‘I don’t care how much’: woman in China spends 10 years of savings to build farmer father luxury villa, faces ‘self-serving’ online backlash
- Daughter forks out a fortune to build farmer father plush home but faces social media criticism villa designed for her, not him
- Woman, who sells clothes online, insists plush 3-storey villa is a way to say ‘thank you’ to the man who raised her
A woman in China who spent 10 years worth of her savings on a luxurious house for her farmer father has triggered social media speculation that she only did so to burnish her own personal online brand.
The woman, who goes by the name Ziyu, is a fashion designer and used to own more than 20 clothing stores in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan province in southern China, before she lost everything during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She told the mainland lifestyle media outlet Yitiao that she began spending everything she had saved over a 10-year period to demolish the dilapidated farmer’s house owned by her father, and build a luxury three-storey villa in its place in 2016.
The woman did not specify exactly how much money she spent on the villa, but said her savings were used up in laying the foundations alone. Ziyu added that she also spent 300,000 yuan (US$41,000) on fine-quality red bricks.
Due to an overspend, she was forced to pause the renovation in 2017 before resuming it in 2022 after getting back on her feet by selling clothes via live-streaming platforms.