[jariel]

Quote:

The spending habits of China’s billionaires, for business and for pleasure alike, are redefining extravagance: The $330,000 worth of white truffles bought by a casino mogul; the $10 million yacht with mirrored windows; the Upper East Side townhouse bought by Zhang Xin for $26 million; the private island for hunting, stocked with $5 million worth of rifles, wild boar, pheasants and deer and the private museum of Chen Lihua, with 300 antique furniture pieces from the Ming and Qing dynasties, just to name a few. Such purchases are to consumption what extreme fighting is to college wrestling.

But they didn’t make the front page of the Financial Times — as Hong Kong’s Stephen Hung did yesterday, when Rolls-Royce announced he had placed an order for 30 customized Rolls-Royce Phantoms, a $20 million purchase described by the company as the “world’s single largest order of Rolls Royces ever.” The cars were the “extended wheelbase” models, by the way: 20 feet long, more than 6 feet wide, about the size of an affordable hotel room in London, where Chinese billionaires have bought up so much property, except the Phantom goes from zero to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds.

But these beauties are not for Hung to drive. He already has a white-and-gold Rolls-Royce Phantom — along with his white Ferrari, his bright orange Lamborghini Aventador, and reportedly several Bentleys. The new Phantoms are for the millionaire customers he hopes will frequent the casino resort he’s building in Macau: the Louis XIII, slated to open in 2016, which will feature, among other amenities, a suite that goes for $100,000 per night.

Who will stay at such a price, the South China Morning Post asked — to which he responded by telling the story of a friend, “a European billionaire who took such a fancy to the presidential suite in a prime hotel property on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong harbour that he leased it for four years straight to enjoy the privilege of staying there for about two weeks every year – while stopping anybody else from doing so.”

Hung knows what it is to be rich. His father was a wealthy property investor. Hung went to the University of Southern California to study medicine, moved on to Columbia for his MBA and joined Merrill Lynch as an investment banker before moving into development in Hong Kong and Macau, a gambling mecca he said he hopes never looks like Vegas.

Hung aims to become the king of extreme luxury catering to the far-reaches of wealth — not your duty-free shoppers buying Louis Vuitton, not stuff “affordable to a lot of people,” as he told the South China Morning Post. “The luxury I’m talking about is extreme,” he said.

For marketing purposes — and, it seems, because he likes it, too — Hung has tried to become the living embodiment of the customers he’s seeking for his new enterprise.

He is the world’s biggest spender. “L’extravagant Monsieur Hung,” as Paris Match called him.

Hung, 56, carefully acts and dresses the part when he gives interviews. Examples include: in “vibrant, turquoise patterned trousers and sporting a diamond-covered watch and ring” for Gafencu Men; and shopping for diamonds with the Wall Street Journal “dressed in black pants and a T-shirt emblazoned with bright flowers and geometric shapes — both very tight and very Versace … in a private room” in a Graff Diamonds store in Hong Kong. “Hung then starts admiring an enormous diamond necklace,” the Journal wrote. “His public-relations representative suggests it would look lovely on his wife. ‘No…I’m thinking for myself,’ Hung says, as he puts it around his neck and has the representative snap a photo of him wearing it. ‘It’s never too big,’ Hung says of a diamond pinky ring.”

“Hung’s home proper is again a testament to his penchant for conspicuous luxury,” wrote Gafencu Men. “His apartment is home to an eclectic mix of vibrant, modern works of art, all in stark contrast to his collection of Gothic and Romantic-style Italian furniture. Lights switch colour from green to violet at the simple push of an iPad button while, in the shower off the main bedroom, small jellyfish float in a circuit inside their tank.”

“On the desktop, a throne encrusted with sapphires and surmounted by a crown object,” reported Paris Match, sat a gold lighter manufactured for the launch of Louis XIII that cost a million dollars. “It has never been more expensive to light a cigar.”

He bridled when Paris Match compared him to the tacky — and allegedly insane — German King Ludwig II of Bavaria, who had fairy-tale castles such as Neuschwanstein.

When Hung talks about rich people in history, he speaks of czars, maharajahs and, of course, Louis XIII. “I’ve been to Versailles several times and it has always fascinated me; nothing would have happened without Louis XIII, that’s how important he is; the period embodies luxury, romanticism and style and has stood the test of time,” he told Cote Magazine, which headlined its profile “Eccentricity Meets Luxury.”

At his hotel-casino, he told Cote, “guests will experience a hitherto unseen level of luxury, which doesn’t feel like a Vegas-style holiday resort.” It will be “a completely unique setting, with 200 rooms, and villas of up to 3,000 square meters,” he said, a “place where great luxury, practicality and comfort come together. You don’t want to waste your clients’ time with badly designed details, overly complicated controls and poorly positioned plugs as I have personally experienced in the world’s greatest hotels.”

After it opens in 2016, he may expand. His hope, he told, is to become to luxury “what Google is to knowledge,” he told Paris Match. “I’m not narcissistic enough to compare myself with such a mark, but it’s the same principle.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morni...0-million/

[la_mode]

Seems like a cool guy.

