Interview: Charlie Awdry, Gartmore

But he admits his Mandarin is still limited to the formalities.

“I speak enough to start a meeting off,” he says. “I’ll start by saying ‘niha’ – hello – and then they’ll start throwing Mandarin at me and I have to say ‘sorry, that’s as far as I go!’ We use translators and we’ve got a Mandarin speaker on the team. When I go to China I’ll use people I trust – people who translate for me and will tell me all the other pieces of conversation that went on after the meeting.”

One cultural skill he has learnt, however, is to drink his tea without milk. Now, sipping a cup of Earl Grey, he calls this “one of the most tangible benefits of going to China”. But his abstinence is tinged with irony, as he is taking a significant bet on China’s increasing milk consumption: China Mengnui Dairy company is one of his top 10 positions. He says the Chinese never used to consume dairy products, but that clever marketing has created demand.

“The company’s from Mongolia, so what they do is say that this milk is from a natural healthy source. Mongolia isn’t a dirty polluted city – it’s green countryside,” he explains.

China Mengnui Dairy is one of many consumer plays in Mr Awdry’s fund. He says commentators on the Chinese economic miracle always notice the rise in income levels because it is easy to see in a chart. But they sometimes miss complementary social trends like urbanisation – which is responsible for the dairy’s success – or the impact of the one-child policy. The manager believes this demographic anomaly has had a particularly profound impact on consumption patterns.

“You’ve got a whole load of 30-year olds and under who are only children. Not just that, they’re only children at a time when incomes are rising. Their parents have spent huge amounts on their education and healthcare: they’ve been treated like royalty!” he says, confiding that he, as an only child, is speaking from experience.

“One way to think of them is as spoilt spenders. They’re going to be much happier spending money and treating themselves than their parents were,” he adds.

It is hard to argue with the sheer numbers involved in the Chinese domestic growth story. This is one reason why some industry commentators have warned of an emerging bubble in Chinese assets, buoyed up by record foreign investment and ultra-low interest rates, as the authorities try to keep the renminbi pegged to the dollar. Is this a concern in the Gartmore emerging markets team, I wonder?

"If anyone thinks China is a one-way bet, that is hype," he says. "But when I look at the market, it’s not euphoric. It’s well-stimulated, but there are still plenty of things to look at."