Shenzhen is entertainingly compact with Guy Delisle’s observations of life in urban southern China, sealed off from the rest of the country by electric fences and armed guards. With a dry wit and a clean line, Delisle makes the most of his time spent in Asia overseeing outsourced production for a French animation company. By translating his fish-out-of-water experiences into accessible graphic novels, Delisle skillfully notes the differences between Western and Eastern cultures, while also conveying his compassion for the simple freedoms that escape his colleagues in the Communist state. Shenzhen has been translated from the French by Helge Dascher. Dascher has been translating graphic novels from French and German to English for over twenty years. A contributor to Drawn & Quarterly since the early days, her translations include acclaimed titles such as the Aya series by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie, Hostage by Guy Delisle, and Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët. With a background in art history and history, she also translates books and exhibitions for museums in North America and Europe. She lives in Montreal.

This multidisciplinary volume, the first of its kind, presents an account of China’s contemporary transformation via one of its most important yet overlooked cities: Shenzhen, located just north of Hong Kong. In recent decades, Shenzhen has transformed from an experimental site for economic reform into a dominant city at the crossroads of the global economy. The first of China’s special economic zones, Shenzhen is today a UNESCO City of Design and the hub of China’s emerging technology industries. Bringing China studies into dialogue with urban studies, the contributors explore how the post-Mao Chinese appropriation of capitalist logic led to a dramatic remodeling of the Chinese city and collective life in China today. These essays show how urban villages and informal institutions enabled social transformation through cases of public health, labor, architecture, gender, politics, education, and more. Offering scholars and general readers alike an unprecedented look at one of the world’s most dynamic metropolises, this collective history uses the urban case study to explore critical problems and possibilities relevant for modern-day China and beyond.

The Shenzhen Phenomenon is a comprehensive and systematic study about how Shenzhen, the world’s fastest growing city, has developed into an international metropolis from scratch within 40 years. It unravels the decision and policy making, planning, design, and development processes that have enabled the city’s rapid growth, and associated problems and paradoxes. It also reveals the politics and power that have propelled this experimental city to spearhead Deng Xiaoping’s ‘reform and opening-up’ agenda, which has made the city and remade the nation. This book demystifies several long-held misperceptions through identifying Shenzhen’s rise as an opportunity deriving from a crisis, as a product of both grassroots ingenuity and top vision, and as both a planned city and an unplanned city. Produced on the 40th anniversary of Shenzhen, this timely volume not only offers a comprehensive and systematic chronicle of the city, but also opens a window to understand China’s new city making and urbanisation. It will be of interest to academics, students and practitioners in the field of urban and Chinese studies, as well as urban planning and design.

An award-winning Hong Kong–based architect with decades of experience designing buildings and planning cities in the People’s Republic of China takes us to the Pearl River delta and into the heart of China’s iconic Special Economic Zone, Shenzhen. Shenzhen is ground zero for the economic transformation China has seen in recent decades. In 1979, driven by China’s widespread poverty, Deng Xiaoping supported a bold proposal to experiment with economic policies in a rural borderland next to Hong Kong. The site was designated as the City of Shenzhen and soon after became China’s first Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Four decades later, Shenzhen is a megacity of twenty million, an internationally recognized digital technology hub, and the world’s most successful economic zone. Some see it as a modern miracle city that seemingly came from nowhere, attributing its success solely to centralized planning and Shenzhen’s proximity to Hong Kong. The Chinese government has built hundreds of new towns using the Shenzhen model, yet none has come close to replicating the city’s level of economic success. But is it true that Shenzhen has no meaningful history? That the city was planned on a tabula rasa? That the region’s rural past has had no significant impact on the urban present? Juan Du unravels the myth of Shenzhen and shows us how this world-famous “instant city” has a surprising history—filled with oyster fishermen, villages that remain encased within city blocks, a secret informal housing system—and how it has been catapulted to success as much by the ingenuity of its original farmers as by Beijing’s policy makers. The Shenzhen Experiment is an important story for all rapidly urbanizing and industrializing nations around the world seeking to replicate China’s economic success in the twenty-first century.

