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SCMP Reporter

The conventional view is the Shanghainese are shrewd, smart and business-savvy. Unlike Beijing residents whose obsession is politics, Shanghainese are more interested in making money and constantly on the look out for business opportunities.

 Shanghainese themselves are the first to admit their idol is Mammon, not religion or the art of government.

 'In Beijing, even taxi drivers talk about politics; we don't care much about that; we just want to make more money,' a Shanghainese taxi driver said.

 Indeed, it has been widely accepted that Hong Kong is what it is today partly because of the influx of talented Shanghainese, particularly capitalists, running away from the communist takeover 50 years ago.

 It was indisputably the national magnet for the enterprising and adventurous seeking fame and fortune in the pre-1949 mercantile era.

 Yet, curiously for all their obsession with money-making, Shanghai today produces few entrepreneurs of national or world renown.

 Take, for example, the Internet industry.

 You are hard put to come up with a Shanghainese who has made headlines in the rapidly expanding sector.

 Yes, there is stockstar.com, but it was set up by Fudan University graduate Gao Liming with the help of Shanghai Posts and Telecommunication.

 If you have to single out hugely popular Web sites set up wholly by the private sector, then those by entrepreneurs linked to Beijing's Silicon Valley, Zhongguancun, spring to mind.

 And the top names? Sina.

com, Sohu.com and Sparkice.

com.

 Sina.com's chief executive and co-founder is Wang Zhidong, 31, who graduated from Peking University.

  Sohu.com's founder is Charles Zhang Chaoyang, a graduate of Tsinghua University, which is often touted the mainland's Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sohu.com is the first big Chinese-language search engine. Sparkice's sole founder is Edward Zeng Qiang, also a Tsinghua graduate.

 Sina.com and Sohu.com are finalising plans to list on Nasdaq which, if successful, will make them the first truly mainland-controlled Internet companies to go public in the United States.

 Look at the older technology industries, and again the well-established companies are not from Shanghai. There is Qingdao-based electrical group Hai'er, Sichuan-based TV giant Changhong, Beijing-based software group Founder and the Shenzhen-based Konka group.

 In Shanghai, you have Shanghai Industrial Holdings, Shanghai Automobile Industry, but behind them lies the strong hand of the government.

 Take a step back into the pre-communist era and you will be surprised to learn that the successful capitalists were mostly residents from neighbouring cities who flocked to Shanghai.

 In the 1920s, mainland finance was dominated by Ningpo people, the leading representative being Liu Hongsheng.

 In retail, the Cantonese, especially the Kwok founders of Wing On group, were key players.

 In textile, the Wuxi ancestors of Citic Pacific's boss Larry Yung played an instrumental role.

 Because they were stars in their respective fields, Shanghai soon claimed them to be sons of the land, although the native Shanghainese were mainly farmers in Pudong.

 Still, why have Shanghainese fared badly in producing entrepreneurs in recent years?  Analysts attribute this to too much government interference in industry after the communist takeover. The poor showing is not surprising since Shanghai was the heartland of the centrally-planned economy, cramping the entrepreneurial instincts of its people.



Dead hand of state stifles city's natural business wit