Robert Xu took a hammer to his laptop three years ago and a few months later was bashing a data server like a pi?ata. As foibles go, his are not typical of a chief executive — least of all one based in Shenzhen, the one time fishing village bordering Hong Kong that is better known for its mass manufacturing of laptops and other gadgets.

Yet his antics, which may not be out of place among the eccentric tech entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley, provide a vivid illustration of Kingdee’s own ascent up the value chain, and to an extent the evolution of China’s technology sector.

Founded in 1993, Kingdee is one of a breed of Chinese companies that — at least in their home market — are producing innovative technology instead of importing know-how from the West. Social platform Tencent combines features of Facebook and WhatsApp, for example, while Alibaba is China’s version of Amazon.