The Shenzhen Experiment

Last updated
First edition The Shenzhen Experiment.jpg
First edition

The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China's Instant City is a 2020 non-fiction book by Juan Du, published by Harvard University Press.

Contents

Du argued that there was a misconception that Shenzhen was built almost entirely by the central government when officials from Guangdong province had first advocated for the idea of making Shenzhen a "special economic zone". Additionally, the book addresses a misconception that the entirety of what is now Shenzhen was only occupied by fishing villages prior to 1979. Furthermore, Du explained that the SEZ was meant not to make China extremely wealthy but to take China out of a lower income category. [1]

Du advocated for more historical preservation in future urban planning in China. [2]

According to Denise Y. Ho [note 1] of Yale University, it was the first specialist work about the city that is an entire book. [3]

Background

Du teaches at the University of Hong Kong and also is an architect. She had done research and conducted interviews, [4] with work done in multiple villages in Shenzhen. [5] Du found inspiration exploring Shenzhen after she failed to get on board a flight. [6] Prior to that period, Du had never had a period where she was in a stay in Shenzhen which went past an evening into a morning. [7]

Contents

The book has eight chapters, organized into four sections. Chapters are named after landmarks and cultural aspects, which Du describes as "artifacts". [8]

The first section is "National Relevance" (how it relates to China as a whole), [9] with the first chapter chronicling Jiang Kairu. [10] The others are: "Regional History" (the development of the Pearl River Delta), "Urban Construction" (which includes conflict between the pro-development government and individuals who wish to retain their housing, or "nail houses"), and the section about "urban villages". [9]

The book has an in-depth discussion of how land is acquired and developed, including how the law and politics intersect with that arena. [11] Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, in The Wall Street Journal , wrote that the book is "a compilation of stories" that make the work "colorful and engaging", and not only "a collection of analytic claims". [4] Wasserstrom stated that Du "downplays" the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. [4] The work argues that Shenzhen should not be used as a model of urban planning neither in China nor outside of China; Susanne Stein of Technical University of Berlin's Center for Cultural Studies on Science and Technology in China states that the book's arguments against doing so are "compelling". [12]

The book includes multiple maps, including topographic maps, and photographs. Taomo Zhou [note 2] of Nanyang Technological University stated that these details are due to Du's architectural background and praised the maps and photographs as being "impressive". [11]

Reception

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 even more awe of Shenzhen" as it documents not only "the expected stream of statistical superlatives" but also the "aspirations and energies of the individuals who built Shenzhen is the author's major and subtly subversive success here." [14]

Adrian Blackwell stated that the book is "an exemplary work". [5]

Joel Campbell of Troy University argued that the book was supposed to be about how Shenzhen developed post-1979 but that it should have focused more on that era and on the area political figures and less on the pre-1979 period. [15]

Ho called it "Engagingly written and artfully crafted", [8] and the book "shines" in portions where Du uses her knowledge of architecture. [16] Ho stated that she wished that the book examined other scholarly works on the subject. [8]

Gary W. McDonogh of Bryn Mawr College wrote that compared to Learning from Shenzhen , The Shenzhen Experiment was not "provocative" but more "complete". [17]

Stein stated that the work was "equally instructive and highly readable". [18]

Wasserstrom praised how the work is "a major contribution to understanding a fascinating city" though he argued she should not have de-emphasized the massacre, should have cited Shenzheners by Xue Yiwei, and should have examined how the "“fishing village" myth" became popularized. [4]

Zhou stated that the book "is an inspiring addition to the study of Shenzhen in the English-language world". [19]

China City Planning Review argued that the book may be used as "reference material for the exploration and practice of multi-plan integration." [20]

Names in native languages

  1. Denise Y. Ho: traditional Chinese :何若書; simplified Chinese :何若书; Jyutping :ho4 joek6 syu1; pinyin :Hé Ruòshū
  2. Taomo Zhou: Chinese :周陶沫; pinyin :Zhōu Táomò

Citation

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xia dynasty</span> First dynasty in traditional Chinese history

The Xia dynasty is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In traditional historiography, the Xia was later succeeded by the Shang dynasty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lu Xun</span> Chinese novelist and essayist (1881–1936)

