, Mr. Liu reportedly paid with an American Express credit card, earning him many millions of reward points.

The couple’s self-promotion tactics have prompted some in contemporary art circles in China to draw comparisons with the “taxi tycoon” Robert Scull and his wife Ethel, voracious collectors of what came to be known as “Pop Art” in the 1960s but derided by some in the art world as crass nouveaux riche.

Speaking about Mr. Liu and Ms. Wang, Philip Tinari, director of the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, said: “These are collectors that have so much money that they acquire taste or they don’t have to have to taste because they buy everything in sight.” He added: “There’s very little discrimination, they just buy the most expensive things. They’re not connoisseurs.”

“Nu Couché” will be the most expensive artwork in the couple’s collection, Mr. Liu said. But when asked whether he planned to pay with the credit card again, Mr. Liu demurred.

“The payment method will be carried out in accordance with Christie’s guidelines,” he said.

A version of this article appears in print on November 11, 2015, on page A26 of the New York edition with the headline: Billionaire Is Buyer of a Modigliani. =

[GeneChing]

Will Joseph Lau's daughter grow up to be the Asian Paris Hilton? Doubtful.

Hong Kong tycoon's 7-year-old daughter now owns the world's most expensive diamond ever sold at auction



On Wednesday, a Hong Kong billionaire bought the extremely rare and ultra-pricey "Blue Moon" diamond for a whopping $48.4 million at a Geneva auction, making it the world's most expensive diamond ever purchased.

Turns out, that when you pay that much for something you also get to rename it, so the buyer chose to call his newest rock "The Blue Moon of Josephine," after his 7-year-old daughter.



The flawless 12.03-carat blue diamond has been described as one of the rarest gems in the world. It was whittled down from a 29.6-carat blue diamond discovered in South Africa last year, placed on a ring and now will be worn on special occasions by a primary school kid.

The record-breaking sale took place at a Sotheby's auction in Geneva. Auctioneer David Bennett said that it sold for more than $4 million per cart, the highest price per carat ever obtained for any kind of stone, the BBC reports.



Initially, the proud new owner was described only as a "Hong Kong buyer," but it turns out that he wasn't too difficult to track down. The buyer has been confirmed as Joseph Lau, majority owner of property firm Chinese Estates Holdings and the 114th richest person in the world, according to Forbes, with a net worth of more than $10 billion.

Turns out that buying ultra-expensive jewels for his two daughters, 7-year-old Josephine and 13-year-old Zoe, is kinda Lau's thing.

Only a day before at a Christie's auction in Geneva, an "anoymous bidder" snatched up a 16.08-carat pink diamond for $28.5 million, dubbing it "Sweet Josephine."



According to CNN, in 2009, Lau purchased a 7.03-carat blue diamond for $9.48 million, naming it the "Star of Josephine." She's never going to need to wear that cheap piece of garbage ever again.



In case you are worried about him playing favorites, last November, Zoe received a 9.75-carat blue diamond, bought by her father for $32.6 million and creatively named "The Zoe Diamond," along with a Burmese ruby and diamond brooch weighing 10.10 carats purchased for $8.43 million and named "The Zoe Red."

We have no idea what Lau has in store for their sweet sixteens.



But it will be extravagant, back in 2006, Lau purchased an iconic Andy Warhol portrait of Mao Zedong for $16.4 million. He also reportedly built Hong Kong's tallest retail complex and named it "The ONE" after an ex-girlfriend.



Yesterday we reported on Liu Yiqian, a Chinese taxi driver turned billionaire, who purchased a Modigliani nude for $170.4 million at auction. Expect to see more and more of these kind of stories in the future. A recent Forbes survey found that China now has 596 billionaires -- 715 if you count Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan -- surpassing the United States.

[Images via NetEase]

Contact the author of this article or email tips@shanghaiist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Alex Linder in News on Nov 13, 2015 3:45 PM

[GeneChing]

This is somewhat random but it came up in a Kung Fu newsfeed search, so what the heck? Figured I'd add it.

Golden touch: Global Group founder Johnny Hon talks Kung Fu Panda, the Northern Powerhouse, Glenn Close and human rights
16 November 2015 2:29am
by Harriet Green


Johnny Hon: It’s not easy to say what’s right and what’s wrong

Did you sell sweets to all your classmates? I ask Johnny Hon, interjecting as he talks about his childhood. “Yes, I did actually,” he chuckles, before moving back to explaining how he never took money from his parents after the age of 18, and ended up selling second-hand cars to fund his education. “They taught me how to be independent from an early age; to be open-minded and appreciate people from all sections of society.”

It wasn’t that the Global Group founder’s family were ever short of a few bob – he came to the UK aged 12 to study at Uppingham School before attending King’s College London and Cambridge University. But spotting business opportunities and making the most of them seems to have been hard-wired into Hon.

