In 1992, when Shanghainese investors, regulators and the press discussed the market, when they attempted to figure out the reasons for its ups and downs, when they tried to make sense of the kinds of people playing it, they did so in terms of three large categories of actor: “big players,” “scattered players” and “the State.” In this and the following chapters, we analyze these imagined collective actors, asking what is particular about each in relation to the market. We begin where the Shanghainese begin, with the most novel of the three.

The dahu: larger than life

Over the past few years, Shanghai society has been disrupted and enlivened by the advent of a new phenomenon: the dahu. A dahu – translated in the Western press as “big player” – is a category of person, a social stereotype, an ideal type. Much like the US “Yuppie” of the 1980s, the dahu has come into being to give expression to the discomfort surrounding the dramatic new possibilities for making money in contemporary Shanghai.

Like the Yuppie, the dahu is an ambivalent character, both despised and admired. However, while few young urban professionals in America today voluntarily describe themselves as Yuppies, many Shanghainese strive to accede to the status of a dahu. But, what is the status of a dahu? At its origins, this term designates a “rich or influential family.”