在首都的深院高牆中度過了嬌貴的童年以後，他被送往英國讀書，在那里他培養出的名聲是：對學術上的事漠不關心，而對馬術、探戈、歐洲跑車和坐頭等艙旅行情有獨鍾。

薄瓜瓜聲色犬馬的生活，近年來一直是中國社交媒體上的一個主題，這也成了他正面臨腐敗和濫權指控的父親——薄熙來——的另一個負擔。而他的母親谷開來，也被控謀殺一名與薄公子過從甚密的英國商人。

雖然共產黨內部人士表示，是薄熙來在重慶的民粹統治最終導致了他的垮臺，但薄瓜瓜的高級生活顯然也惹惱了黨的領導人們。這位24歲的哈佛學生，在描述其父親倒臺原因的官方聲明中被指名道姓。

一位與黨有聯結的前政府人員說，領導層是能夠容忍高級官員及其親屬某種程度的腐敗行為的，只要保持在公眾視野之外。他說，薄瓜瓜在學校的荒唐行徑在網絡中氾濫成災，成了這個經常忽視黨保守的公共行為準則，而且富有野心、自負獨斷的家庭的象徵。

由此導致的聒噪還不識時務地把注意力引到了所謂的太子党身上，他們經常把自己的血統當作撬動經濟收益的杠杆。但他們似乎一般會避免引起公眾注意，以防有損黨犧牲自我、艱苦樸素的形象。

“如果你謹慎一點，他們就睜隻眼閉隻眼，”這位前政府人員說，“但瓜瓜的行為對於這些標準來說是過分了，在牛津的圍欄上撒尿、跟外國女孩親嘴——這些都在中國影響很不好。”

薄瓜瓜還與尼爾·伍德過從甚密，後者去年11月在重慶的一家賓館里神秘死亡，這看來引發了共產黨數十年來最大的政治動盪。

據報導，尼爾·伍德曾輔導薄瓜瓜，并之後助他空降貴族學校北倫敦哈羅公學。他們二人近幾年關係密切到何種程度不得而知，但中國的國家媒體指出，他們有著共同的經濟利益，而一個“衝突”導致了薄瓜瓜的母親下了謀殺令。

薄瓜瓜的父母仍在拘禁中，他發現這個曾為自己服務周到的姓氏如今成了重擔。考慮到持續的腐敗調查可能會牽連到他，薄瓜瓜在可見的將來不太可能重返中國。

“我認為他現有的選項看來都相當糟糕。”中國問題專家Roderick MacFarquhar說，他曾寫作過那些點綴著當代中國歷史的清洗事件。

薄瓜瓜的生活細節異乎尋常地公開，他在中國的一個談話節目中現身談論他的家庭，並且允許別人拍攝他在派對中敞著胸摟著年輕女孩的照片。

在被拍到由大隊警衛尾隨著同遊西藏后，薄瓜瓜與另一位共產黨先驅的孫女，陳曉丹，的一段短暫的戀情也成了輿論的素材。

薄瓜瓜的知名度與其他革命後代的生活相比顯得格格不入，習明澤——預定為中國下任最高領導人的習近平的女兒——也就讀于哈佛，但使用的是假名，而且沒有FACEBOOK帳號。

上個月，就在丟掉他重慶市委書記職位的數天以前，薄熙來被迫回應，以他微薄的政府工資，如何負擔得起他兒子的學費和昂貴的嗜好。雖然他并沒有詳細澄清這項指控，但薄熙來稱這個指控是“一派胡言”，並且堅持說薄瓜瓜獲得了全額獎學金，。“有不少人給重慶潑髒水，包括給我本人、給家庭潑髒水，”他對記者們說，“他們甚至說到我兒子在外面學習還開紅色法拉利。”

但薄瓜瓜確實在國外學習，而且據美國辦公人員說，去年他曾開著一輛紅色法拉利來接美國駐中國大使的女兒去約會。薄瓜瓜在哈佛的同學則說，他們見過他開著保時捷在校園里穿行。

薄瓜瓜最近待在了公眾視野之外，他改掉了自己facebook帳號，使其私人化了許多；上周步出他在馬薩諸塞州劍橋市的公寓時，他拒絕回答問題。那些認識他的人說，他在應付著父母的問題的同時正在準備期末考試。

