Rich Girls in Vancouver

 
 
 

Vocabulary

ignore	assembly	incredible
offer	lifestyle	drew/draw/drawn (2)
accuse	massive	playground (2)
insist	conceal	renowned
price	resident	legislature
reality	wave (3)	reality show
afford	oversight	drive/drove/driven
excess	longtime	unaffordable
local	free (3)	free for all
source	nickname	reputation
fund	enable	condominium
realtor	scandal	drive up (2)
legit	concern	legitimate
failure	personal	witness (3)
condo	gangster	launder (2)
pour	criticism	catch/caught/caught
worry	view (2)	profile (2)
afford	jealous	hard work
crash	content	symbolize
luxury

 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Vancouver is renowned for its incredible views. And it’s the lifestyle the city offers, that’s drawn the likes of Chelsea Jan and her friends.

The girls are part of a massive wave of fuerdai or children of China’s newly rich that are turning the city into their personal playground.

Chelsea Jiang: “Everybody wants to move here now, and the prices keep going up.”

Jiang and her friends even start in their own reality show.

But their lives of excess have angered longtime residents. Protesters have accused investors of driving up real estate prices — making the city unaffordable.

David Eby, Legislative Assembly British Colombia: “It’s a total free for all in our market.”

Local politicians question the source of the money, citing China’s reputation and money laundering.

David Eby, Legislative Assembly British Colombia: “But when you’re concealing the source of the funds when realtors are enabling that kind of activity, makes it really hard for government to see what’s actually happening. And the failure of that oversight system is causing a lot of concern that the money that’s coming in is not legit money.”

Vancouver has witnessed high-profile scandals, like that of Li Cheung Xi. A gangster nicknamed “Mr. Big”, he was eventually caught and sent back to China.

That’s the condo where Mr. Big hit out for many years. In many ways, he came to symbolize all the worries that Vancouverites have over Chinese investment money pouring in here.

Jiang and her friends insists the family money that affords them their lifestyles comes from honest hard work.

Chelsea Jiang: “A lot of people are jealous of us; they just want us to us crash and burn. They’re jealous that we have everything.”

For now, she says, they’re content to simply ignore the criticism; and live the only way they know how — in luxury.

 

 

Questions

1. People have traditionally seen Vancouver as a city with beautiful nature with an outdoor way of life. Is this right or wrong?

2. Mostly poor Chinese immigrated to Vancouver to find laboring jobs and earn more money. Is this entirely true, mostly true, in the middle, both, yes and no, mostly false or completely false?

3. In Vancouver, do Chelsea and her friends study and work very hard? Describe their lifestyle.

4. Are all local residents pleased and happy with the Chinese investors? Why do they feel this way?

5. Does all the investment money come from honest, legitimate means? What was the example in the report?

6. Chelsea Jiang completely agrees and sympathizes with her detractors. Is this correct or incorrect?

7. As a result of local sentiment, have she and her friend adopted a discrete, modest, low-key lifestyle?

 

A. Residents in my city complain about prices, crowding and competition. Yes or no? What is the most expensive city or place in your country?

B. Are there many migrants in your city? Who are they? Where do they come from? What do they do?

C. Do (rich) people from your country move to other places? Why do they go there?

D. What might happen in the future

E. Should the government do anything?

F. What can ordinary citizens do?