Chinese netizens are currently caught in a craze sweeping quickly across the nation. The new craze is a social media challenge called "Falling Stars Challenge." wherein people post pictures of them tripping or falling out of their luxury vehicles, with their equally expensive possessions all over the ground.
The new craze has now been called "Flaunt Your Wealth Challenge," considering the expensive items on display in just one photo. A million posts of such pictures have been shared on Weibo, the popular Chinese social media site. The challenge reportedly started in Russia, where a DJ posted his photo of tripping out of a private jet on Instagram.
The trend further intensified when known figures started participating in the challenge. They pose pictures pf their valuables spread around them on the floor, acting as if they had just fallen over.
Naturally, those without the ability to own so many expensive items will not let themselves be left behind. Now everyone, from mere students to workers, is posting their versions of the challenge, sans the expensive vehicle or things. Some posted pictures of themselves with cameras surrounding them, because they are photography students, or with beer bottles.
Like any other social media craze, there are bound to be those who have taken it a notch too far. One woman was fined in China for actually doing the challenge on a pedestrian crossing in a city located in Eastern Zhejiang province.
The craze, however, has also been criticized for highlighting the widening wealth gap among the Chinese citizens. Even though the nation has more billionaires than the United States, it also has around 30 million people categorized to be living in poverty.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg already analyzed China as having a $46,000 wealth gap problem. Residents in Shanghai and Beijing can be considered as having the same wealth as those living in Switzerland while in some parts of the country, residents are living with wealth comparable to those living in Guatemala.
According to Qian Wan, Bloomberg's analyst, "Development in some of the major cities can now match anywhere in the world, but that's not the whole story. According to him, those living in inland areas, even those along the coast and in urban areas, there are those with incomes that lag significantly behind.
President Xi Jinping himself is acknowledging of this fact. He made poverty alleviation as one of his three critical battles to fight.