[WalterBlack]

I thought the super rich bought yachts? $20M is nothing to them

[pitt]

He needs to get a decent haircut.

[Faust]

He looks like something out of a cyberpunk novel.

[The Lizard of Oz]

Alright, I'm ready to be seriously impressed with this Chinese dude. He is 56. His wife (that's the girl in the pic) is f'ing stunning. She is Mexican, and her name is Deborah Valdez-Hung which is a very, very sweet name.

Here is a video with her:

And here is another, with her giving a finger to reporters, and him clad in truly insane garb:

Finally, this quote is just beautiful:

Quote:

“The luxury I’m talking about is extreme,” he said.

LOL!! Fucking A.

[El Chinito loco]

Pretty sure any man alive WB that trophy. She has loads of plastic still a 9/10.

I wonder if this guy is really an undercover poofter though. He's in the media limelight so a certain amount of flamboyance is necessary but his style and sensibilities regarding luxury seem very closet faggot to me.

[Chewbacon]

Stephen Hung is a pretty cool dude. He's pretty legit on the hK scene.

[Drazen]

I look up to this guy way more than Bilzerian. This guy is killing it and looks good for being 56. Yeah, he dresses weird, but that's Asia for you.

[Swooper]

Wow she must be a mexican chinese mix.

[Thomas the Rhymer]

(09-22-2014 10:29 PM)Drazen Wrote:  

I look up to this guy way more than Bilzerian. This guy is killing it and looks good for being 56. Yeah, he dresses weird, but that's Asia for you.

Well, he's clearly had dental work and botox; I suspect he's had some plastic surgery too.

[iknowexactly]

The dyed weird hair is an example of successful distractor from being older. He's not fifty something, he's "cool."

[la_mode]

Ultra-wealthy tend to be a bit eccentric, but it's typically looked down upon by the regular "wealthy".

[DVY]

Typical Chinese new money brat behavior <---- 1st thought

$20MM dollar cars + unlimited free word of mouth advertising and free news coverage <--- Wow, kind of make sense (like the bilion dollar NCAA challenge)

[Drazen]

I can see him excluding the public from even entering the casino. Seems like he's taking it up to that level.

[Beyond Borders]

I love that some of you guys are criticizing this dude's roll.

I wonder if he's losing sleep over it.

[bojangles]

Interesting guy, I think his wife is a half mexican half chinese girl, stunning

[Cattle Rustler]

The wife is full Mexican, she just adopted his last name.

I wonder what nouveau riche family in Mexico is balling right now.

[El Chinito loco]

(09-23-2014 03:53 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

I love that some of you guys are criticizing this dude's roll.

I wonder if he's losing sleep over it.

You're right, and I don't deny that. Most of us would never catch a whiff of the lifestyle this guy is leading.

[General Stalin]

I'd be curious what his life and day-to-day behind the scenes demeanor is like. More money doesn't make people more happy generally up to a certain point. So long as you are financially secure enough to comfortably feed, clothe, and shelter yourself with a few extra amenities and pursuits then you've met all of your hierarchy of needs and your happiness at that point is dependent on your personal willpower to pursue self-actualization (if you'e into Maslow). Dude could very well be less happy or the same as any of us in this thread.

Something I've always been curious about because lots of people idolize that kind of wealth and life-style, but I wonder if people would truly relish it if they had or if it would be a passing phase like any other thing. My assumption would be that the guy probably generally is no better off than any of us - he probably has days where he's just bored and none of his money or his options of activities are enticing to him. He probably has days where he's bored/resentful of his beautiful wife and they bicker. He probably has days where he has to deal with bullshit he doesn't want to deal with and it annoys him. His narcissism looks almost like a way to cope with his own insecurities. Dude probably is never satisfied with himself so he needs the public validation of being in the spotlight and being known as "that super rich eccentric Asian guy." Who knows.

[Drazen]

The guy has a goal and is realizing it. That alone puts him above most people in terms of happiness.

Perhaps he has problems behind the scene, but I'd venture to guess he is pretty content with the way his life is going. Its not him just amassing mega-wealth, he's in the process of creating a lasting legacy.

[CactusCat589]

Faust is right, he looks like he'd fit right into Snow Crash.

He does have a metro kind of style, but in a baller kind of way and not a gay one.

[Thomas the Rhymer]

(09-23-2014 09:17 AM)General Stalin Wrote:  

More money doesn't make people more happy generally up to a certain point.

It's interesting you bring this up.

If you look at the photo, notice the two vertical lines on his forehead.

This is part of the 'omega' sign, characteristic wrinkles that form on the foreheads of chronically depressed/anxious people.

A more exagerrated illustration will hopefully illustrate what I'm talking about (By the way, this picture also demonstrates Veraguth's fold, which is an upward tilting of the inner part of the eyebrow and eyelids, which is also a facial marker of underlying depression):

[DVY]

Seems like a smart guy to me...

[Avon Barksdale]

(09-23-2014 03:53 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

I love that some of you guys are criticizing this dude's roll.

I wonder if he's losing sleep over it.

This is most likely his theme song.