在採訪中，許多他的朋友拒絕為薄瓜瓜是個花花公子還是個窮學生下定義，但在他們的描述里薄瓜瓜是極其大方的。他們說，薄瓜瓜會迅速地付掉酒吧的帳單，還隨意地贈送2008北京奧運的門票。“他對中國和中國人的關心是真實而且根深蒂固的。”一位薄瓜瓜在中國的朋友說道，他在薄瓜瓜常回家的那段時間里陪著他，“他是個大思想家，他喝醉的時候會講到很多重要的事。”

很大程度上，薄瓜瓜的性格是在英國的那段日子里成型的。12歲那年他到了英國，卻沒能進入哈羅公學，當時這所寄宿學校一年的學費是45000美元。儘管2009年薄瓜瓜曾對一本中國雜誌說，他為哈羅公學的入學考試準備了整整一年，但作為一名老哈羅學生的尼爾·伍德則告訴朋友說，他動用了自己的影響力把薄瓜瓜空降到學校里。

薄瓜瓜是這所有著500年歷史的學校的第一位中國學生，而且從大多數方面看來，他是耀眼的。他學起了擊劍，成了馬術俱樂部的主席，還養成了得體的英式禮儀。

在2006年，他進入了牛津貝利奧爾學院。這所學院以其草坪上笨重的綠毛龜和傑出的校友聞名，其中包括奧爾德斯·赫胥黎、亞當·斯密和赫伯特·阿斯奎斯，這位英國首相曾描述貝利奧爾人為“平靜的氣質中流露出一種毫不費力的優越感。”

牛津的管理者們否定了薄熙來作為一顆冉冉上升的政治明星的身份與他的兒子的錄取有某種關聯的設想。“那種東西就是不曾發生，”牛津的發言長Ruth Collie說，“如果這位年輕人在貝利奧爾贏得了一席之地，那麼他必定憑藉的是自身的價值。”

薄瓜瓜攻讀一個涵蓋政治、哲學和經濟學的學位，而他更廣為人知的形象是：一位中國版的紳士，並且作為英國十大傑出中國青年之一獲得了大本鐘獎。

據他在牛津時的朋友所說，薄瓜瓜因其“專業社交”而出名，其中包括為牛津最重要的辯論協會牛津聯盟舉辦了“絲綢之路”舞會。薄瓜瓜動用其廣闊的人脈安排到了演員成龍的一次露面，還獲得了遼寧省的一家小巴製造商的贊助，薄父曾擔任遼寧省省長。

在大二那年，他也顯示出一些其父的政治幹勁，他參與競選牛津聯盟的圖書館館長，這是一個相當於副主席的職位。那可是全力以赴，他的朋友說。薄瓜瓜打破了低調政治競選的傳統，他在學校周圍的Cornmarket Street步道上拉票，據數位牛津學生說，薄瓜瓜還搞了一些特色，他要求中國學生們加入協會，這樣他們就可以投票給他。然而這次競選并沒有成功。

在善於舉辦讓人印象深刻的派對的同時，薄瓜瓜在課業上遇到了麻煩。數個學生說到，在協會競選之後，薄瓜瓜的教授們強制他接受一套被稱為“密集懲罰”的考試，他沒能通過，因此被停學一年。由於不得使用學校的設置，薄瓜瓜搬進了倫道伕酒店，這是一座維多利亞時代的哥特式建築。他在那裡繼續舉辦他的派對，雖然有一位朋友說這些派對已經節制多了。

薄家對此感到不悅。據報導，他們動用各種關係送來了一群使者，其中包括中國大使，去為薄瓜瓜的事向貝利奧爾的院長求情。一位教員稱，根據他們的解釋，這項驅逐令會令其家庭十分尷尬。

儘管他們的要求被拒絕了，但薄瓜瓜被允許一年後再參加期末考試，這次他以值得尊重分數通過了。“相當出人意料。”一名教授說。然而，薄瓜瓜的導師們仍然沒有被打動，他們甚至拒絕為他申請哈佛寫推薦信。

但薄瓜瓜還是被哈佛肯尼迪政府學院接納了，在那裡一年的學費和生活費可以花掉90000美元。學院管理者們沒有透露有關獎學金的信息，也不願意評價薄瓜瓜的家庭關係是否在錄取中扮演了一定角色。但一位發言人稱學院會將一位申請者的“整體分析”納入考慮，權衡例如領導潛質和公共服務貢獻等因素。

儘管有一位同班同學說薄瓜瓜在學習上漫不經心，但其他人都認為他對學業變得認真了許多。去年，薄瓜瓜曾協助組織肯尼迪學院的學生赴中國考察，考察的地點也包括重慶。“把所有傳言都放在一邊，僅從我跟他的交往來說，他是個聰明孩子。”一位教授說，“他看起來是個英國公學的典型產品，聰明、固執而且自信。”

