Owner of well-known Chinese spicy snack brand keeps family wealth secret from son until he is in twenties, wants him to be down-to-earth
- Scion told household in debt and lives in ‘ordinary’ flat
- Family spills lucrative spicy food brand secret and son now ‘happy’ to be rich
The son of the owner of a well-known snack brand in China said he did not know his family was wealthy until he graduated from university, a story that has stunned mainland social media.
Zhang Zilong, 24, told the mainland media outlet Jiupai News that his multimillionaire father, Zhang Yudong, lied to him about his real financial status for the first 20 years of his life, so he would work hard to achieve success.
Zhang senior, 51, is the founder and president of the Hunan spicy gluten latiao brand Mala Prince, which produces 600 million yuan worth (US$83 million) of goods a year.
The brand was created in the same year that Zhang junior was born.
Zhang junior said he grew up living in an “ordinary flat” in Pingjiang county, Hunan province in central China.
He was aware of his father’s famous brand but was told that his family had gone into debt to keep the company running.