After a stint in private banking and forex in the Middle East, he began a PhD in psychiatry. It was while at Cambridge that he started to build his business, putting Chinese entrepreneurs in touch with students who could help them create business plans. Now, Global Group’s range is vast, and Hon’s business interests almost endless. He is (and this is just a current selection) the executive chairman of his own company and Gate Ventures, which he also founded, a senior consultant for Pearl Oriental Oil, a fellow of the University of Buckingham, an adviser to the Chinese and Armenian governments, director of Infinity Creative Media, chairman of his own film company, and vice chairman of Sotheby’s International Realty. His financial-based interests alone stretch from a stake in a lottery in China to a bank in the Comoros Islands and an online gambling firm in London. But he’s a benefactor of the Duke of Edinburgh Award World Fellowship, and funds scholarships at Oxford, Cambridge and Peking Universities. “I did think about pursuing medicine. But I realised that making money means you can do a lot more good than just one doctor.”

Hon has always worked between Hong Kong and London, and says that the aim of his firm is to “bridge gaps. Historically, we’ve got more of a connection with Britain than with other Western nations. The US sees China as competition; the UK sees the opportunity for trade. Lots of Chinese people know British brands.” Hon mentions the Northern Powerhouse, explaining that one of the reasons it’s such an appealing prospect to the Chinese is that “northern cities are premium brand names in China because of football teams. Chinese people love football like they love the royal family.”

BAMBOO BLIND
But the entrepreneur is also aware of the differences between the two nations – and he puts a lot of it down to geography. “The thing is, the Western culture started around the Mediterranean. That’s a peaceful sea. The Yangtze river isn’t like that: it floods all the time, it kills people. In the West, the individual became the most important thing because people had more time to think about the self, their relationship to god. That didn’t happen in places of flooding.”

This thinking extends to human rights. He mentions the trolley problem, the ethical dilemma which states that there are five people tied down to a railway track with a train bearing down on them. You have the power to switch the train off the track, but then realise that there’s one person standing in the sidings. Who do you save? “In China, people would always choose to save the many over the one person. It would be out of the question to do anything else. When we’re talking about human rights, we need to remember that, to lots of people, some are more important than others. It’s not easy to say what’s right and what’s wrong.”

MUSICAL OVERTONES
Understandably, Hon is also accommodative of different ways of doing business. A good example, he says, is agreeing on and delivering a contract. “In the West, you sign a contract and it’s set in stone. In the East, it is perfectly common for a contract to undergo ongoing renegotiation. And it’s seen as a good thing to do – it keeps the spirit in the agreement.”

And his open-mindedness helps him to spot opportunity. One of the nifty approaches he is currently taking is “repackaging” brands. “Littlewoods, for instance, may not be so popular here anymore, but it’s a brand that could work in China. There’s a rapidly expanding middle class who have the same appetite for knowledge and desire for quality as the British – but the products and services aren’t available.”

He’s already acting on this when it comes to TV. A confessed arts buff with several film executive producer roles under his belt, Hon’s set his sights on a UK-made series, teaming up with Lord Grade, former chairman of the BBC. “In my view, TV is done a lot better here. The Chinese all watch Kung Fu Panda. It’s not like the Chinese can’t draw pandas, it’s because the animation is better.” And Hon is also taking the musical to China. “The musical is a new concept in China, and I think it will be very popular.” Again, the key is to be savvy enough to dress up something for a new audience: we might be Lloyd Webber-jaded, but there’s no reason for other nations to be. A couple of weeks ago, Hon attended the London launch of Sunset Boulevard, which Gate Ventures invested in. When we met, just beforehand, he was “extremely excited – and a lot of that is because I love Glenn Close.”

If anything, Hon sees China’s slowing economy as a golden opportunity. “The rate that property prices in China are rising is slowing. I believe that’s a good thing, long-term. And in the more immediate future, when the economy isn’t going as fast, entertainment products always work best.” Because of this, he is looking to invest increasingly across entertainment, technology and e-commerce businesses. “Think about Hollywood during the Great Depression. Really, people just need to be able to dream a bit.”

CV JOHNNY HON
Company name: Global Group

Founded: 1997

Number of staff: 80

Turnover: $100m a year

Job title: Executive chairman

Age: 44

Born: Hong Kong

Lives: Hong Kong, but I come to London every month

Studied: King’s College London, BSc in biomedical sciences; SOAS, MA in Korean studies; Cambridge University, PhD in psychiatry

Drinking: Fine wines

Eating: Steak

Currently reading: No time for reading currently

Favourite Business Book: Don’t really have one

Talents: Strategy, diplomacy and high net worth client management

Heroes: Nelson Mandela

First ambition: To build something

Motto: “Never give up. Never surrender.”

