- Family Support
- Socially Networked
Flaws:
- Impractical Dresser
- Easily Intoxicated
- Profiled Appearance
Background:
Li Xiang is the firstborn child and daughter of Li Chenzhen, Chief Executive Officer of Chinese semiconductor producer SinoCon, and Li Baolin, Founder of the Li Dai Foundation, a nonprofit charity organization. Her birth was interpreted as both auspicious and ominous. Auspiciously, her birthday fell on the start of the year's Spring Festival and the new Year of the Dog cycle. Ominously, her family's first child was a daughter, fulfilling an ill omen recanted to Li Baolin about the cursed future of her lineage and proving to be no small matter of disappointment to a culture favoring sons. Whether that tainted her upbringing or her parents' treatment of her are dark secrets known to her mother and father, but what is objective is that Xiang was groomed from the start to be a representative and potential heiress of the Li family legacy, and her mother was the architect.
From a young age, Xiang was passed between governesses, educational tutors, and ballet instructors while her wealthy parents brushed elbows with the global elite. She wanted for nothing: a wardrobe full of designer brands, vacations in the Maldives and other tropical locations, and exposure to the culture of the world through trips to the Olympics, tickets to the opera, and fashion shows in Milan. From galas to sports games, Xiang's daily life was dictated by itinerary. In the education arena, she was set on the path of business management, with her parents resigned to the fact that it might be Xiang taking over the business from her father one day. That notion was absolved by the birth of her brother, and while Xiang was still a member of the Li family treated to their ostentatious wealth, it became quickly apparent to her that the arrival of her brother had changed everything.
Her title of heiress apparent removed, Xiang's mother pivoted to a new path for her daughter: a pawn in the chess game of strengthening the Li Dynasty through marriage connections. Seeking to escape her mother's attempts at trading her off to the first suitable arrangement she could find, Xiang decided to pursue education in the United States, and secured a visa to attend the University of California Los Angeles, with her eyes set on UCLA Anderson School of Management. Accepting the fact that she would be cut off from her personal accounts as punishment, Xiang was nonetheless allowed to leave for the United States under the premise that her completion of a Masters or Doctorate in Business Administration would only enrich her usefulness as a board piece in the Matriarch's designs.
She was far more valuable if her mother could pawn her off to some old magnate, who she could then take over the business from and bring it under the Li family's umbrella. Thus began Xiang's life in Los Angeles, California.
