The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China’s Instant City

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In August of 2019, the country’s State Council released a statement announcing that Shenzhen was to be developed into a “pilot demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics”, with the aim of it becoming a “global benchmark city”. The timing of the announcement was unsurprising — the government attention lavished on Shenzhen is in direct response to the civil unrest in Hong Kong. Juan Du et al. (eds.) (2005). City Open Door, Exhibition Catalogue, 1st Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\ Architecture. Shenzhen: Shenzhen Press Group Publishing House.

Juan Du (2011). 10 Million Units: Housing and Affordable City. In Terence Riley (Ed.), 2011 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture Exhibition Catalogue (pp. 26-27). N.p: n.p. The truth, it turns out, is a little more complex and a lot more interesting. In her latest book, The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China’s Instant City, Juan Du, an Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong, charts the city’s history alongside its recent boom. We learn that Shenzen’s pre-history is not just a curious sidenote swept away by the Reform and Opening Up policies of Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping. Juan Du (2010). Urban Myth of a New Chinese City, Journal of Architectural Education, 63 (2), 65-66. I moved to the US in early 2006 to teach at MIT. However, my mind kept returning to China, and especially to Shenzhen. So I decided to accept an offer to teach at HKU and one motivation behind this move was Hong Kong’s proximity to Shenzhen. Juan Du (2010). Quotidian Architectures: Hong Kong in Venice. In Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia (Ed.), People Meet in Architecture Biennale Architectura 2010, Exhibition Catalogue (pp. 194-195). Venice: Marsilio Editori s.p.a.Baily, George (2020-03-14). "The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China's Instant City". Asian Affairs. 51 (2): 436–442. doi: 10.1080/03068374.2020.1747878. ISSN 0306-8374. S2CID 219083556. The book begins not with an abstract story of Shenzhen’s early history, but a personal tale which epitomizes its spirit of transformation. Jiang Kairui made his way to Shenzhen from the far north-east of the country in 1992, a few months after Deng Xiaoping’s now equally mythologized “Southern Tour”, in which the ostensibly retired leader toured Shenzhen and other nearby cities to affirm the policies of reform and opening which he had pioneered. The uniqueness of Shenzhen is evident in that the Chinese government has built hundreds of new towns using the Shenzhen model, but none has come close to replicating the city’s level of economic success. Juan Du’s new book The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China’s Instant City, is welcome, then, in providing some historical context on this city’s development. And context is sorely needed; much coverage of Shenzhen’s development repeats the same lazy, CCP-derived tropes of a “fishing village turned megalopolis” or a technological city of the future. The author notes in her introduction:

She does, however, not give enough credit to Deng Xiaoping. Sure, the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone is the product of its people and its historical and cultural context. But without Deng, it could well have been stopped.Just prior to the designation as the City of Shenzhen in 1979, the approximately 2,000 square kilometres of land was known as Bao’an County, with a population of around 300,000 distributed across 2,000 villages, as well as small townships. A rich history of China’s famous ‘instant city,’ which may not be so instant after all. Juan Du takes us on an informative and unexpected journey through a major metropolis.”—Yung Ho Chang, Principal of Atelier FCJZ, Beijing Any observer of modern China would need to understand the metamorphosis of Shenzhen—the People's Republic's first and most successful Special Economic Zone (SEZ) located immediately north of Hong Kong. Juan Du's The Shenzhen Experiment contests the conventional understanding of the city's development, which focuses on how decisions by key Chinese Communist Party leaders transformed a sleepy fishing village into a modern metropolis. Juan Du (2013). City Metamorphosis: Shenzhen Caiwuwei Research. In Ou Ning (Ed.), South of the Southern: Space, Geography, History & the Biennale (pp. 162-165). Beijing: China Youth Press. As a result of Shenzhen's extraordinary economic success, the city was viewed as a land of opportunity. There was mass rural migration to the SEZ, and Shenzhen experienced immense population growth. By 2000, 20 million people lived in the Shenzhen SEZ. Despite Urban Villages having a negative stereotype (through 2016) because they didn't fit into the image of a well-planned city, the 300 urban villages - aka, peasant houses and villages in the city (6-7 floor "towers" & "nail houses") supplied half of the residential floor area, and provided affordable housing to its growing population. Additionally, within these communities, township and village enterprises (TVE) sprouted and became the industrial engine of Shenzhen's economy during the SEZ's first decade.

Juan Du (2017). Industrial Strength: New into Old, The Architectural Review, Issue 1447, December 2017/January 2018. Juan Du (2015). ‘Low Carbon City Users’ Manual: An International Academic Research Project’ (pp. 160-169). ‘Low Carbon City – A Designer’s Manual’, by Juan Du, Phil Jones, Dorothy Tang, Ivan Valin, and Natalia Echeverri (pp. 170-179). In Seeking A Path To Future Low Carbon Cities, Beijing: China Architecture & Building Press. JD: There have been hundreds of SEZ’s and new areas established in China since the 1980s, but not even one comes close to Shenzhen. This has not deterred more ongoing efforts of economic or industrial zone developments in China. Viewing Shenzhen’s role as an industrial or economic zone only would be a mistake for anyone wishing to understand or emulate its development.Juan Du (2009). Shenzhen Central Huanggang Village Redevelopment Research and Proposal, Urban China (Guest ed. Neville Mars), 35, 52-53. There are approximately 300 urban villages in Shenzhen today. Collectively, they house around 10 million residents – about half the city’s total population. While the municipality has made efforts to demolish and redevelop urban villages, the population was too large and negotiations on property rights so complex and expensive, that only a handful of urban villages have been demolished and rebuilt. George Baily, in Asian Affairs, stated that "This is a remarkable book on a remarkable subject." [13] He added that "The reader comes away from this book in