As in most countries, in China there is a significant chunk of culture devoted to landowner hatred. Just as they look down upon their subjects, so in China the common people shall pour ridicule on their outlandish, pretentious ways.
They are called “tuhao”; the nouveau riche, an ever growing army of new money, worshippers of all that glitters, those with spare cash aplenty but no culture or good taste.
The English word “bling” has ancient roots and a usage entirely different to how it is employed today. Likewise, the term “tuhao” has been around since ancient times in China, dating back to the Northern and Southern Dynasties approximately 1,500 years ago.Originally it referred to those of prominent origin, especially people with an influential and wealthy background. More recently, during the Republican era, tuhao was used in reference to landlords or landholders who bullied those beneath them in the social class, known as the countrymen.
Such a usage is explained by the fact that “tuhao” comprises two Chinese characters; one meaning “soil” or “earth”, the other meaning “grandeur.”
With the advent of the gaming age, tuhao became a popular internet slang used to describe irrational and over-consumed online game players, who were also called “RMB warriors” as they use renminbi to purchase game equipment and suppress other normal players who did not have the same purchasing power. They won by their wealth rather than their online game techniques or tactics.
In the modern usage of the word, which really began as recently as 2013, to say someone is tuhao is to imply they come from a poor peasant background, and have made it rich quick, but lack the manners and sophistication to go along with it. The term’s more negative connotations suggest a certain vulgarity.
However, it is this very vulgarity that allows the Chinese to make fun of themsleves. As evidence of this fact, one need look no further than the derivative term “tuhao jin” (gold tuhao), a name given to describe the pink champagne colour of the iPhones Apple released in September, 2013. At home, the variant sold for ¥5,288, but in China, tuhaos were prepared to part with in excess of ¥8,800 for the glittering piece of electrical wizardry.
It is no coincidence that not long after BMW released vehicles in the very same colour scheme. The tuhaos fell over themselves on the way to the showroom.
Indeed, the weapons of choice for the tuhao are cars made in Germany and anything made by Apple. Expensive, yes, but in tuhao terms, affordable and more importantly, aspirational. Such an obsession explains the popularity of the electronic devices in the blinged-out lives of the Tuhao.
In Zhejiang, also this year, 100 iPads were the prizes in a lucky draw at a tuhao wedding. Each table received one, while five lucky attendees also won an iPhone6S. Other guests received virtual red envelopes, containing hundreds to thousands of renminbi.
Last year, a Chinese man who was dumped by his girlfriend over an iPhone 6 took revenge a year later by scratching scornful messages into the face of nine iPhones he bought on the anniversary of their breakup. He then posted the pictures online.
The man allegedly purchased the iPhones to flaunt how wealthy he had become since his shallow ex-girlfriend dumped him last September. Who’s being shallow now?
Then there was the Internet video that went viral, showing a well-off young lady angrily throwing a stack of cash in the face of a startled shop assistant.
In the video, a fashionable young upshot stands at a jewelry counter talking with the saleswoman. The clerk apparently said something somewhat uncouth to the lady, as it generated the reaction, “What? You think I don’t have money? What kind of place is this? A fashion street? Would you believe I could buy this entire street?”
To prove her point she reaches into her purse and takes out a hefty stack of Chairman Maos and throws them directly into the clerk’s face while shouting angrily, “What is this? What is it?” Back to school for her, then.
Yet the jewel in the crown of stories from “Land of the 土u” surely must be that reported by goethe.de; at Madrid-Barajas Airport a tuhao was overheard to say, “A shabby store like this has got nothing on me!” He proceeded to pull out a large roll of euro from his back pocket, saying, “Take a look at this. Just got 30,000 Euro from the tax rebate at the airport. No sense in just carrying it around, so I thought I’d buy some snacks to bring back for the neighbours”.
The fact is that Chinese have always had derogatory terms for the rich and unsophisticated. Yet, the present form of tuhao is significant because it is a parody of such terms, and the discourse of crass, status-driven consumption underlying them.
The latest buzzword was even brought to a wider audience after the BBC highlighted it in a recent program on influential Chinese words, while tuhao has also caught the attention of the editing team at the Oxford English Dictionary.
The Global Times reported that Project Manager Julie Kleeman said, “If its influence continues, it is very likely to appear on our updated list of words”.
The definition the team come up with will surely be one well worth looking up.
