Showing off or innovation? – Stir over MBA exclusive class for second-generation rich

Background

The “second-generation rich” label originated in a talkshow broadcast by Hong Kong-based PhoeniTV last week. According to the program, this group refers to people born in the 1980s and whose family owns property valued at more than 100 million yuan. Most of the people in this group are children of the first batch of entrepreneurs who achieved success and amassed fortune after the founding of the People’s Republic of China – the “first-generation rich.

The descendants of rich families have attracted much attention in recent years as the gap between the rich and the poor widened. It does not help that a number of serious traffic accidents this year – which made news headlines – were found to involve drivers from the second-generation rich, o treat the roads as their playground. Such incidents leave a negative impression: the children are seen as showy, overbearing and extravagant.

The education of the second-generation rich kids has also been thrown into the discussion. Some say they should restrain their spending to counteract their bad reputation, while others say they should go for whatever sort of education they can afford.

Facts show these children do get the best education in the country. They go to the best schools from primary school and most get opportunities to study abroad. This trend also reveals that the country’s education system no longer meets their expectations and demands.

Most wealthy and successful parents do not expect their children to make it into the country’s top universities such as Tsinghua and Peking University. So they instead emphasize holistic development and developing qualitieslike creativity and independence.

In recent years, private schools have sprung up hoping to meet the needs of the second-generation rich. So when ordinary high school students are hunched over complicated math homework, the MBA classes are learning more practical skills like how to bake a cake, how to invest in stocks and how to perfect their golf swing.

Recently, the Shanghai Youth Homeland Civil Society and the Relay China Youth Elite Association conducted a joint survey on the “second-generation rich” to learn more about their lifestyle. The report discovered these people did not like the label “second-generation rich”; they wanted to be callither “children of entrepreneurs” or “second-generation entrepreneurs” to correct negative impressions.