A very tacky Christmas: ex-Hong Kong actress flaunts wealth with over-the-top luxury brand festive d

“The theme for this year’s Christmas tree is ‘orange box’,” Ku wrote on Instagram. Another image shows a tree in a room also surrounded with Hermès boxes.

The IG post and media reports sent netizens into a festive flurry. Some loved the luxe touch - “Great originality,” wrote one, while others said Ku can do what she wants with her money. “If she has money, go ahead and splurge...life is short!”

However, others described it as tacky and classless, with some pointing to the amount of money spent. “I have no money to buy a Christmas tree but I have money to help other people,” wrote one.

While Hermès sells ready-to-wear, scarves, gloves and jewellery, it is best known for its bags.

In the resale market, the fashion house’s famous Birkin bag can go for anything between US$12,000 and US$18,000, while the most rare styles fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars, including one diamond-encrusted design priced at US$2 million.

In a world troubled by Covid-19, war and a cost of living crisis, it is hardly a surprise that some netizens interpreted Ku’s post as tone deaf.

Hong Kong has one of the biggest gaps between rich and poor on the planet, a gulf that widened during the coronavirus crisis.

According to a recent report by charity Oxfam Hong Kong, the average monthly income of the city’s poorest households fell 22.9 per cent to HK$2,700 from 2019 to 2022, while that of the richest increased 6.3 per cent to HK$127,600.

It’s not the first time Ku has expressed her love for Hermès. An Instagram post from August shows her posing with a new – and rare – Himalaya Kelly 25, bags which often sell at auction for millions of Hong Kong dollars.

But having wealth often goes hand-in-hand with showing it off.

On social media and YouTube, it is called “flexing”, a pastime much loved by young people in the city, whose flashy lifestyles are showcased on The Rich Kids of Hong Kong Instagram account.

Singaporean socialite Jamie Chua – the city state’s unofficial “Instagram Queen’’ and owner of more than 200 Hermès bags – is also a “flexing” fan. Videos on her YouTube channel show her opening boxes of the latest must-have bags.

But “flexing” was best illustrated in the 2018 “flaunt your wealth challenge” which saw Chinese influencers post photos of themselves spread out on the ground surrounded by wads of cash and expensive luxury items.

Times, however, are changing. Chinese authorities have cracked down on show-off style content amid calls by its leader, Xi Jinping, to combat inequality. Flaunting your wealth online can now get you censored.

Last year China’s Instagram-like Xiaohongshu flagged more than 8,700 posts and “punished” 240 accounts after users were asked to “avoid showing off consumption power far exceeding that of average people”.

But why people show off online has deeper psychological meanings.

A 2018 study found that materialistic consumers are likely to engage in conspicuous luxury consumption.

Some studies point to the “Status Signals Paradox” – when making new friends, people often think that displaying high-status markers of themselves will make them more attractive to others.

Other researchers call it compensatory consumption: people purchase expensive goods to symbolically compensate for what they think they are lacking.

But “Insta-bragging” can backfire.

In 2014, American socialite and reality star Kim Kardashian was robbed at gunpoint of millions of dollars worth of jewellery during a trip to Paris which she documented on Instagram while trailed by paparazzi.

In 2020, Hong Kong’s So Mei-yan, who regularly showed off her wealth on social media, was robbed of HK$3.6 million (US$460,000) worth of valuables in a daring daylight home invasion.

In February this year, she was detained after a raid on her home, accused of sharing her gambling activities online.

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