‘Can’t buy a pair of socks with US$98’: online flaunting of wealth by Chinese actress turns spotlight on arrogance of rich celebrities

A Chinese actress who shamelessly flaunted her attitude to wealth during a live-streamed sales event has faced criticism online and renewed a debate over the salaries of mainland celebrities.

Zhang Yuqi, 35, who shot to fame by starring in Hong Kong comic actor Stephen Chow Sing-chi’s 2008 film CJ7, held her first personal live-streaming event using her Douyin account on June 10.

When her co-live streamer, Taiwan actor Hao Shao-wen, asked her if she would offer 699 yuan (US$98) for a Chinese brand’s Australian wool quilt originally priced at 1,699 yuan, Zhang astonished many online by saying: “I can’t even buy a pair of socks with 699 yuan.”

Zhang’s comments were immediately condemned and served as a reminder of previous “arrogant and ignorant” comments made by wealthy Chinese celebrities.

In one case, actress Li Xiang talked of “spending 70,000 yuan (US$9,800) a month on food and another actor Wang Chuanjun said: “I was scared when I had less than a million yuan on my bank card.”

In 2021, Chinese actress Zheng Shuang disappeared from the public eye after her former partner Zhang Heng accused her of abandoning their two children born to US-based surrogate mothers.

Zheng was fined 299 million yuan (US$42 million) for tax evasion after Zhang also revealed that she signed a “yin-yang contract” – two different contracts, one under reporting her earnings and the other real - for acting in a mainland TV series.

According to the evidence Zhang posted online, Zheng actually earned 160 million yuan for working on the series for just 77 days, which works out at 2.08 million yuan a day.

By comparison, the average yearly salary of an urban, non-private sector worker in 2022 was 114,029 yuan (US$16,000), while the annual salary for a private sector worker was 65,237 yuan.

In 2020, former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said that 600 million people in China had a monthly income of 1,000 yuan.

Zheng’s daily salary, which is not uncommon in China’s entertainment industry, led to many shocked online observers to dub the nation’s showbiz celebrities the “2.08 million”.

This is not the first time that Zhang Yuqi made headlines for her luxurious lifestyle.

In 2018, she shared her diamond-purchasing experience on the social media platform Xiaohongshu, declaring that she never bought diamonds under one karat because “small diamonds are worthless”.

While she was praised previously by some online as “real and straightforward”, this time she was not so lucky.

Although she tried to explain away her “socks” comment in a Weibo posting on June 11, people were not buying it.

“I have never seen a pair of socks priced at 699 yuan in my life,” said one online observer.

“One celebrity’s handbag is enough to change the life of an ordinary person,” said another.