Owner of well-known Chinese spicy snack brand keeps family wealth secret from son until he is in twenties, wants him to be down-to-earth
Scion told household in debt and lives in ‘ordinary’ flat
Family spills lucrative spicy food brand secret and son now ‘happy’ to be rich
Trending in China
Fran Lu
in Beijing
Published: 9:10am, 25 Mar 2024
The son of the owner of a well-known snack brand in China said he did not know his family was wealthy until he graduated from university, a story that has stunned mainland social media.
Zhang Zilong, 24, told the mainland media outlet Jiupai News that his multimillionaire father, Zhang Yudong, lied to him about his real financial status for the first 20 years of his life, so he would work hard to achieve success.
Zhang senior, 51, is the founder and president of the Hunan spicy gluten latiao brand Mala Prince, which produces 600 million yuan worth (US$83 million) of goods a year.
The brand was created in the same year that Zhang junior was born.
Zhang junior said he grew up living in an “ordinary flat” in Pingjiang county, Hunan province in central China.
He was aware of his father’s famous brand but was told that his family had gone into debt to keep the company running.
Zhang Yudong founded the business but managed to keep its huge success from his son and heir for two decades. Photo: Weibo
He attended one of the best secondary schools in the capital city of Hunan, Changsha without his family using their connections to secure admission.
On graduating from university, Zhang junior’s dream was to find a steady job that paid about 6,000 yuan (US$800) a month so he could slowly help his family repay their debt.
It was after graduation, that Zhang senior told his son the family was, in fact, very wealthy, and they moved to a newly-built villa that cost 10 million yuan (US$1.4 million).
After that, Zhang junior began working in the e-commerce department of his father’s company, where colleagues treated him like any other young employee.
He said both he and his father would not want him to live like a spoiled fu er dai, a term of derision that means “second-generation rich” in Chinese.
However, he admits that being affluent is a privilege he enjoys.
“Being rich does make me happy,” he said last December in an interview with a Douyin influencer, @Xiangxiangdazuozhan.
Zhang junior said his dream now is to help the company go public and sell to international markets. His father said he would only consider giving him the company if his performance justifies it.
Some online observers said the story sounded unrealistic, but others said they believed it after seeing Zhang junior’s frugal way of living that included his wardrobe of cheap clothes.
“What a fairy tale. The ordinary frog turns into the Mala prince,” said one person on Douyin.
“I believe the story. The brand only started advertising itself in recent years. It must be because the prince graduated and there was no need to hide any more,” said another.
“The way he speaks and looks seems honest and down-to-earth. His family educated him very well,” said a third person.
The elder Zhang kept his wealth secret because he wanted to keep his son’s feet firmly on the factory floor. Photo: Weibo
Interesting parenting stories constantly make news in China.
In February, a Chinese father’s video on how he educated his primary school son to look after his money, amassed half a million likes on Douyin.
The man allowed his son to keep all his lucky money and gave him 100-yuan pocket money a month from the age of four.
He never interfered with his son’s purchases or financially rewarded his study grades, and tried to ensure he grew up with a healthy attitude towards money.
Fran Lu
Fran has been a reporter since 2014, mainly covering social and cultural stories about China. She writes about lifestyle, social trends and youth culture.
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