The term was coined in the early 20th century, referring to the son of Yuan Shikai (a self-declared emperor) and his cronies. It was later used to describe the relatives of the top four nationalist families; Chiang Kai-shek's kin, Soong Mei-ling's kin, Chen Lifu's kin, and Kong Xiangxi's kin. After the 1950s, the term was used to describe Chiang Ching-kuo, son of Chiang Kai-shek, and his friends in Taiwan. Today's princelings include the children of the Eight Elders and other recent senior national and provincial leaders. Opportunities are available to princelings that are not available to common people. Using their powerful connections they have the opportunity to obtain profitable opportunities for themselves and for others. The more aggressive of the princelings have amassed fortunes of hundreds of millions of dollars. In late 2015 and early 2016 the term "Zhao family" from Lu Xun’s novella "The True Story of Ah Q", went viral in China after it was used in an anonymous article “Barbarians at the Gate, Zhao Family Inside” to allude to princelings involvement in a business dispute.