Guo Meimei Trades Luxury for Prison Cell

Guo Meimei living the life -- back then on Weibo

Some girls just want to have fun.

That was the case of Guo Meimei, 23, who took lots of selfies or had others take pictures of her scantily clad in bikinis, or short dresses. She has a cherubic face, but Guo seems to have seduced herself into the world of luxury.

She took pictures of herself with luxury brand name bags like Hermes and Louis Vuitton, even striking poses in front of a Maserati that were uploaded onto her Weibo account, where she had almost two million followers.

She liked to pose with luxury cars and handbags

Then in 2011 netizens started digging up information about her online and found that she claimed to be a "commercial general manager" at the Red Cross Society of China, which the charity vehemently denied, but the damage was done -- donations plunged because the public was outraged at Guo and didn't trust the Red Cross anymore.

It turns out Guo's partner Wang Jun, 46, was a Shenzhen-based businessman who funded her shopping thrills. He planned to use the Red Cross brand for an advertising campaign, and Guo asked to head the new business venture.

One would have thought that fiasco would have ended the young woman's career, but she plunged headlong into higher stakes -- casinos.

Someone enjoyed money... a lot

She admitted operating an illegal gambling venue in Beijing as well as having sex with several unnamed men for money. She even fabricated a story that she had a 260 million yuan gambling debt in Macau to get herself back into the limelight.

Guo's antics were over when she and Wang were detained in July last year. Dressed in an orange prison garb, she made a tearful "confession" on state media, saying she concocted the affiliation with the Red Cross purely out of vanity.

"I like to show off," she said. "I have the vain mindset of a little girl."

Over a year after she was detained, Guo was sentenced to five years in jail and a 50,000 yuan fine yesterday in Beijing for running an illegal casino. Her associate Zhao Xiaolai pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years and fined 20,000 yuan.

While Guo admitted in court to taking part in illegal gambling and invited people to play high-stakes poker at a Beijing apartment, she denied running an illegal casino.

In court she looked plain, with no makeup on, wearing eyeglasses, a white shirt and frumpy black pants, a far cry from the sexy image she used to portray of herself.

Guo was sentenced in court yesterday for five years in jail

There are scant details of her life growing up except that she lived with her mother in Yiyang, Hunan province and then Shenzhen. Guo later studied at Beijing Film Academy in 2008.

Thus ends the fabulous life of Guo that was terribly short lived and desperate at the end. Her insatiable love of money that led her downfall. After she gets out of prison at the age of 28, what is she going to do then? And for the rest of her life?

We hope this is a lesson to all those young (pretty) girls in China who mistakenly believe life in the fast lane is fun...

Hong Kong's Liability

Leung Chun-ying is hardly the public's favourite politician these days

On Tuesday evening I went to a hotel in Admiralty for a dinner presented by an American guest chef.

I and another friend arrived on time, but then were told to wait 20 minutes, as all the diners would be served at the same time.

But after we were seated half an hour later, it wasn't until almost another hour later before dinner started, hosted by the hotel.

It turns out there was an incident downstairs and hotel staff, including the general manager had to handle a crisis situation.

A local university was holding an event to thank someone for donating to the tertiary institution. However, a group of students crashed the party, claiming the donation had dubious origins.

And to create more drama, one of the students even threatened to jump -- from one floor above.

The hotel had to call police and ambulances just in case, and the incident was eventually resolved.

David Akers-Jones says Leung is not loveable...

Perhaps one of the main reasons why the students barged in on the event was because Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying was there.

While his popularity has now stabilized from free fall, his presence anywhere is a liability.

Or did the university not know that?

Former chief secretary David Akers-Jones who was also a Leung supporter (though we don't know now), recently described the chief executive as having a reticent personality, "and he doesn't have the art of making or causing people to love him".

"If you look at people we have known, CH Tung, David Wilson... Look at the queue when Edward Youde died, and yet he's a very strict man, but they loved him... but CY, I have said it for you," Akers-Jones said.

Not exactly flattering.

If Leung wants to go for another term, he'll have to do a serious makeover.

Any bets for him in 2017?

