Over the past few weeks, China has witnessed two very different conversations about its stock market. Government officials have been full of warnings about potential bubbles and the risks of buying equities. Yet ordinary Chinese have been flooding into the market as part of an unprecedented wave of retail optimism.

So far, it is the retail investors who have been proved right. In the run-up to the week-long May holiday starting on Tuesday, the market has surged ahead and is now up 44 per cent so far this year – on top of a 130 per cent increase in 2006.