Beijing targets 'creatives' as it aims to promote low-paid university graduates to start-up chief executives

Quitting her job as a receptionist, joining rock bands and chancing her tattoo-sleeved arm at small business ventures would once have branded university graduate Ding Jia as a rebel in China.

Now she can claim state endorsement as a “creative”.

“I haven’t had a formal job in years,” said Ding, 31, sitting in her tiny coffee-and-cocktails bar, D+ Café, on a trendy Shanghai street.

She has no regrets, but no illusions either. “Entrepreneurship can be a really hard experience,” she said. “Profits can be so thin.”

In the week she spoke to Reuters, she and dozens of nearby businesses were forced to close temporarily by city officials on a regular sortie to enforce regulations.

While most parents might warn their children off high-risk, low-reward self-employment – preferring jobs in government or state-owned enterprises – Ding said her Shanghai nurse mother and taxi driver father were both supportive.

That attitude finds an echo in high places; recent graduates who start their own businesses are being hailed in state media as a new creative class that will build China’s Silicon Valley.