除了時不時地好大喜功，薄瓜瓜的朋友們說他敏銳地知道，在中國，閃閃發光的家姓是福也是禍。他的爺爺薄一波是一位革命英雄，但這沒能保護他和他的許多家人免於清洗所帶來的牢獄之災。“我從未見過我的奶奶，因為她在文化大革命中被迫害致死。”薄瓜瓜在2009年在北大的一場演講中說道。

在同年接受的一家中國國營報紙《青年週末》的採訪中，薄瓜瓜反映了另一個他的家系所帶來的困擾：“做好了，自然有我的努力；做错了，那就‘好汉做事好汉当’，我也不希望扯到父母身上。 ”他說，“尽管我深知父亲是个好人，但也绝不愿在他的影子下生活。 ”

Son’s Parties and Privilege Aggravate Fall of Elite Chinese Family

After a pampered childhood in the walled compounds of the Chinese capital, he was sent off for schooling in England, where he developed a reputation as an academically indifferent bon vivant with a weakness for European sports cars, first-class air travel, equestrian sports and the tango.

Mr. Bo’s flamboyance, a staple of social-media gossip in China in recent years, became another liability for his father, Bo Xilai, who faces charges of corruption and abuse of power, and his mother, Gu Kailai, accused of murdering a British businessman who was also close to the young Mr. Bo.

Although Communist Party insiders say it was Bo Xilai’s populist reign in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing that ultimately brought him down, Bo Guagua’s high living clearly irritated party leaders, who named the son, a 24-year-old student at Harvard, in the official statement describing the reasons for his father’s fall from power.

One former government employee with party ties said the leadership tolerated a certain level of corruption among top officials or their relatives as long as it was kept out of public view. He said Mr. Bo’s collegiate antics, splashed across the Internet, were emblematic of an ambitious, cocksure family who often ignored the party’s conservative standards of public behavior.

The resulting buzz also drew unwanted attention to other so-called princelings, who often leverage their bloodline for financial gain but generally seek to avoid publicity lest it damage the party’s image of self-sacrifice and asceticism.

“If you’re discreet, they look the other way,” the former government employee said. “But Guagua’s behavior was striking by the standards; urinating against a fence at Oxford, kissing foreign girls — it all goes down bad in China.”

Mr. Bo is also tied to Neil Heywood, whose mysterious death in a Chongqing hotel room last November appears to have led to the Communist Party’s biggest political upheaval in decades.

Mr. Heywood reportedly mentored the adolescent Mr. Bo and later helped him land a spot at the elite Harrow School in North London. It is unclear how close the two were in recent years, but China’s state media have suggested that there were shared business interests and a “conflict” that led his mother to commit murder.

As his parents remain in detention, Mr. Bo is finding that the family name that served him so well has become something of a millstone. Given the continuing corruption investigation that could implicate him, he is unlikely to return to China anytime soon.

“I think the options for him look pretty bad,” said Roderick MacFarquhar, a China expert at Harvard who has written about the purges that dot contemporary Chinese history.

The details of Mr. Bo’s life were remarkably public. He appeared on a Chinese talk show to discuss his family and allowed himself to be photographed partying bare-chested and with young women.

A short-lived relationship with Chen Xiaodan, the granddaughter of another Communist Party pioneer, became fodder for the public after the pair was photographed vacationing in Tibet, trailed by a sizable police escort.

His celebrity stood in marked contrast to the lives of other descendants of revolutionaries. Xi Mingze — the daughter of Xi Jinping, presumed to be China’s next top leader — also attends Harvard, but under an assumed name, and she does not have a Facebook account.

Last month, a few days before he lost his job as party chief of Chongqing, Bo Xilai was forced to respond to questions about how his modest government salary could support his son’s tuition and expensive tastes. He called the accusations “sheer rubbish,” and insisted that Mr. Bo had won full scholarships, although he did not address the allegations in detail. “A few people have been pouring filth on Chongqing and me and my family,” he told reporters. “They even say my son studies abroad and drives a red Ferrari.”

But Mr. Bo does study abroad, and American officials say he arrived in a red Ferrari last year to pick up the American ambassador to China’s daughter for a date. Classmates at Harvard say they have seen him driving around in a Porsche.

Mr. Bo has lately been staying out of public view, having changed his Facebook account to make it much more private, and he declined to answer questions last week as he left his apartment in Cambridge, Mass. Those who know him say he has been studying for final exams while coping with his parents’ troubles.

