The rich kids of Weibo made their money into a meme and it didn’t end well

Clockwise from top left: various Chinese users pose falling out of their cars surrounded by luxury goods and money, and a <em>PUBG</em> character falls out of a Russian UAZ.

This month, people in Russia, India, and now China have been uploading photos of themselves “falling” out of their luxury vehicles, surrounded by the carefully arranged detritus of their wealth, ranging from Gucci bags and jewelry to headphones and Supreme clothes.

What’s become known as the “Falling Stars” challenge is basically the Rich Kids of Instagram turning their fortunate statuses into a meme. It all seems to have started in August when a Russian Instagram user posted an image of herself falling out of a private jet. The trend has since arrived to Chinese social media, where it’s dubbed a more self-explanatory “wealth-flaunting challenge” (as spotted by Abacus).

Since the meme is essentially materialistic, it was ripe for...

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