Not crying poverty anymore? Zou Shiming is moving a whole box of Moutai, his younger son is wearing a 4,000 yuan pair of headphones, and the whole family is dressed in designer brands.

Recently, boxing champion Zou Shiming’s family has become the focus of online discussions.

The incident began when a netizen spotted Zou Shiming’s family in Sanya. That day, they had just exited a business vehicle, with large bags and small packages piled everywhere, creating a scene that made bystanders think a film crew was changing locations.

Article by: Mingming

Walking in front was Zou Shiming, dressed in a white T-shirt paired with black wide-leg pants, wearing a straw hat, looking fresh and casual.

However, what really caught the attention of netizens was the entire box of Moutai liquor he was carrying. The family was going on vacation, yet they brought along a whole box of Moutai, which indeed left many people puzzled.

From an ordinary person’s perspective, for a trip lasting three to five days, it seems excessive to bring an entire box of liquor. Meanwhile, the outfits of the couple’s children were also scrutinized by keen-eyed netizens.

The headphones hanging around the neck of the youngest son were identified as a new model from a certain brand, retailing for nearly four thousand yuan.

The basketball shoes worn by the second son were clearly quite expensive, and even Ran Yingying herself was wearing LV shoes worth over ten thousand yuan. The whole family was decked out in well-known luxury brands from head to toe.

This scene raised a question in many people’s minds: hasn’t this family always claimed to be struggling financially?

Looking back two years, the impression Zou Shiming and Ran Yingying left on the public was indeed quite different.

At that time, they frequently mentioned their financial situation on social media and in interviews. Ran Yingying had said more than once that their family was not well-off, living tightly, and even strictly controlling their monthly tax expenses to be within one hundred yuan.

She also revealed in a livestream that she hadn’t bought a new bag in six years, even selling off her long-treasured luxury bags at low prices to pay off debts.

During that time, Zou Shiming’s entrepreneurial story was often discussed. In 2017, this two-time Olympic gold medalist and professional boxing champion had to step away from the ring due to injuries to his eyes and knees.

After retiring, he chose not to pursue a stable job within the system, but instead dove into business alongside his wife, Ran Yingying.

He rented an 18,000-square-meter venue along the Huangpu River in Shanghai to open the “Zou Shiming Boxing Fitness Center,” with annual rent reaching fifty million yuan.

The couple registered more than twenty companies, spanning various fields including sports, dining, and cultural entertainment. At that time, Zou Shiming was focused on how to convert boxing glory into business success.

Unfortunately, the business world is not like the boxing ring; being tough doesn’t guarantee profit. Zou Shiming later reflected that he had been overly sentimental, failing to conduct proper market research and wasting a lot of unnecessary money.

On the days when salaries were due, a bank notification would signal the disappearance of hundreds of thousands or even millions. The arrival of the pandemic in 2020 dealt them a fatal blow, as their boxing gyms were closed for an extended period, leading to a complete break in their cash flow.

To fill the gaps, Zou Shiming sold properties in Beijing, Shanghai, Guizhou, and even the United States, while Ran Yingying let go of her previous dignity, selling her collection of luxury bags in batches.

In 2024, Zou Shiming publicly admitted that after seven years of entrepreneurship, they had lost over three hundred million yuan, reaching a point where he had to borrow money to pay employees.

At that time, Ran Yingying portrayed herself to the public as a “falling noblewoman” who was holding the family together through grit. She mentioned that when her son’s school uniform pants wore out, she would proactively ask teachers for help to sew them, telling them, “our family is not well-off.”

She said the kids were very frugal when eating in the school cafeteria, spending only thirty-nine yuan and fifty cents per meal. These details piled together indeed garnered sympathy from many, who felt that although the couple had failed in their entrepreneurial efforts, they at least had the right values and could endure hardship.

However, now that photos of their vacation in Sanya have surfaced, this “hardship” persona has collapsed. Some netizens calculated that based on Ran Yingying’s claim of thirty-nine yuan and fifty cents per lunch, that entire box of Moutai could cover nearly a thousand meals.

Others pointed out that they had just been to the Maldives during the Spring Festival and now moved to Sanya, which doesn’t exactly resemble a struggling lifestyle.

There were also many netizens who spoke up for them, feeling that “a thin camel is still bigger than a horse.” Zou Shiming has been boxing for over twenty years, won Olympic gold medals, and held the title of professional champion; even if his savings are meager, they are still much more than the average person.

Moreover, Zou Shiming himself has said that he only took out a portion of his savings to start a business, and it wasn’t as exaggerated as the outside world claimed about “middle-aged poverty.”

Ran Yingying’s “frugality” might also be relative to her previous lifestyle; spending a few hundred thousand a year instead of millions is indeed a savings for them, but ordinary people can’t relate to that.

The Moutai could have been a gift from friends, and the headphones and shoes might have been sponsored by brands. Ran Yingying is now live-streaming to sell products, generating her own income; their lives cannot truly be described as unsustainable.

But the crux of the problem lies here: what people resent is not their wealth. The audience can accept that celebrities are inherently wealthy, and they understand that business failures can lead to losses; no one demands that entrepreneurs who have lost money must eat instant noodles and wear torn clothes every day.

However, you can’t be in front of the camera, tearfully portraying yourself as heavily in debt and barely holding on, gaining the audience’s sympathy, while privately purchasing a whole box of Moutai, dressing the family in luxury brands, and staying at top hotels during vacations.

The stark contrast between this narrative and reality is what makes netizens uncomfortable.

Ran Yingying has also explained that this is called “saving where you can and spending where you should.” Even in tight times, one cannot shortchange the children.

To support the height development of their second son, they are continuously using growth hormone injections; all the kids are attending international schools. These expenses add up to at least several hundred thousand a year, and from that perspective, she has indeed never skimped on what needs to be spent.

Yet, this “spending pattern” is very difficult to relate to “poverty” in the context of ordinary people’s lives.

One netizen bluntly stated: their “poverty” is relative to their previous “richness,” while our understanding of “poverty” is relative to our own wallets; the two standards are simply not on the same channel.

Zou Shiming previously mentioned wanting to return to the ring not to pay off debts, but to return to where his dream began.

Yet the audience knows the truth; a forty-three-year-old with a history of injuries to his eyes and knees has been advised by doctors not to fight again.

Whether this comeback is a genuine pursuit of dreams or merely a way to maintain relevance may well be hidden in that box of Moutai.

Popularity is the most valuable championship belt in this era; they may have long understood that even negative attention is still attention. Controversy generates traffic, and only with heat can they monetize.

However, how long this heat generated by contrast can be sustained is uncertain. After all, the audience is not foolish; once fooled, the next time they cry poverty, it may not be as effective.