Chinese furor over fortune and fame
By Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING - Whether their fame comes from the court, the stage or the silver screen, Chinese celebrities are beginning to ride the wave of riches, fame and publicity, largely due to the country's rapidly growing entertainment industry. And this month, Forbes China, the Chinese-language edition of US-based Forbes financial magazine, only added to China's increasing preoccupation with wealth and celebrity.

In the 1980s, paramount leader and reformer Deng Xiaoping told a skeptical and rigidly egalitarian nation: "Getting rich is glorious," but today, it seems that getting too rich and too glorious invites anger, envy, tax audits and corruption probes. A new atmosphere of political correctness is making some celebrities coy about their wealth.

The first Forbes China Celebrity List, modeled on Forbes' annual celebrity 100 list, was published on February 10 - lifting the veil on the country's sometimes - and sometimes not - publicity-shy entertainers, and simultaneously causing a storm with its assessment of growing wealth and fame in an industry once assigned by the Chinese Communist Party to serve the masses.

The list surveyed the income and popularity of Chinese-born celebrities in film, sports, media, music and publishing. Basketball star Yao Ming, who plays for the Houston Rockets in the United States National Basketball Association, topped the list with a reported income of US$14.6 million. Although Yao led the way, his income was topped by Hollywood star Jet Li, ranked No 10 in popularity, but who, with earnings of $17 million, had the highest 2003 income among mainland Chinese celebrities. Rankings are based on popularity, not strictly wealth.

Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, star of the Oscar-winning film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, came in second with an income of $3 million. Third place went to Zhao Wei, China's most-interviewed movie star, whose movies roles last year earned her $2.3 million. Faye Wang, the Beijing-born diva and one of the Chinese-speaking world's most popular singers was No 4, and international film star Gong Li was No 5 at $3.4 million.

The list is ultimately a ranking of celebrities based on their exposure and popularity, however, much attention is being paid to the income figures on which their fame now rests. As such, the list has provoked fury both among China's entertainers and its ordinary Chinese. A series of state-run publications has denounced the ranking of wealthy entertainers as ''sheer nonsense'' and quoted some ranked Chinese celebrities as questioning the figures used to calculate their incomes.

Embarrassed singer downplays her wealth
Pop singer Han Hong slammed the ranking, which placed her 12th on the list and calculated her income at $2.4 million a year. ''Even people with a little knowledge of the entertainment circle in China know it is impossible for an actor to earn that much in a year,'' the state-run Xinhua News Agency quoted the singer as saying.

The English-language China Daily carried a report titled: ''Celebrities: Forbes list sheer nonsense'' and quoted dancer Huang Doudou, actress Deng Jie and actor Zhang Guoli as saying the magazine had incorrectly assessed their incomes.

An editorial in the Beijing Star Daily went on to accuse Forbes magazine of ''pursuing its commercial interests by taking advantage of the fame of celebrities''.

The uproar highlights shifting attitudes toward wealth in what many claim was once a classless society and where China's affluent elite are now making a boisterous and ostentatious comeback. At the same time, it underscores public fear of the government's crackdown, especially a tax crackdown, on celebrities and business people known for flaunting their wealth.

A string of fledgling Chinese multimillionaires - many of them audacious about advertising their wealth, power and independence - have fallen in the tax dragnet of communist authorities in the past three years. Many of them had appeared on Forbes magazine's annual list of the wealthiest people in China - not just celebrities.

One of the most prominent tax "victims" is actress Liu Xiaoqing, a glamorous starlet-turned-businesswoman, who unabashedly proclaimed herself to be China's first female billionaire.

Nouveau tax scofflaws to be punished
Even as the Chinese Communist Party has welcomed private entrepreneurs into its fold and is preparing to enshrine the rights of private property owners in the country's constitution, Beijing is driving home the message that the nouveaux riches must pledge obedience to the ruling party and comply with the laws on the books, just like everybody else.

A crackdown on alleged corporate malfeasance has caused the downfall of more than one Chinese capitalist, including orchid tycoon Yang Bin and Yang Rong (no relation), one of China's richest automobile businessmen. Yang Bin and Yang Rong were ranked second and third in the 2001 Forbes rich list.

The publicity, which has accompanied the disclosure of many corruption and tax fraud cases, has encouraged the wealthy to be coy and quiet about personal wealth.

''Traditionally, Chinese people like to make known the pride and honor they have brought to their family by striking it rich,'' said Zhao Wei, a private practitioner of Chinese medicine, who in the last year managed to buy a villa and a car - the ultimate symbol of wealth for China's emerging middle class.

The downfall of some Chinese tycoons also is thought to have been politically motivated. Zhou Zhengyi, for instance, a Shanghai property tycoon, has been a prime target of tax investigators now for months, and experts who asked not to be named say that his influential political contacts with former president Jiang Zemin may have added to his woes.

Yet on the whole, the corruption drive has sought to shore up the ruling party's waning legitimacy by curbing graft and jailing big tax cheats.

Party cadres the biggest targets in clean-up
A recent report in the state-run media revealed that so far the biggest number of targets in the party's clean up campaign have been communist party members themselves.

According to a January report in Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong-based newspaper, more than 1,200 communist party cadres killed themselves and another 8,000 fled overseas during an anti-corruption crackdown in the first six months of 2003.

When Deng Xiaoping embraced market reforms in 1980s, he discarded communism's egalitarian code by declaring that ''getting rich is glorious''. With the unleashing of private enterprise, China's manifestations of private wealth have increased and self-help books like Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad have become bestsellers.

However, there are mounting concerns that all this rapid accumulation of wealth might be getting out of hand. The income disparity between the super rich and the poor has expanded to its widest point in more than a century. In recent months, the capital has witnessed harrowing scenes of people setting themselves on fire because of poverty and social deprivation.

Since assuming power last spring, President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have stressed that the government must put the public interest first and must always focus on issues that are closest to the public's heart. They are said to be planning new moves to punish those who have amassed illicit fortunes.

And in this atmosphere of new political correctness, it's not surprising that the unveiling of Forbes' list of Chinese celebrities and their resulting wealth has been greeted by a firestorm of anger - and envy.

(Inter Press Service)