THE gods clearly smile on Shantou. This once poor district in southern China is the birthplace not just of Asia’s richest man, Li Ka-shing, a Hong Kong tycoon, but also more recently of one of mainland China’s richest men, Wong Kwong Yu, founder of Gome, an electrical-appliance retailer. According to a Chinese “rich list” compiled by Rupert Hoogewerf, a British journalist, Mr Wong is now worth $1.7 billion”enough to put him at the top of the list for two years running. This is still far short of Mr Li’s $13 billion; but then Mr Wong, at just 36, is younger and made his fortune in socialist China, not capitalist Hong Kong.
Yet the remarkable nature of his achievement, like the wealth itself, has brought Mr Wong scarce comfort. True, his office is presidential, complete with a stately desk and even a bedroom (he says he often works overnight). With his brother, he owns the skyscraper Eagle Plaza in north Beijing that houses it. He is driven around in a stretch Mercedes too, although only because friends advised it would be handy for meetings on the move. But Mr Wong’s personal tastes are frugal. He and his wife and children still live in a commonplace apartment that costs a third of a luxury one. Shyly fiddling with his mobile and lighting another cigarette, he confesses that he cannot play golf, and cut short a holiday in Canada recently because he was bored. He works 13-hour days because “I wouldn’t know what else to do,” and to relax just watches television.
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