ReflectionsBling Empire might be inane, but ostentatious displays of wealth are nothing new

Reality television shows are escapist fun for most people, even more so during our forced isolation, but nothing could have prepared me for the mind-boggling inanity that is Bling Empire , a programme that follows several moneyed and privileged Los Angelenos of Asian descent, as they flounce from one contrived drama to the next.

As I watched their vulgar displays of wealth and excruciating materialism play out in just one episode, I kept asking myself: could anyone be so devoid of self-awareness and irony? Theirs is a world where things have little or no value unless they are emblazoned with designer labels, whose denizens are so poor that all they have is money.

The desire to flaunt one’s material abundance is almost universal across time and cultures. While most of us have been conditioned – through our parents, in the schoolyard, by books, movies, even religion – to regard bragging as unattractive, it is obvious that some did not receive the memo.

Shi Chong (AD249-300) was infamous in Chinese history as a man of enormous wealth who was not afraid of showing it off. Shi’s father was a military commander who later became a senior official at court, so his family was already quite well-off when he was born. His own wealth, however, was acquired after he was appointed as regional inspector of Jingzhou, in central China.

There were conflicting reports of how he amassed his fortune. Depending on the source, Shi was either a shrewd businessman who turned everything he touched into gold or a bandit who robbed merchant caravans that passed through the sizeable domain under his supervision and then killed his victims. However he made his money, he became so rich that stories of his legendary wealth and extravagance were told all over the country.