From Chinese Press

Ugly display of wealth

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-03-11 08:00

A multimillionaire in Wenling county, Zhejiang province, spent 5 million yuan ($760,444) on the funeral of his mother on Friday. The funeral was held in a local school and the long funeral procession disrupted the normal life of residents, says an article in eastday.com. Excerpts:

Many common people dislike the rich not necessarily because they are jealous of their wealth. They dislike rich people because of the way the rich acquire their fortune and spend it.

Rich people are obliged to contribute to the development of society, from where they make their fortune. It's natural for the public to criticize them if instead of doing so they use their money to violate other people's rights.

Take the pompous funeral in Wenling as an example. The multimillionaire has the right to spend as much money as he wants on any event. But why should local officials help him by declaring an extra holiday and close the school?

That a millionaire uses his money power to make a show of his parent's funeral is sign of decadent culture of the past. Imagine such a funeral taking place in a city, where things are different from that in rural areas with better social division of labor and closer mutual dependence?

Let us not blame the traditional value of filial piety for what happened in Wenling. We should see it as collusion between rich people and local authorities for a wrong cause.  

(China Daily 03/11/2011 page10)