Awards: Medal of Honour from the government of Hong Kong

[GeneChing]

This thread is the new barometer of the waking dragon.

NOVEMBER 18, 2015
Hong Kong Billionaire Is Offering $180,000,000 To Any Man Willing To Marry His Daughter
HK Billionaire Offers HK500mil to changes His Daugther Sexual Orientation



You might have read about Cecil Chao before, he is a Chinese billionaire who made his fortune through a company called Cheuk Nang Holdings Ltd a huge real estate conglomerate that focuses on the development of luxury high rises and trophy properties in Hong Kong.

He is known for making outlandish statements such as the time he was quoted by the Hong Kong media for saying he had bedded over 10,000 women in his lifetime. Most famous of all his public announcements was in 2012 when he offered $60,000,000 USD in the form of a “dowry” (which is a parental transfer of money or property) to whichever man could turn his daughter strait. He came back in 2014 upping the ante to $120,000,000 USD. And now he’s back to say the bounty is now $180,000,000 to who ever can get the job done.

The way I’m looking at it is like this I can get a non stop flight from Texas to Hong Kong on American Airlines for $1,561, or try Hong Kong’s own airline Cathay Pacific for $1,699. If I wanted to save a few bucks I saw some connecting flights on United and Delta Airlines for right around $1,000. That’s approximately 120,000 – 180,000 times your money. I don’t think anything in life really offered you that type of return on your investment, and if all else fails well I know I’ve spent $1,000 on dumber things before.

May the best man win!


(The chick in the bow tie is your competition.)

[GeneChing]

This is exactly the trend that inspired me to start this here thread.

Tuhao = 土豪

The Rise of the Tuhao
The same group of entitled nouveau riche that gives China a bad name abroad is reviled at home as well.
By David Volodzko
August 03, 2015



Zheng Bijian, author of the phrase “China’s peaceful rise,” once wrote that as China’s development wins the attention of the world, it becomes increasingly important to understand its path. He explained that “economic growth alone does not provide a full picture of a country’s development. China has a population of 1.3 billion. Any small difficulty in its economic or social development, spread over this vast group, could become a huge problem.”

These words were penned 10 years ago, and in the decade since China’s social development has been stunning: brimming with ambition, globally instrumental, and touching the highest peaks of human progress. But at the very top of Chinese society, the peaks are narrow and the valleys below are deep and wide. One of the difficulties in China’s recent development is the emergence of a new social class of economic elites known as tuhao. These are China’s nouveau riche, though the term itself means something more offensive, and deservedly so.

“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. In the joke, a rich but unhappy young man asks a Buddhist monk for advice, to which the monk, cognizant of the young man’s wealth, replies, “Let’s be friends!” Since then, the term has been adopted into common use; the Oxford English Dictionary added “tuhao” to its 2014 edition.

Also, check out what I just posted in our Buddhist-life-release thread.

[PalmStriker]

ALIBABA : http://www.thestreet.com/story/13326...f-youtube.html

[GeneChing]

The paradoxical thing about Chinese Tycoons is, of course, China is still communist.

Chinese executives keep going missing
By Sophia Yan @sophia_yan



Top company executives in China keep vanishing, and some never return to their posts.
This week, it was the CEO of the Hong Kong arm of one of China's largest brokerages who disappeared; a few months ago, the president of a giant bank.

Once they go missing, there's no telling when they'll resurface. In some cases, they show up again -- perhaps months later, and offering little explanation.
In others, state media report that the executive has been caught up in a government investigation, into insider dealing or bribery, for example. Few details are ever revealed.
Some of these cases appear to be linked to a campaign against corruption launched by President Xi Jinping in 2013. But lately, more seem to be tied to investigations related to China's summer stock crash. Officials have been casting around for people to blame for the wild market swings.
Either way, the bizarre case of China's missing executives has observers puzzled. Here's a look at four recent examples of unexplained absences:

1. Guotai Junan International
The Hong Kong subsidiary of a major state-owned Chinese brokerage reported on Monday that its CEO, Yim Fung, was missing. Shares tumbled 12% after Guotai Junan International said that it had been unable to reach Yim since last week, and had no idea of his whereabouts.
Local media reports suggest that Yim is being detained in connection with the investigation of a senior government official -- Yao Gang, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the country's stock market regulator. Yao was general manager at Guotai Junan from 1999 to 2002, according to the CSRC website.
Neither the company, nor the government, has said anything about why Yim has disappeared.
Related: Giant Chinese brokerage can't find its CEO

