EVERYBODY loves a good rags-to-riches story, and China is teeming with them. This would be good news anywhere but is especially so in a country that has seen more than its share of destitution and chaos over the past half century.
The people on this list, Rupert Hoogewerf's second-annual ranking of the mainland's 50 richest people, are the smartest and luckiest among a nation of survivors hell-bent on exploring a billion variations on capitalism with Chinese characteristics.
New faces abound this year - 30 out of 50, to be exact - as the New Economy emerges from the Old, making the latest list, which includes 14 New Economy companies, an eclectic mixture.
And the mainland's rich are getting richer. The aggregate wealth of the top 50 adds up to about US$10 billion (about HK$78 billion), equivalent to nearly one per cent of the country's gross domestic product. Last year, the lowest-ranking member of the list had 'only' US$6 million in assets. This year, number 50 - motorcycle-maker Yin Mingshan - has assets worth US$42 million.
Even so, there is continuity at the top. Rong Yiren, the founder of China International Trade and Investment Corp, is number one again this year. His family's wealth weighs in at a hefty US$1.9 billion, or nearly one-fifth of the list's total.
At 84, Mr Rong is the oldest person on the list and a man whose life epitomises modern Chinese history. His family's business empire was confiscated in 1956, and he was subjected to often violent denunciations by Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. But he survived and, in 1978, was handpicked by Deng Xiaoping to rebuild the country's industrial base.
The Cultural Revolution's disruptive impact is evident throughout the top-50 list. Seventeen of its members - most of whom were teenagers at the time - were forced to leave school during the chaos that reigned from 1966 to 1976. Some of them have returned to their studies, at least on a part-time basis, but even so, 21 of the mainland's 50 richest people have not attended university.
