A new term for the filthy rich sums up the uncomfortable relationship China has with its newfound wealth.

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a posting by an editor of the Chinese website of The Wall Street Journal. She was asking about the English translation of the word tuhao and whether "country baron" was good enough.

She got an avalanche of propositions, from the mundane "nouveau riche" and "upstart", to the more vivid "silly rich" and "vulgarich", and sound-alike "too hot" or "two houses". (I guess if you own two houses within Beijing's Second Ring Road, you qualify for that status.)

Someone suggested "Beverly hillbillies" and I responded by turning that to "Beijing hillbillies", all in good fun. But to add Chinese input to the English language, I'll stick here to the easy-to-pronounce tuhao.

Tuhao is not a new term. It appeared frequently in Mao Zedong's early writings as a social class that was the target of Communist condemnation. As such, it is usually translated into "local tyrants" and is ranked with "evil gentry".

The new tuhao, however, are the product of online games, referring to those players who use real money to buy virtual equipment rather than fight their way to the top on the computer. This impatient component of the gaming community is said to underwrite much of the industry because poor players contribute proportionally less in generating real revenue for the game companies.

Tuhao stand out more for the way they spend money than the fact they have money. "Tu", which used to mean "local", has now taken on the connotation of "boorish".

Dou Wentao, a celebrity TV host, recently told of a wedding where he was invited to be master of ceremonies. There was a police motorcade and, as if hiring a nationally known TV person wasn't enough, the wedding planner made it sound like Dou begged for the chance to serve him. He later divulged to Dou that he was doing all this to make his father proud and to be "envied by the locals".

Tuhao tend to cross the line of propriety when spending money. A typical tuhao has the knack of dressing in expensive clothes and still making them look cheap. In a desperate bid for respect, they fall into the trap of believing too much of a good thing is still a good thing.