Julie Chao: Rise of wealth; fall of morals
China’s unprecedented economic boom has lifted millions of people out of poverty and created a new class of millionaires. Citizens have more freedoms and opportunities than ever before.
Yet some are starting to wonder whether people are really better off. Get-rich-quick schemes, casual sex, and animosity between rich and poor are seen by scholars as some of the worrying symptoms of a culture undergoing wrenching changes. Moral decay has accompanied economic progress and could destabilize society, voices in China’s media and academia warn.
