Rachel DeWoskin meets the Prada-clad ‘second wives’ aiming to get rich before they hit 30

Everyone who has ever lived in China knows the expression for “second wife”. And most people know at least one ernai personally. Ernai are a modern version of concubines, as common as colds. They are women kept in luxury apartments and goods by married lovers – mostly overseas businessmen and officials but, increasingly, by men at every level of society. The most successful kept women represent entrepreneurs of a sort, floating in a sink-or-swim economy and providing enticing models for what the new China can offer: genuine Prada stilettos, diamonds, iPods and sprawling villas. They work out in the swankiest health clubs, drive Minis, BMWs and Audis, and carry lapdogs in Gucci handbags.

The few ernai I know are all raging alcoholics (who faithfully attend their yoga classes).

- Thanks to my friend Sarah for pointing me to this article -