In March 2018, during the annual session of the national legislature, Xinhua reported the words of a member of the national political advisory body. “The ‘shop boy’ spirit is a new requirement put forward by Shanghai,” he said. It asks for a stronger sense of service, “to be good ‘shop boys’ serving enterprises, to respond to every request and not to disturb them otherwise.”
The dianxiao’er, the shop boy, is the old word for an attendant in an inn or a tavern.