Five Chinese women are sitting upright in their chairs, designer handbags at their heels, listening attentively to a trendy Chinese Tatler magazine photographer describe how to pose in public. He is talking makeup, light and cheekbones. The room is decorated with Pierre Frey wallpaper and the participants sip tea out of a Bernardaud tea set. Notepad in hand, they are learning the dos and don?ts of camera etiquette.
The course entitled ?How to pose elegantly in front of the camera? is one of many offered by Institute Sarita, a modern-day version of European finishing schools that caters to Chinese nouveaux riche. Other courses offered by the school, located in the trendy Sanlitun district of Beijing, include how to raise children, proper table manners and luxury brand pronunciation.
?Most of my clients had an embarrassing moment, overseas or during a business dinner. They come here because they want to make thing easier for themselves,? said Sara-Jane Ho, the perfectly groomed school founder, as she sat in a drawing room furnished with imported French antique furniture.
With 190 billionaires and more than two million millionaires, China tags just behind the US in number of high-net-worth individuals, according to research from Forbes magazine and Boston Consulting Group.
Many of these fortunes have grown rapidly, in lock-step with China?s newly expanding economy and multiplying business opportunities. Some who find themselves newly wealthy have little knowledge or training in how to behave in international business or social events. As a result, some business people may appear uncouth and blunt to their western or Asian counterparts
Media and even the Chinese president have been critical of how some Chinese travellers have behaved on trips. On a September trip to the Maldives, Chinese President Xi Jinping suggested Chinese citizens be ?a bit more civilised when travelling abroad.?
While some of what is perceived as rude by Westerners stems from cultural issues ? the notion of public space and privacy is very different in China ? other ill-manners date back to the Cultural Revolution when all that was seen as sophistication was considered bourgeois and severely punished.
To disassociate themselves from this reputation, many of the new elite are seeking refinement at etiquette schools. At the same time, they are looking to good manners as a new form of status symbol.
The Chinese understand that their position as the most powerful country in the world puts them in a situation where they need to learn about other cultures and behaviours so as to smoothen political and business relationships,? said Viviane Neri, principal of Institut Villa Pierrefeu, in an email.
