Thousands of Chinese investors, despairing over their lost fortunes, made time this week to light incense and pray for better luck from the “Stock Master”, a bronze bull straddling a bear.
“People need somewhere to vent their emotions,” said Cai Mingchao, an art collector who commissioned the sculpture for his gallery in Xiamen city, a port on the southeast coast.
The middle classes were China’s weakest group, he said. “They feel so tired, must work long hours and get little aid from the government. No wonder some want to emigrate.” The nation’s longest ever bull market turned bearish over the past two months, hurting equity markets from London to Sydney.
The collapse has devastated some of the 150 to 200 million middle-class Chinese whose swelling ranks have long excited UK exporters.
Visits to counsellors have risen, but suicides remain rare. Husbands and wives quarrel over lost savings, while countless investors blame the government or themselves for not quitting the stock market “casino” in time.
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In May, Sarah Zhu’s husband, an IT worker, excitedly announced that he was a yuan millionaire after more than doubling their £40,000 stock investment. In June, he expected to reach 2 million yuan.
As the market tanked, her mother lent him £50,000 to pay off his debts. Instead, he bought more stocks, which continued to slide. Inspired by his former boss, who earned 20 million yuan on stocks and retired to day-trade full-time, he acted like a gambler, said Mrs Zhu, 35, who works for a Canadian potash firm.
The couple, who have a young son, began arguing over their losses, which ruined their plans to move to a better apartment in Beijing. Plans to buy a new car were also scuppered.
“My husband’s emotions are bad right now,” she said. “He has stopped talking about buying new leather shoes for his new job. But I’m still a very positive person. Health and happiness matter more than profit or loss.”
Like Mrs Zhu and many other aspiring Chinese, Zhang Yang, 48, denies he is middle class, despite owning a house, a car and a comb-selling franchise in Ulanhot city, Inner Mongolia. He lost at least £8,000 in the stock market crunch, blaming his indecision. He also resents the state-run media that sucked in many small investors when the government wanted shares to boom.
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Most Chinese stay clear of politics, and many now wish they had avoided the stock market too. Peer pressure persuaded Huang Doudou, who works for a foreign firm in Beijing, to buy shares last September and lose £8,000 to date.
She regrets the “greed” that stopped her from cashing in early — and buying some handbags with her profits. “I think most investors know or should know that the stock market is a casino, especially China’s,” she said.
“You really depend on your luck. It is just like the Chinese game of ‘beating a drum while passing a spray of blossom’. All that matters is who’s holding the flower when the beating stops.”
Rise of the middle class
•In 2000, 4 per cent of urban households were middle class; by 2012, this had risen to two-thirds
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•By 2022, the middle classes should number 630 million, 45 per cent of the entire population
•The mass middle class, with an annual income of $9,000 to $16,000, account for 54 per cent of urban households
•By 2022, more than half of urban households will be upper middle-class, earning $16,000 to $34,000; up from 12 per cent now
Source: McKinsey & Company