The economic heart of South China, the Pearl River Delta is both agriculturally and financially fertile and is one of the most developed parts of China. Intensely cultivated land is interspersed with some of China's newest and fastest-growing cities, which are linked by some of the country's best and most integrated transport services. The Delta's location makes it a popular trip from Hong Kong and a major gateway to enter China itself. Foremost among the Delta's gang of youthful upstart cities is Shenzhen, which was the first of China's Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and has grown from nothing to challenge the traditional heart of the region, Guangzhou, in less than 30 years. While Shenzhen has little in the way of historic sights, it offers shopping, skyscrapers and theme parks along with some insight as to what China's future looks like. Seventy miles to the north, Guangzhou has a longer history, but is also reaping the economic whirlwind. It's definitely worth a quick stop for its blend of Cantonese cuisine, markets, colonial relics and the gritty taste of a real Chinese city. With a population of seven million and long known in the West as Canton, modern Guangzhou provides many visitors with their first glimpse of a mainland Chinese city. Frenetically busy, polluted and steamily hot in summer, Guangzhou's conventional sights are comparatively sparse, but the city is renowned worldwide for its cooking and is worth visiting on these grounds alone. Before Hong Kong rose to prominence, Guangzhou was one of China's primary trading posts and as a result it has a wide ethnic diversity, including a large Hui (Muslim) population, and a smattering of colonial architecture, much of which is found on charming Shamian Island. Guangzhou is at the heart of the south's economic revolution. Although it is still undoubtedly a polluted city, attention is being paid to the environment, albeit often only in the most aesthetic sense. Every time I visit I notice new areas of greenery and the city is becoming more and more visitor-friendly. There is an ever-expanding subway network, a new airport and improved links with other Pearl River Delta destinations. There are also a host of sights to visit within a two-hour transport radius of Guangzhou and the city makes a good base from which to explore smaller towns such as Huizhou and Zhaoqing. This guide is based on our 640-page China Adventure Guide. Following are some reviews of that book: "We travel to grow â€" Adventure Guides show you how. Experience the places you visit more directly, freshly, intensely than you would otherwise â€" sometimes best done on foot, in a canoe, or through cultural adventures like art courses, cooking classes, learning the language, meeting the people. This can make your trip life-changing, unforgettable. All of the detailed information you need is here about the hotels, restaurants, shopping, sightseeing. But we also lead you to new discoveries, turning corners never before turned, helping you learn about the world in a new way â€" Adventure Guides make that possible." "Having traveled extensively through China over many years, I can see the book's intimacy, not only with the locations, but also with the locals in each place. The author reveals the secrets that he's learned from his long association with China." (Jason Williams, Managing Director, Grasshopper Adventures). "A thorough guide not only to traveling in China but also to the country's history and culture, this should satisfy the novice and seasoned traveler alike. Each city and region is covered from all angles, including activities for those traveling with children. An informative read for those unfamiliar with the country and an excellent way to brush up for the more experienced traveler, this is an excellent guide for planning a China vacation." (Publishers Weekly).

This beautifully designed coffee table-sized photo-book documents Shenzhen's meteoric 40-year rise from rural obscurity to becoming one of China's leading financial and technological centers. The book contains nine satellite images, 175 B&W historical and recent colour photographs, as well as stunning drone photography from awarding winning photographer Wu Guoyong. Rare helicopter photos taken by Shenzhen-based photojournalist Zhang Xiaoyu during the 1990s give context to the extraordinary transformation this young city has undergone. As well as a timeline and extensive photo captions, essays covering a range of topics are also included. Wong How Man, the president and founder of the China Exploration & Research Society, Hong Kong-based veteran journalist David Dodwell, Beijing-based travel writer Thomas Bird, Shenzhen-based copywriter Mike Bossick and Shenzhen Superstars author Johan Nylander, contributed their expertise and penmanship to the book. This publication would not have been possible without the generous support of the China Ping An Financial Group, the rise of which parallels Shenzhen's own success story. The Ping An Financial Centre is the fourth tallest skyscraper in the world. This iconic building towers over Shenzhen's cityscape, dominating many of the panoramas featured throughout the book.

It is the early 1990s and Zhou Haonan, an innocent young man from a rural family in China's West Canton Province, travels to the `golden city' of Shenzhen to seek his fortune. Kind and caring but highly ambitious, he works as an international businessman, becomes a Sanda boxing champion and even sells his blood as he spends the next 20 years striving desperately to achieve his dream of a Shenzhen permanent residence permit and a home of his own. Despite a string of humiliating failures and disasters and cruel treatment by the women who enter his life, he somehow manages to get back on his feet and carry on through all the setbacks which life throws at him. The Road to Shenzhen is one of very few novels ever to be written in English by a Chinese author who has lived all his life in China.ÿ