Chinese initial public offerings, like 17th-century Dutch tulips or dotcom stocks at the start of this decade, are the stuff of bubbles. The modern history of Chinese capitalism is filled with images of retail punters queuing around the block to subscribe to shares – or, at the Shenzhen stock exchange in the early 1990s, even being kept in line with cattle prods. But subsequent one-day pops that accorded companies with sketchy business strategies three-digit price/earnings multiples were, by definition, good-time phenomena. When the market faltered, regulators pulled down the shutters on new issues.
如同17世紀時荷蘭的鬱金香、或本世紀初的網路股一樣，中國的首次公開發行(IPO)市場充滿了泡沫。中國資本主義近代史上，充斥著散戶投機者在街頭排隊認購股票的情景——在上世紀90年代初的深圳證券交易所，甚至用趕牲口的棒子來維持排隊秩序。但顯然，隨之而來的新股一日秀只是虛弱的繁榮——即便戰略模糊不清的公司也能有高達三位數的本益比。而當市場步履踉蹌時，監管機構就關閉了新股發行的大門。