2. China Minsheng Bank
Early this year, a respected financial news magazine in China reported that Minsheng's president, Mao Xiaofeng, couldn't be reached after he was detained to help with an investigation. Then, in February, the bank announced in an exchange filing that he had resigned for "personal reasons."
Months later, there's still no clarity or confirmation on what exactly happened to Mao, and Minsheng's shares have plummeted 20% this year.
Several other financial executives have been caught up in these government probes. Chinese state media reported that Zhang Yun, president of Agricultural Bank of China, one of the world's largest banks, was detained to assist officials with an investigation.
Xu Xiang, a high profile fund manager with Shanghai-based Zexi Investment, has also been arrested and is being investigated for alleged insider trading, reported state media, citing the Ministry of Public Security.
Related: Top China banker implicated in corruption probe

3. China Aircraft
CEO Poon Ho Man resigned with immediate effect in a letter received June 17 by the company board, according to a description of the letter in a June 19 exchange filing. He had been on leave for a month, and gave no reasons for his decision to quit.
His resignation letter also made no reference to media reports linking him to a government investigation into China Southern Airlines, one of the company's customers. And China Aircraft seems to know very little.
"Except for news reported in the media, the Board does not have any information on the status of the alleged investigations, nor has the Board received any notice that Mr. Poon is under any kind of investigation," China Aircraft said in the filing.
The company also said it had been unable to contact Poon since receiving his resignation, and was "unable to verify the source of information of the news in the media." Its shares plunged 19% on June 19, and the stock has lost 26% so far this year.

4. Hanergy
Hanergy chairman Li Hejun, once China's richest man, failed to show up for the company's annual shareholder meeting in May. The meeting was just getting started as Hanergy shares began plunging, losing 47% in just one hour. That wiped $18.6 billion off the company's market value.
Trading was eventually suspended pending an announcement "containing inside information," but the company hasn't clarified much since, and dealing is still halted.
Plenty of analysts were already skeptical about Hanergy's astonishing rise -- the stock had soared 625% in 2015 before the crash. They were concerned about market manipulation and inflated profits, particularly after the company said 60% of sales came from its parent company.
A company spokesperson later said Li was attending the opening of Hanergy's clean energy exhibition in Beijing instead of addressing shareholders. In late May, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission said in a statement it was conducting a formal investigation into Hanergy, but gave no details.
The statements only raised more questions, especially when it was revealed in exchange filings that Li himself had upped his bet that Hanergy shares would fall.
Things took an even stranger turn when, in a rare speech in September, Li denied shorting Hanergy stock himself, and instead blamed outside investors for malicious short selling, causing the company's spectacular fall.

[GeneChing]

I thought Dr. No was the Chinese Bond villain...

Woman spends 3.5 million yuan on 13.35 kg of gold bars
(People's Daily Online) 08:48, December 02, 2015



A woman spent 3.5 million yuan on 13.55 kg of gold bars Sunday in northeast China's Jilin province. It has been the 7th year for her to keep buying the gold.
The Monkey Year gold bars issued by China Gold Coin Corporation officially entered the market of Jilin province Sunday. With a price of 267 yuan per gram, 90 kg gold bars were sold out immediately.
"The gold sales in the past 10 years shows that people like to collect the gold, especially gold bars," said a staff member of the Jilin Gold Coin Corporation. With expectations for the Fed’s decision to increase the interest rate, the decline in International gold price accelerated in November, hitting a new low in six years. As of Nov. 28, the international gold price reached $1,057.88 an ounce and the domestic spot price of gold hit 219.2 yuan a gram. Therefore, the New Year gold bullion price also hit a new low since 2010. The relative low price created a new round of gold buying spree.
The staff member who sold the gold to the woman said the woman is around 50 years of age. It has been the 7th year for her to buy the New Year gold bullion. Last year she bought 10 kg of gold worth 2.7 million yuan; she bought the largest amount of gold this year with a value of more than 3.5 million yuan.

[GeneChing]

...where can I apply?

As son refuses father’s fortune, China’s richest man seeks ‘application’ for heir
December 13, 2016, 10:05 am



The richest man in China, Wang Jianlin, owning a $92 billion (620600 crore) empire, on Sunday said he is looking for a successor, most likely from a group of professional managers, to take over his business after his son apparently declined to take over his empire.

The 62-year-old, founder and chairman of Dalian Wanda Group Co, whose business includes shopping malls, theme parks, sports clubs and cinemas, said he is most likely to pick from a group of professional managers to take over the running of his business.

I have asked my son about the succession plan, and he said he does not want to live a life like I do. Perhaps young people have their own quests and priorities. Probably it will be better to hand over to professional managers and we sit on the board and see them run the company
- Wang Jianlin

Wang was speaking at China Entrepreneurs Summit on Monday.

The wealthy scions of China's billionaire entrepreneurs, known as fu'erdai are increasingly striking different paths, as more than three decades of break-neck economic growth and overseas education have given them different experiences, worldview and aspirations from their parents.

Over 80 percent of Chinese heirs are not keen on assuming the reins of their parents' businesses, a survey by the Shanghai Jiaotong University, covering 182 of the country's top family-run companies said.

