The Chinese nouveau riche complain that people who "hate the rich" are stupid and unreasonable, but they should take a good look at their own behavior.

This week a campaign to recruit "brides" for billionaires was launched in some big cities like Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Despite strict requirements, more than 2,800 women aged from 19 to 56 applied to take part in the wedding contest.

It's really shameful for the rich to show off their money by recruiting brides in this way like ancient Chinese emperors selecting their consorts, but it's even more lamentable that such vulgar displays of wealth are worshipped by many people.

Recently a Shanxi coal mine boss spent 70 million yuan ($11million) on his daughter's wedding, even paying celebrities to attend, such ostentatious behavior understandably angers many people who can't afford to spend money as if it grows on trees.

Following a fatal accident in Singapore on may 12, in which a speeding Ferrari driven by a 31-year-old Chinese expatriate ran a red light and smashed head-on into a taxi, killing both the Singaporean driver and the Japanese woman who had hired the taxi, there was an outpouring of anger against Chinese expats on local Singaporean Internet forums where they were described as "rich locusts".

There were actually three triggers for Singaporeans' animosity: a luxury car costing more than $ 1 million, the driver breaking the rules, and the death of a Singaporean father of three children.

Chinese people, either as new immigrants or part of the foreign workforce, have contributed no less than people from other countries to the development of Singapore, and they don't deserve such hostility because of the reckless behavior of one individual.

Nevertheless, we have to acknowledge that anti-Chinese sentiment overseas and terms such as "rich locusts" have not appeared overnight as a result of a single car accident. The animosity has germinated over time and to a large degree because of the bad image "exported" by China's nouveaux riches.

The past few years have seen the dramatic rise of China as a source of outbound tourists, and according to the World Luxury Association, Chinese people spent $7.2 billion overseas on luxuries during the weeklong Spring Festival holiday this year.

It indicates the country's newly rich are eager to flaunt their wealth by snapping up clothes, watches, jewelry and anything else with a luxury logo, not only for themselves but also for their families and friends. And wealthy Chinese have also been buying expensive properties overseas in recent years.

Some wealthy Chinese have been on hunting sprees in Africa and North America, spending huge amounts to buy quotas to kill as many wild animals as possible, and some rich Chinese students can afford to change their luxury cars whenever the mood takes them.

Such behavior has not only created an image of newly rich Chinese overseas that bears little relation to their fellow countrymen back home, many of whom, including the 100 million that live in poverty, have never seen an exotic place except on television, it has also endangered ordinary Chinese people living or traveling abroad.

For instance, there have been growing concerns for the safety of Chinese students studying abroad after a number of violent incidents in which they have been targeted. In one incident, two Chinese electrical engineering students at the University of Southern California were shot dead in their car near their campus early last month, in what the police believe was a bungled carjacking.

And in another example, two Chinese international students were recently attacked and robbed by a gang of hooligans on a Sydney train late last month. One of the victims said a woman passenger who was sitting opposite them had said, "Rob them, they are Asian, they have got money".

When a fatal crash involving an expensive car and a reckless Chinese driver can trigger such loathing, it is time for China's newly rich to do some soul-searching about their lavish lifestyles and try to earn respect rather than buying it, both at home and abroad, for themselves and for the country as a whole.

The author is a writer with China Daily

gaozhuyuan@chinadaily.com.cn