(LI SHIGONG)

The "rich second generation" is a sensitive topic among modern Chinese. In many cases, the identity brings condemnation on this special group of young people. However, a 10-year-old girl from a wealthy family in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, recently did something at her birthday party that kindled debate. Her glitzy birthday party was estimated to have cost 1 million yuan ($147,000). The highlight, however, was the birthday girl's generosity.

The girl decided to donate all her birthday cash of more than 200,000 yuan ($29,400), along with 500,000 yuan ($73,500) worth of winter jackets, pants and quilts, to victims of last year's disastrous earthquake in Sichuan Province.

As for the luxurious party itself, the girl's mother said that she would like to make it an occasion for charity and hoped her daughter would learn to share with others.

Although she was born into a rich family, the girl has experienced a lot of setbacks during her life. She was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 3. During the years she was being treated for her disease, the girl became very compassionate. She previously gave nearly 400,000 yuan ($58,824) to build a kindergarten in Sichuan and visited there often for charitable occasions.

As for the glitzy party, some people believe that, as long as money is made legally, how it is spent is up to its owners. Thus, the public should be tolerant of the party. After all, nobody should tell other people how to live their lives—whether they are wealthy or not.

But some people cannot help worrying about the side effects of the luxurious birthday party. They believe that, if the girl is really interested in charity, she needs to donate what she earns through her own hard work, or she will never know the value of money. Besides, although the party meant to convey the spirit of charity, it still impressed participants as luxurious and could mean particularly children attending the party in the future might compete with each other in spending money.

A side effect of love

Long Lixian (Taiyuan Evening News): Most people would tend to support the idea that it's better for the birthday girl to donate than not and it's great to see the girl being brought up as a caring angel.

Indeed, we criticize the rich who never make donations. But it's really shortsighted if one sees only "donation" without seeing the ugly things represented by it.

The donor is a 10-year-old girl, at a party attended by her 37 classmates. Their future and outlook on life must hold far more promise than the donated 700,000 yuan ($10,294). This generous donation might encourage blind competition among the young pupils to show how wealthy they are and, at the same time, make those from impoverished families feel inferior. Since they are still children, they should enjoy a simple and easy life. It's too early to impart this kind of social knowledge to them.

Although it was the girl who made the huge donation, it seemed more like an act of showing-off in the name of charity by the girl's parents. Charity does not need such stunts, but only needs simple donations, especially when they involve children.

Ran Xuehong (www.cnwest.com): Morality is an inbred quality and everyone has the inclination to help others. Rich people, who enjoy more of the achievements of social development, naturally should shoulder more social responsibility.

If the girl's family is really interested in charity, it can choose to do it in other ways that would satisfy the girl's desire and also produce a good social effect. It's a pity, however, the girl's parents made the donation in such a high-profile way. What the parents focused on was not the social significance of the charity party, but the philanthropic image of their daughter. We standers-by can only sigh and treat it as a game by this rich family in the name of social responsibility and morality.

Li Yan (Chongqing Times): A birthday party, in the name of charity, which cost 1 million yuan, cast a shadow on those who are living more humbly. This is the fundamental reason why people are debating whether this was a party for charity or a party to show off.

Actually, we are not lacking in members of the "rich second generation" who are passionate about charity. Some of them do so because of the parents' influence and they have provided tangible aid to the needy. The question is, if the rich second generation, who will ultimately inherit their parents' assets, are only satisfied with this kind of moral exhibitionism, will they be able to build up good personalities and also good business culture?

Suppose a company is busy with charity activities on one hand while on the other hand corrupt, cutting employees' wages, and even trampling on consumers' basic rights, is it still a socially responsible business? We have to admit some companies are doing these things.

Who can guarantee the second rich generation, who may be satisfied with only the moral implications of charity, will not inherit their parents' method of operating companies? On one hand, they are exploiting workers, and on the other hand, they are doing charity work.