Some were backing off due to intense pressures, while others simply were pursuing other career interests, study by the association of Chinese private enterprises showed, the Post report said.

Dalian Wanda, founded in the port city of Dalian in 1988, is the epitome of China's rags-to-wealth story, where it grew from a small property developer into a conglomerate operating malls, hotels, theme parks and the world's largest chain of movie cinemas.

In the process, it's made Mr Wang and his only son immensely wealthy.

Wang, who visited India and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi had committed to invest about $10 billion in a Chinese project in Haryana.

Following a worldwide buying spree that added AMC Entertainment, the Hoyts Group and Odeon and UCI Cinemas, Mr Wanda now operates the world's largest chain of cinemas, with more than 10,000 screens.

It also owns hotels operated by Westin and Sofitel, as well as shopping malls and plans to build as many as 15 multibillion-yuan theme parks around the country.

After snapping up stakes in European football clubs, Wanda is now turning its sights on Hollywood, announcing plans to purchase Dick Clark Productions in November that granted it the broadcasting rights to Golden Globe Awards.

[GeneChing]

The Story About A Chinese Lesbian Billionaire Couple Is Very, Very Fake
"That WJSN lesbian billionaires fake news tweet saved 2017."
Posted on April 29, 2017, at 3:26 a.m.
Kassy Cho
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Ikran Dahir
BuzzFeed News Reporter

A tweet about two lesbian Chinese billionaires who got married and became the world's richest couple alive has gone viral.

[BREAKING] Lesbian Chinese Billionaires, Meng Mei Qi and Wu Xuan Yi, marry. Making them the richest couple alive.
4:00 PM - 26 Apr 2017
23,281 23,281 Retweets 39,148 39,148 likes
The news that Meng Mei Qi and Wu Xuan Yi were married was shared by thousands of people, including former Disney Channel star Debby Ryan.


Twitter: @DebbyRyan
People were shook.


Twitter: @alocalteen


Twitter: @SpellmanNaomi


Twitter: @chel_c_cam

Just one problem, Meng and Wu are not a couple, and nor are they billionaires. They are, however, members of the South Korean-Chinese band Cosmic Girls, also known as WJSN.

instagram.com

The photo of Meng and Wu was taken earlier this week at the Beijing International Film Festival, and uploaded by fellow WJSN member Xuan Yi on to her Weibo page.


weibo.com

And the story was put together by K-pop fans, who, as it appears, were just trying to promote their faves.


Twitter: @misswujuniverse

The teenager behind the original tweet, Abby Fry, told BuzzFeed News that she came up with the joke because she thought it would amuse ujungs, WJSN's fan group, and never expected it to go so big.
'I thought they looked like they were at a wedding with the dresses they were wearing and the dresses sure looked expensive,' Fry said.She said that she thought people would fact-check first, but added that it 'just shows the power of what we want to happen.'
Twitter: @merrymeiqi
"I thought they looked like they were at a wedding with the dresses they were wearing and the dresses sure looked expensive," Fry said.
She said that she thought people would fact-check first, but added that it "just shows the power of what we want to happen."
Stans obviously found it hilarious.


Twitter: @misswujuniverse

And continued with their top-notch trolling.




Twitter: @floweryflesh


Twitter: @rapkays

continued next post

[GeneChing]

They even shared pictures of the "happy couple".


Twitter: @floweryflesh

Follow
av �� @greyjinsook
good night i love the richest couple alive ����
9:20 PM - 27 Apr 2017
22 22 Retweets 24 24 likes

The plot escalated with an equally fake murder.

View image on TwitterView image on Twitter
Follow
宇宙少女48�� @uzzucam
mei qi murdered her husband, married a girl,and became the richest gay couple alive she really did that
2:52 PM - 27 Apr 2017
29,714 29,714 Retweets 40,761 40,761 likes

And that they had ~history~.


Twitter: @greyjinsook

They also didn't forget to promote their album.


Twitter: @rootsmihyun

People are praising the stans for pulling off the ultimate scam.


Twitter: @nyakutagawa

But it wasn't long before people caught onto the joke.


Twitter: @ohmomona

And are now spreading the word.


Twitter: @prismwaves

Which left some very disappointed.


Twitter: @currypuffs

Ujungs, however, feel that the joke has saved 2017.


Twitter: @Suendenfall

Kassy Cho is a reporter with BuzzFeed New

I know, I know, really random news post. I just wanted to make a post with the heading 'Fake Chinese Lesbian Billionaires'[/QUOTE]

[GeneChing]

From internet sensation to China's youngest female billionaire: meet 24-year-old Zhang Zetian
Alexandra Ma
Aug. 6, 2017, 6:32 AM 543,921

It's not every day that you see a 24-year-old female billionaire — let alone one that first found fame through a viral photo.

