Asia was home to some of the world’s fastest-growing populations of millionaires, their annual World Wealth Report said, with India, China, Indonesia, South Korea and Singapore in the top ten in terms of growth.

The number of millionaires in India rose 22.7 percent to 123,000 people, the fastest growth in the world, and millionaires in China grew 20.3 percent to 415,000, making it home to the fifth-largest number of millionaires in the world, displacing France in that position.

Li Ka-shing, who controls a vast telecoms and property empire in Hong Kong and China, ranks as the world’s 11th richest man, according to Forbes.

Globally, millionaires grew 6 percent to 10.1 million people and their wealth rose 9.4 percent to $40.7 trillion in the same period, the Merrill/Capgemini report said.

“This year’s report found that the number of high net worth individuals (with net assets, excluding primary residences, of at least US$1.0 million), and the amount of wealth they control, continued to increase in 2007, with the greatest wealth being created in the emerging markets of India, China and Brazil,” said Mr Robert McCann, president of Global Wealth Management at Merrill Lynch in Paris.

Kong Eng Huat, Merrill Lynch’s Southeast Asia head of wealth management, said that in five years millionaires in Asia would have more combined wealth than those in Europe.

“Notwithstanding the recent dislocation in global markets, the robust economies in Asia are increasingly being driven by the domestic consumption story and continue to spur wealth creation in the region,” he said.

Asian millionaires’ wealth would grow annually by 7.9 percent to $13.9 trillion in 2012 against $13.5 trillion among Europe’s wealthiest, or 4.9 percent annual growth, the report said.

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In Zhu Jia Jiao, we’ve met Master Yue Le, a local artist that makes his living on creating banners/posters for tourists that visit that town: with our little domain of Mandarin, we’ve asked him to create some banners to represent something he would consider typical.

He was very kind to explain to us that — in traditional chinese culture — one would hang banners at the door of the house, wishing neighbors and visitors good omens; such tradition is still kept in most cities around China, but mostly during festivals and special occasions, like the Spring Festival.

In the first video, he tells us he is going to paint one of the most chinese typical wishes, which is “Welcome Home” (I would say that is a pretty cross-cultural wish, right?). Like an artist, a poet, or a designer, he make some sketches on a little notebook before painting the banners, trying to figure out the most auspicious characters to use.

In the second video, he paints the message “Huan Ying Guang Lin Wo Men De Jia”, which roughly translate as “Welcome to Our Home”: note how master Yue tries to make the visual alignment mentally, as if he was hesitating to start before painting.

In the last part, he paints our names; obviously, our western names have to be “converted” to Chinese, which usually involves either one of two strategies: first, try to find words that sound like their original western names, like “John” would be translated into “Jiang”, or — second — find the equivalent words to our names in Chinese; like my name “Itamar” — which in Tupy-Guarani, an indigenous language in Brazil — means “Coral Reef” was translated into “Hai Yan”.

In China, calligraphy is much appreciated — note how many locals gather around master Yue — but is not widely practiced by the younger generations, and it is a risk of dying. So, it was really nice to see the interest of the young ones gathering around master Yue, ask him questions, and observe him at work.

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With the opening to new markets and the growth of the Chinese economy, a new social class has emerged — to some extend, unthinkable in a Communist China: the millionaires. According to a survey from Cap Gemini/Merrill Lynch, the number of millionaires (in US Dollars) in China have reached more than 230,000. The large majority of these new riches choose Shanghai to invest their money and also spend their money. And these new riches can by quite demanding consumers: Yang Qingshan — secretary-general of the Chinese Strategy and Branding Association — says that more and more Chinese people invest in luxury items, such as cars, watches, designer clothes, accessories and cosmetics.

Seeking to target such people, new businesses that will recently were unthinkable in the “Empire of the Center”: the Millionaire’s Fair — event organized by the Millionaire Magazine, held for the first time in 2001 em Amsterdam — since then showcased products in countries such as France, Belgium and Holland, was hosted for the first time in an Asian country this year, in Shanghai.

Despite of the poor infrastructure, the e-commerce is also flourishing in China, fueled by so many wealthy clients: the number of online business in China surpasses 20 million.

Several luxury brands from all over the world have been attracted by these consumers: Dior, after opening several stores in china which sells over 11 million Yuan an year — something around 1.3 million dollars–, recently opened a Dior Center in Shanghai, the third in the world after Paris and Tokyo, hoping to reach 15 million Yuan in annual revenues.

The luxury automobile industry was to first to acknowledge such market potential, and for years have been harvesting fruits of their investment in Asia: 3 of 4 most expensive units manufactured by Bentley last year, each one costing more than 8 million Yuan — something around 1 million dollars, were bought by Chinese millionaires; 15% of all the limousines manufactured by Rolls-Royce had Asia has their buyers.

Despite of such explosion of consumption, the ordinary joe in China still keeps his money under the mattress: the Chinese National Savings is over 9 trillion Yuan– a little over 1 trillion dollars, representing 45% of the Chinese Gross National Product (GNP). As a comparison, Brazilian National Savings — also an emerging economy, goes around 25% of the Brazilian GNP. The rate of consumption over the Chinese GNP doesn’t go over 50%, much lower the the overall world average of 80%.

Nevertheless, the Chinese Central Government doesn’t want their comrades to stray away and recently created a system to overtax luxury items, trying to discourage spending and promote socialist values.

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