Up to the 1990’s, a majority of China’s population remained poor. For example, there were many instances of famine in China. In Jessica Fulton’s article, “Holding up Half the Heavens: The Effect of Communist Rule on China’s Women,” she explains that during the worst famines in Chinese history when peasants had to eat bark and leaves in order to live, the peasants would choose to let their daughters starve to save their sons (Fulton 36). It was not until recently that China’s economy experienced a great upheaval, thus creating many self-made millionaires and billionaires. According to Friedman, there were only three billionaires in China ten years ago. However, now there are approximately 350 to 400 billionaires in China as well as around “60,000 people worth at least $200 million dollars” (Gregoire 2015). This population is the newly rich generation and since sensory perceptions are instilled from cultural familiarity and experience, many of these elite folks feel like they do not know how to fit their new statuses. Therefore, they seek to take courses to learn how to upgrade their sensory perceptions to fit their new …show more content…
A term for these second generation rich children are called, “fuerdai,” and their parents have equipped them with all the necessary accommodations to enjoy a more luxurious and Western lifestyle. Their parents have already bought them homes in many of these cities as well as cars and an access to an extravagant social life. Although, the wealthy Chinese have great intentions by sending their children overseas endowed with indulgent objects, these intentions also alter the “fuerdai’s” formation of bodily capacities. The “fuerdai” populations in many Western cities get bad reputations because they flaunt their luxurious lifestyles and often times, have no regards for other people. For example, the Boston Globe reports how the kids “want the newest, the most cutting-edge technology, the most cutting-edge design” when they purchase cars (Krantz 2015). The “fuerdai’s” believe that having the latest and most expensive cars means fitting into their economical class. This renders as an issue as the kids grow up being entitled and they might respect social norms. Since they have always had money, they might not understand the everyday issues that regular people face. Moreover, Classen would describe this current situation by explaining how “the cultural construction of sensory perception conditions our