Zhang Zetian was listed in Chinese New Fortune magazine's top 500 rich list this May, making her the youngest female billionaire in the country. The accolade has been repeated in by Chinese and Hong Kong media like the South China Morning Post newspaper and Jing Daily online magazine.

China is home to many young female billionaires, many of whom are self-made.

Thanks to Zhang's well-groomed Instagram page, we're about learn a little more about her life. Take a look at the slides below to learn more about the young billionaire.


This is 24-year-old Zhang Zetian, who also goes by Nancy.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty

Zhang first rose to fame in 2009 when a photo of her holding a cup of tea went viral.

View image on Twitter
Follow
科技新闻 @cntechnews
搜狐摊上事儿了：被奶茶妹妹起诉 要赔170万
编者按：近日，“奶茶妹妹”章泽天分别起诉北京搜狐互联网信息服务有限公司、华某（2http ://www.mychinanews.com/news/n/7/1028966 …
8:45 PM - May 11, 2015
Replies Retweets likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

Zhang, then in her mid-teens, was given the Chinese nickname Naicha meimei or “milk tea little sister”.

In 2014, she starred in a promotional video for that summer's Youth Olympics in Nanjing.


Titi Tran/YouTube

However, she resisted further fame, according, according to SCMP, and refused a movie role by by Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who made "House of Flying Daggers" and "The Great Wall."

She was admitted into China’s prestigious Tsinghua University in 2011, and spent one year on exchange at New York’s Barnard College.

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It was there that she met her future husband Liu Qiangdong, who is 19 years her senior.

She captioned the above photo "Got photographed by the paparazzi again."

The couple publicly denied their relationship for a long time, saying they were "just classmates," according to New Fortune magazine.

Liu, who also goes by Richard, is the 16th richest person in China.

Andrew Burton/Getty

Liu had the 16th-highest net worth in China last year, according to Forbes' China Rich List. The publication also ranked him the 174th richest billionaire in the world.


He's the founder and CEO of Chinese e-commerce company JD.com — one of Alibaba’s major competitors.


Liu Qiangdong celebrates his company's initial public offering on the Nasdaq exchange in 2014.Andrew Burton/Getty

JD.com had over 236 million active customer accounts in FY 2016, the company's financial statements noted. Alibaba recorded 423 active accounts the year before.

The couple married in August 2015.

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News of the nuptials got out thanks this photo of the couple in a Beijing courthouse.

Continued next post

[GeneChing]

They welcomed their first child — a girl — in March 2016. A few months later, the couple invested in an Australian baby formula company.


Zhang and Liu bought a 17.3% stake in Bubs Australia, The Australian reported.

This wasn't their only personal investment. Zhang and her husband's personal portfolio consist of six companies, including Uber China.



Zhang can be partially credited for JD.com's success, as she helps promote the site's fashion and luxury goods businesses.



The fashion aficionado met industry legend Iris Apfel this April.



Zhang met up with the 95-year-old fashion icon again in New York earlier this week.

She's also mingled with other influential people — such as Bill Gates, Canadian Governor General David Johnston and David Beckham.



Zhang's travels have taken her to Paris, Bordeaux, Cannes, California, Geneva, Milan, Venice and Cambridge — this summer alone.



The social media-savvy investor documents her travels on her Instagram feed.

The internet is a gold mine if you're cute and savvy.

[GeneChing]

Bartholomew Cooke

Those looking for China's lost art have plenty of targets. According to one widely cited government estimate, more than 10 million antiquities have disappeared from China since 1840. The works that mean the most to the Chinese are the ones that left during the so-called Century of Humiliation, from 1840 to 1949, when China was repeatedly carved up by foreign powers. The modern Communist Party has declared its intent to bring China back from that period of prolonged decline, and the return of looted objects serves as undeniable proof—tangible, visible, and beautiful proof—of the country's revival.

By far the most important pieces are those that were hauled away by British and French troops in 1860 after the sacking of the Old Summer Palace. In China today, it's difficult to overstate the indignity still associated with the looting of the palace, which had served as a residence to the last Chinese dynasty. Its gardens, art, and architecture were said to be among the most beautiful in the world. The palace held an array of wonders, not the least of which was a fountain adorned with 12 bronze heads representing the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

“The government in China doesn't think they're stolen objects. They think they belong to them."

When European troops reached the garden, the desecration of the palace became a mad frenzy. Soldiers stripped it of everything they could carry. The zodiac heads were wrenched from their bases and hauled away as trophies. When the soldiers had removed all they could, they torched what remained—retribution, they said, for the torture and murder of British envoys who'd attempted to negotiate with the Chinese. The grounds of the palace were so large and so intricate that the 4,500 troops needed three days to burn everything.