Generational Divide

Many fresh graduates have high hopes, then see the reality of the job market

Government figures show that fresh graduates in Hong Kong are only earning HK$1,800 more than those who finished tertiary education 20 years ago. That means today's university graduates aged 20-24 are earning a median income of HK$10,800 ($1,393) in 2014 compared to HK$9,000 in 1994.

Data from the Census and Statistics Department show a 20 percent rise in median income, which compares to a 45 percent increase in the Composite Consumer Price Index, 75 percent in tuition fees, and nearly triple of property prices.

Simon Lee Siu-po, assistant dean of undergraduate studies at Chinese University's Business School says employers could be less willing to make attractive job offers because he believes there are so many more university graduates each year.

All families want their children to do better than the previous generation, and many believe education is the way out. However the sheer numbers of graduates each year means a flood in the labour market, thus lowering the value of a university degree.

Some employers prefer to hire graduates from the mainland

Lee then took a dig at young people today, saying, "Youngsters nowadays, compared to the last generation, are less skillful and are reluctant to learn. Many employers are disappointed by the young generation."

He even went so far as to say employers would rather hire mainland graduates because their English and Putonghua skills were much better than locals.

Ouch.

This touched of a maelstrom of comments, at first illustrating how wages have not kept up with inflation at all, but also how it was practically impossible for young people to save with salaries that are so low.

Then the issue of young people not as hardworking as the previous generation is a perennial comment older people like to say. While many of us may have come across students or young people we don't think are as diligent as they should be, there are many others who maybe putting in more hours than we know of.

Nevertheless, many employers are frustrated that a lot of young people believe they are not being paid what they are worth and so they decide their own work output. It's an interesting perspective that employers haven't encountered before, but it is kind of a chicken-and-egg conundrum -- bosses don't think they can give pay raises unless the employee can demonstrate their worthiness, while employees think, pay me better and then I'll do more work.

But perhaps the last problem of employers looking to expand overseas are choosing to hire more mainland graduates than local ones hits a sensitive spot, particularly with the Occupy movement last year, as well as nativism that is ongoing.

Part of the problem is that students have been screwed around by the Education Department, using them as guinea pigs to see which language is the best medium of instruction. Before 1997 it was English, and then it was Cantonese and now it's becoming more Putonghua in the classroom.

If you keep changing the regulations, students get very confused and don't really learn much of anything effectively. Is it surprising that this has impacted graduates' skill sets to help them land a job?

I would hazard to guess that the majority of fresh graduates are keen to make a good start on their careers, and like us before, will find it's not that easy to find a job, or discover there's no such thing as a dream job.

They just want to be given a chance to prove themselves and from there it's how determined they are to make something of their lives and to contribute to society.

Granted the economy is slow these days, we should at least give young people the opportunity to demonstrate their Lion Rock spirit. They may not have the exact skills needed, but if they have the right attitude, then why not give them a chance? They are our future, the city's future.

Starting Early in the Rat Race

Parents must jump through lots of hoops to get their child into a good school

A colleague told me today that she's been busy every evening filling out application forms for her daughter to get into Primary 1, or Grade 1. She's finished 10 so far.

She not only has to complete forms asking for basic information, but also put together her daughter's portfolio that includes certificates and awards she has amassed in her entire five years of life.

Even more bizarre is that some schools ask the parents to answer questions too. Why do you think your child is suited to attend our school? What do you say? It's like answering a job application -- you have to research the school in order to be able to give a decent reply.

She joked that perhaps they were tricking the parents into answering the question to test them and not really the child.

Some youngsters on the first day of school last week

Then I suggested perhaps next they'll come and inspect your house to make sure your house is in order, or check out the food you're feeding your daughter, and that you're not harming her.

The hoops anxious parents have to jump through in order for their child to get a decent education is really getting out of hand.

Until the government steps in to regulate the situation, these schools are going to keep piling on the requirements -- and do they really need to go through all of that effort and stress? Just seems like too much, and yet this is about your child's future.

If you want to increase their chances of having a good education and hence better job prospects, they have to start off in a good school first -- as young as possible. And then they keep studying and studying and studying until they graduate from university.

Whatever happened to just being a kid?