T H I R D E Y E
Bling Dynasty and NewOligarchy
The ambitious socioeconomic agendas of the People’s Republic of China and the USSR once stood in stark contrast to the American Dream, with its capitalist engine. In both countries, the long- oppressed citizens ousted autocratic rulers in favor of enforced collectivism designed to cleanse their societies of class privilege. In recent decades, though, communism has bowed to more open markets and the wealth incentives they o er. Green eld arrived in China in 2000, eight years a er “paramount leader” Deng Xiaoping ushered in sweeping economic reforms summed up by his blessing: “Let some people get rich rst.” His vision came to fruition on a scale only the world’s most populous nation could realize, raising a half-billion people out of poverty, according to the World Bank, and, by some estimates, minting forty thousand new millionaires in 2013 alone. Green eld entered a scene akin to a gold rush, as a new elite struggled to establish its prerogatives with showy expressions of wealth: a replicaWhite House complete with a backyard Mount Rushmore; homes decorated entirely in Versace; a solid-gold toilet; and a mania for exclusive pursuits, such as polo and yachting. China’s one-child policy, meanwhile, has created a breed of “little emperors,” the overindulged o spring of the newly a uent Chinese, who get real race cars for their birthdays and whose lives stand as an a ront to the industrious, sel ess ethos of the Communist state. Today China’s rich are shi ing their sights to theWest, educating their children in prestigious American universities and investing in property beyond the reach of the Communist Party. While China has tacticallymanaged its fairy-tale economic growth, Russia plunged intoWildWest capitalismwith the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early nineties. During a chaotic transition from communism, a new class of oligarchs was born. Green eld explored the culture of Russia’s new elite, as it began to seek the trappings of the country’s prerevolutionary aristocracy. In the world they inhabit, socialites, fashion designers, musicians, actors, and models mix onlywith each other in a tireless round of parties with nearly identical guest lists. There’s even a debutante ball— corporate sponsored, of course—staged in the same hall where the Tolstoy-era nobility held their own balls in order to make advantageous matches for their daughters. For this new high soci- ety, a romanticized Czarist Russia is now in vogue—and for sale.
GENERAT I ON WEALTH B Y L AUR E N GR E E N F I E L D
WEAVING TOGETHER STORIES ABOUT AFFLUENCE, BEAUTY, BODY IMAGE, COMPETITION, CORRUPTION, FANTASY, AND EXCESS, GENERATION WEALTH QUESTIONS THE DISTANCE BETWEEN VALUE AND COMMODITY IN A GLOBALIZED CONSUMERIST CULTURE. LAUREN GREENFIELD’S INVESTIGATION OF WEALTH OBSESSION WILL BE ON EXHIBIT AT THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY MUSEUM, 250 BOWERY, NEW YORK, NY THROUGH JANUARY 7, 2018. A COMPANION MONOGRAPH LAUREN GREENFIELD: GENERATION WEALTH PUBLISHED BY PHAIDON, OFFERS AN EXTRAORDINARY VISUAL RECORD OF RAMPANT MATERIALISM AND A FEATURE-LENGTH DOCUMENTARY FILM, GENERATION WEALTH, IS NEARING COMPLETION AND WILL BE DISTRIBUTED BY AMAZON STUDIOS. LAUREN GREENFIELD IS AN EMMY AWARD®–WINNING DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER AND PHOTOGRAPHER WHO IS CONSIDERED A PREEMINENT CHRONICLER OF CONSUMERISM, YOUTH CULTURE, AND GENDER IDENTITY ( FAST FORWARD, GIRL CULTURE, AND THIN ). HER DOCUMENTARY FILM, THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES, WON HER THE BEST DIRECTOR AWARD AT SUNDANCE IN 2012 AND NUMEROUS OTHER BEST DIRECTOR AWARDS. GREENFIELD’S PHOTOGRAPHS HAVE BEEN WIDELY PUBLISHED, EXHIBITED, AND COLLECTED BY MUSEUMS AROUND THE WORLD. HER #LIKEAGIRL VIDEO WAS SEEN BY 214 MILLION GLOBAL VIEWERS AND GARNERED MORE THAN 100 AWARDS.
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Maya, 6, at Pradar: The Grand International Equestrian Club, Moscow, 2012. Founded in 2000 in a Czarist-era building in central Moscow, the club caters to a new Russian elite eager to emulate aristocratic British customs.
Vivi, 19, inside the Pengyuan Equestrian Club, an exclusive club devoted to a sport that has aristocratic associations among China’s elite, Beijing, 2014. →
EXCERPT FROM LAUREN GREENFIELD: GENERATION WEALTH (PHAIDON 2017).
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