Beijing art student posed as wealthy socialite in social experiment for graduation project

In May, a 23-year-old student named Zou Yaqi from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing did a social experiment for her graduation project. She did this project for 21 days and for free.  To pull off a believable wealthy socialite, Zou donned fancy clothes, carrying a fake Hermès bag and wearing fake luxurious accessories. 

She recorded her experience which was later displayed in the academy. She also posted some clips from the video on her Weibo account. The video showed her sleeping in the halls of extravagant hotels and enjoying their facilities, trying on jade bracelets at auctions and enjoying free food and drinks from VIP lounges. In executing the project, she chose places she felt were relatively safe, such as hotel lobbies and the Haidilao restaurant chain. 

On her Weibo post, she wrote that the project stemmed from her long-standing interest in whether a person could live on the “excessive material” produced by society.

“In my experience, it’s interesting how these materials are distributed, they are usually assigned to people who look like they already have sufficient wealth in life - they can sleep in extravagant hotel lobbies for free, shower in the airport and use hotel beaches for free, eat at weddings or buffets ... or enjoy snacks and wine at auctions … so I pretended to be one such person,” she elaborated.

As reported by Daily Mail, through this project, she aimed to “break the rules” of class structure and enter the “world of the rich” to shine a spotlight on the negative impacts of capitalism and consumerism.

However, after posting her project on social media, she did not expect that she would be facing a lot of backlash from the netizens. Social and wealth inequality have been an ongoing debate in Chinese society, so her action is deemed insensitive by some people. 

A netizen commented that she is making use of a “policy loophole”, while another said that she “took advantage of a highly extravagant lifestyle”, calling her a “fake socialite”. 

On the other hand, a Guangzhou-based magazine said that from her project, it can be seen how one could “live 21 days in the metropolis freely, relying on the tolerance and kindness of our commercial society”.