The first impression made by Shen Feiyu, the founder of Shanghai's first chain of trendy motels, is a kind of feline hyper-alertness, the type one associates with images of predatory big cats stalking the savannah.
Tall and lean, he also exhibits the almost dandyish attention to fashion characteristic of Shanghainese men, wearing a well-cut camel coloured leather coat over a jersey top, and sporting a swept-over, bouffant hair style.
Yet this aura of leadership and charisma is slightly misleading, since Shen is insistent on keeping the interview low profile, refusing to have his photo taken for this article, and stating that he normally refuses all interviews with...