Most of the plunder was taken back to Europe and either tucked away in private collections or presented as gifts to royal families. Queen Victoria of Britain was given a pet Pekingese dog, the first of its kind ever seen in Europe. Unabashed by its provenance, she named it Looty.

In China, the memory of the Old Summer Palace's destruction remains vivid—and intentionally so. The site has been kept as ruins, the better to “stir feelings of national humiliation and patriotism,” as one Chinese academic put it. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before those feelings transformed into action.



The porcelain "chicken cup" that sold for $36 million in 2014 Aarom Tam/Getty Images

Of course, not all of the art that's finding its way home to China is being snatched off museum walls in the dead of night or wrangled back by aggressive bureaucrats. The country's new elite are helping, too.

“The Chinese don't need a coordinating campaign,” says James Ratcliffe, the director of recoveries and general counsel at the Art Loss Register. “There are enough Chinese collectors with a huge amount of money who want the pride of acquiring this art.”

In 2016, for the first time, China had more billionaires than the United States. Many of the country's nouveau riche have taken to art collecting with a giddy enthusiasm. In 2000, China represented 1 percent of the global-art-auction market; by 2014, it accounted for 27 percent. The market for historical Chinese art is so frenzied that even seemingly mundane pieces of Chinese art can electrify the scene at auction houses.

In 2010, a 16-inch Chinese vase went up for sale at an auction house in an unremarkable suburb of London. The starting price was $800,000. Half an hour later, the final bid—reportedly from an anonymous buyer from mainland China—was $69.5 million. Though the provenance of this vase was mysterious, similar objects with traceable histories of looting have proved valuable. “Buying looted artwork has become high-street fashion among China's elite,” Zhao Xu, the director of Beijing Poly Auction, told China Daily.

Their desires adhere to a nationalistic logic: The closer an object's connection to China's ignominious defeats, the more significant its return. In recent years, vases, bronzeware, and a host of other items from the Old Summer Palace have all sold for millions. Behind these purchases is almost always a well-connected Chinese billionaire eager to demonstrate China's modern resurgence on the world stage.

In 2014, a taxi driver turned billionaire named Liu Yiqian paid $36 million for a small porcelain “chicken cup,” coveted because it was once a part of the imperial collection. (According to the Wall Street Journal, he completed his purchase by swiping his Amex card 24 times and promptly stoked controversy by drinking from the dish.) A few months later, he paid an additional $45 million for a Tibetan silk tapestry from the Ming era. “When we are young, we are indoctrinated to believe that the foreigners stole from us,” Liu once told The New Yorker. “But maybe it's out of context. Whatever of ours [the foreigners] stole, we can always snatch it back one day.” (Liu Yiqian did not respond to requests for comment.)


Chinese billionaire Huang Nubo Nicolas Asfouri/Getty Images

Huang Nubo has a similarly patriotic interest in China's art. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a ruddy complexion and close-set eyes, he's the kind of billionaire who makes other billionaires jealous: He's an accomplished adventurer, one of the few people alive to have visited both the North and South Poles and summited the world's seven tallest peaks (he's topped Everest three times). When I met him at his office in Beijing, he had just returned from an expedition in western China, where he'd reached the top of the world's sixth-tallest mountain.

Huang made his money by building one of the country's most powerful real estate conglomerates, a task he undertook after spending ten years as an official in the publicity department of the Communist Party. His passion for Chinese culture has helped make him famous, and through an effort called the National Treasures Coming Home campaign, he's focusing on the reclamation of lost relics.

After the second break-in at the KODE, Huang contacted the museum. He wanted to fly to Bergen and tour the closed China exhibit. Once there, he was shown a collection of marble columns taken from the Old Summer Palace. Huang began to weep and told the museum director that the columns had no business being displayed in Norway. He donated $1.6 million to KODE, which he says was to upgrade its security. (A spokesman for KODE said the agreement did not concern security.) Soon thereafter the museum shipped seven of the marble columns back to China to be displayed at Peking University on permanent loan. (Huang denies any connection between his donation and the return of the columns.) The looting of the columns and their open display in a European museum “were our disgrace,” he told China Daily, and their return represented “dignity returned to the Chinese people.”

In addition to visiting the KODE, Huang had toured the Château de Fontainebleau, not long before it was robbed. I asked him what he had heard about the theft and the rumor that the stolen relics had made their way back to China. He tightened his face into a small smile and laughed. “I only heard about it,” he said. “[That they might go back to China] is a good suggestion, in terms of result, but it encourages more stealing. I think it's because Chinese relics have good prices on the market nowadays.”