In interviews, many of his friends rejected the notion that he was a playboy or a poor student, and they described him as exceedingly generous. He is quick to pick up a bar tab, they said, and he liberally handed out tickets for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “His concern for China and its people is deep-rooted and real,” said one friend in China who spends time with him during his frequent visits home. “He’s a big thinker. When he gets drunk, he talks about important things.”

Mr. Bo was largely shaped by his years in Britain. When he arrived, at age 12, he failed to get into Harrow, a boarding school with $45,000 annual tuition at the time. Although he told a Chinese magazine in 2009 that he spent a year studying for the Harrow entrance exam, Mr. Heywood, an old Harrovian, told friends he used his influence to land Mr. Bo a place at the school.

Mr. Bo became the first Chinese citizen at the 500-year-old institution, and by most accounts, he flourished. He took up fencing, became president of the equestrian club and developed proper English manners.

In 2006, he arrived at Oxford’s Balliol College, known for its lumbering lawn tortoises and its illustrious alumni, including Aldous Huxley, Adam Smith and Herbert Asquith, a British prime minister who once described Balliol men as having “the tranquil consciousness of an effortless superiority.”

Oxford administrators dismissed the idea that Bo Xilai’s stature as a rising political star played any role in his son’s admission. “That kind of stuff just doesn’t happen,” said Ruth Collier, Oxford’s head of information. “If this young man won a place at Balliol, he got in on his merits.”

Mr. Bo pursued a degree in politics, philosophy and economics, and embraced a more public profile, appearing in the Chinese version of Esquire and earning the Big Ben Award as one of the top 10 young Chinese in Britain.

According to a friend from his Oxford days, Mr. Bo became known for his “professional socializing,” which included organizing a Silk Road ball for the Oxford Union, the university’s premier debating society. Mr. Bo tapped into his extensive connections by arranging an appearance by the actor Jackie Chan and financial sponsorship from a minibus manufacturer in Liaoning Province, where his father had served as governor.

He also demonstrated some of his father’s political drive when, in his second year, he ran for union librarian, a post equivalent to vice president. It was an all-consuming effort, friends say, and Mr. Bo broke with the tradition of low-key politicking by actively canvassing for votes on Cornmarket Street, a pedestrian boulevard in an area surrounded by Oxford colleges. He also ruffled some feathers, according to several Oxford students, by asking Chinese students to join the union so they could vote for him. The campaign was unsuccessful.

While adept at throwing memorable parties, Mr. Bo was struggling with his coursework. After the union campaign, his professors forced him to take a set of exams known as “penal collections.” He failed, several students said, and was suspended for a year. Barred from using campus facilities, he moved into the Randolph, a Victorian Gothic hotel where he continued to hold parties, though a friend said they were more subdued.

His family was not pleased. Using their connections, they reportedly sent a group of emissaries, including the Chinese ambassador, to plead Mr. Bo’s case to the master of Balliol, one faculty member said. Expulsion, it was explained, would cause his family grave embarrassment.

Although the request was denied, Mr. Bo was allowed to take his final exams a year later and passed with respectable marks, “much to people’s surprise,” one professor said. Mr. Bo’s tutors remained unimpressed and refused to write him recommendations for his application to Harvard.

But Mr. Bo was admitted to the John F. Kennedy School of Government, where tuition and living expenses can cost $90,000 a year. Administrators do not disclose information on scholarships and would not comment on whether Mr. Bo’s family connections played a role in his admission. But a spokesman said the school considers a “holistic” approach to applicants, weighing factors like leadership potential and a commitment to public service.

Although one classmate described Mr. Bo as academically lackadaisical, others suggested that he had become more serious about his studies. Last year, he helped organize a China trip for Kennedy School students that included a visit to Chongqing. “From my interactions with him, leaving aside all the gossip, he is a smart lad,” one professor said. “He seems to be a typical British public school product: smart, headstrong and self-confident.”

Despite the flashes of bravado, friends say that Mr. Bo is acutely aware that in China, the benefits of an illustrious family name can also be a detriment. His grandfather Bo Yibo was a revolutionary hero, but that did not shield him from the purges that sent him and much of his family to jail. “I have never met my grandmother because she was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution,” he said in a speech at Peking University in 2009.

In a interview that year with Youth Weekend, a state-run Chinese newspaper, he reflected on the other challenges of his pedigree. “When I do well, it is naturally through my own efforts. When I do wrong, I should bear the consequences and do not want the blame to fall on my parents,” he said. “Although I am fully aware that my father is a good man, I do not wish to live under his shadow.”