Huang Nubo is the man. Why are some Chinese billionaires so cool? Copying this portion of the GQ article on I posted on Chinese antiques to Chinese Tycoons, CEOs & Tuhao.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

There's a vid

Hong Kong Billionaire Offers ‘Nobel Prizes’ With Double the Money
By Blake Schmidt
September 26, 2018, 2:00 PM PDT
Billionaire Lui Che Woo seeks to promote ‘world civilization’
Winners for positive energy, sustainability get $2.6 million

After amassing a $15 billion fortune from casinos, Lui Che Woo wants to turn vice into virtue.

While Elon Musk is trying to get humans to Mars and Li Ka-shing joined Bill Gates to battle infant malnutrition, Lui, who rose from a rugged childhood in Japan-occupied Hong Kong, has stepped into the shoes of Alfred Nobel.


Lui Che WooPhotographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg

The gambling tycoon’s version of giving back involves awarding prizes that include a dinner-plate-sized trophy depicting Lui in his signature flat cap, together with a cash payout of HK$20 million ($2.56 million) -- double the amount of a Nobel Prize.

Winners also get a dinner-plate-sized trophy showing the “amiable and kind smiling face of Dr. Lui,” according to an effusive description on the prize’s website, “as if sowing a seed of benevolence in the world.”

The benevolence extends to three categories: sustainability, welfare development and positive energy, to be chosen via a three-tier structure that involves a recommendation committee, selection panels and the prize council. The latter consists of “five international personages,” including Lui, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a former Archbishop of Canterbury and the former Chief Executive of Hong Kong.


Condoleezza Rice at the launch ceremony for the Lui Che Woo prize in 2015.Photographer: Xaume Olleros/Bloomberg

“Positive energy represents people trying to understand and help each other,” Lui said in an interview at his office in Hong Kong’s North Point, surrounded by his antique Chinese pottery collection.

This year’s winners, who will be honored at a ceremony on Oct. 3, are renewable energy advocate Hans-Josef Fell, a former parliament member for Germany’s Green Party; the World Meteorological Organization; and India’s Pratham Education Foundation.

Nobel Alternative

Lui’s prize, now in its third year, has gained attention as the Nobel committee comes under scrutiny for a #metoo moment, after a scandal at the Swedish Academy prompted the committee to defer awarding the literary prize this year. The Nobel committee said the current prize fund is 9 million Swedish kronor ($1 million). Lui says he isn’t trying to replace the 123-year-old awards but to offer an alternative.

It’s not the first alternative originating in China. After the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to jailed Chinese dissident author Liu Xiaobo, Beijing reacted furiously, breaking diplomatic ties with Norway and embarking on a six-year freeze that sent Norwegian salmon exports to China plunging. The writer withered away in captivity before his death in 2017.

The month after Xiaobo won the award, a group in Beijing created a rival award, called the Confucius Peace Prize, which stumbled out of the gate. The Taiwanese winner of the prize didn’t show up to accept it, and after China’s Ministry of Culture tried to shut the award down, some of the organizers reassembled in Hong Kong.


The Confucius Peace Award committee in 2010.Photographer: Alexander F. Yuan/AP Photo

Past winners of that award include Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Cambodia’s Hun Sen and Cuba’s Fidel Castro (who also boasted an Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, named for the toppled Libyan leader).

Lui said his philanthropic vein stems from his childhood, when he was denied a formal education during the Japanese invasion. He’s a big donor to Peking University, where he’s an honorary trustee after pledging $18 million. Macau has been less lucky with charitable donations, as the top six casino operators donated less than 0.1 percent of their revenue, according to a recent report by Macau University of Science and Technology.

Gaming Magnate

Born in Guangdong province, Lui’s family fled to Hong Kong when he was 4. He became a breadwinner for his five younger sisters and made his first fortune by buying WWII-era U.S. military equipment in Okinawa and reselling it in Hong Kong. In 1955 he founded K. Wah Group, quarrying construction materials. He then moved into real estate and in 2002 started Galaxy Entertainment, which won one of six gaming concessions in Macau and is now valued at $29 billion. Galaxy, which bought shares in Wynn Resorts after Steve Wynn stepped down as chairman, is the biggest casino operator in Macau.

Lui’s prize “is not serving any political function," the tycoon said. “If it gets involved with politics, it will become complicated.” He declined to comment on the case of Liu Xiaobo.


Lui Che Woo launches his Prize for World Civilization in 2015.Photographer: Xaume Olleros/Bloomberg

Like Nobel, an arms dealer and the inventor of dynamite, Lui is using profits from his “vice” business -- in his case gambling -- to help fund the awards. He said his prize is designed to promote respect for others, mutual understanding, love of family and standing up for those who are weaker. Nobel, who established his foundation after a premature obituary in a French newspaper called him “the merchant of death,” included a prize for furthering the cause of international fraternity and peace.

“To some extent, it is a bit similar to the Nobel Peace Prize but the concept of our prize is broader,” Lui said.

— With assistance by Daniela Wei