Zhou Shuren, better known by his pen name Lu Xun, was a Chinese writer, literary critic, lecturer, and state servant. He was a leading figure of modern Chinese literature. Writing in vernacular Chinese and classical Chinese, he was a short story writer, editor, translator, literary critic, essayist, poet, and designer. In the 1930s, he became the titular head of the League of Left-Wing Writers in Shanghai during republican-era China (1912–1949).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandate of Heaven</span> Political doctrine of divine legitimacy in China

The Mandate of Heaven is a Chinese political philosophy that was used in ancient and imperial China to legitimize the rule of the King or Emperor of China. According to this doctrine, heaven bestows its mandate on a virtuous ruler. This ruler, the Son of Heaven, was the supreme universal monarch, who ruled Tianxia. If a ruler was overthrown, this was interpreted as an indication that the ruler was unworthy and had lost the mandate. It was also a common belief that natural disasters such as famine and flood were divine retributions bearing signs of Heaven's displeasure with the ruler, so there would often be revolts following major disasters as the people saw these calamities as signs that the Mandate of Heaven had been withdrawn.

The Shenzhen Special Economic Zone is a special economic zone (SEZ) of China. One of four special economic zones (SEZ) established in May 1980, it was the first SEZ created by Deng Xiaoping, and, like the other three zones, was modeled after Ireland's Shannon Free Zone.

Elizabeth J. Perry, FBA is an American scholar of Chinese politics and history at Harvard University, where she is the Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government and Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a corresponding fellow of the British Academy, a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and served as Director of Harvard's Fairbank Center for East Asian Research from 1999 to 2003 and as president of the Association for Asian Studies in 2007.

Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing (MTO) was a randomized social experiment sponsored by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the 1990s among 4600 low-income families with children living in high-poverty public housing projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urban village (China)</span>

Urban villages are villages that appear on both the outskirts and the downtown segments of major Chinese cities, including Shenzhen and Guangzhou. They are surrounded by skyscrapers, transportation infrastructures, and other modern urban constructions. Urban villages are a unique phenomenon that formed part of China's urbanization efforts.

Ping-ti Ho or Bingdi He, who also wrote under the name P.T. Ho, was a Chinese-American historian. He wrote widely on China's history, including works on demography, plant history, ancient archaeology, and contemporary events. He taught at University of Chicago for most of his career, and was president of the Association for Asian Studies in 1975, the first scholar of Asian descent to have that honor.

Ecological urbanism draws from ecology to inspire an urbanism that is more socially inclusive and sensitive to the environment. It is less ideologically driven, than green urbanism or sustainable urbanism. In many ways, ecological urbanism is an evolution of, and a critique of, Landscape Urbanism arguing for a more holistic approach to the design and management of cities. This type of urbanism has a central scope of four main objectives: Compactness, complexity, efficiency, and stability. This model of Urbanism strives to tackle the current challenges of society by intertwining sustainability and urban occupation models. "Ecological urbanism" was coined by architect and planner Miguel Ruano in his 1998 book Eco-Urbanism: Sustainable Human Settlements, 60 Case Studies. The term first appeared as "EcoUrbanism", which is defined as "the development of multi-dimensional sustainable human communities within harmonious and balanced built environments". The term was used later in April 2003 at a conference at the University of Oregon, and again in 2006 in a paper by Jeffrey Hou. Mohsen Mostafavi used the term in the 2007 publication Intervention Architecture and in a lecture at the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Today, ecological urbanism is recognized as a formal academic research topic. Notably, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design has conducted a conference, held an art exhibition, and published a book all centered around ecological urbanism.

Joseph W. Esherick is an emeritus professor of modern Chinese history at the University of California, San Diego. He is the holder of the Hwei-chih and Julia Hsiu Chair in Chinese Studies. Esherick is a graduate of Harvard College. He received his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley (1971), under the supervision of Joseph R. Levenson and Frederic Wakeman.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Shanghai in China.

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom is an American historian of modern China. He is Chancellor's Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine. Wasserstrom's research interests began with the role of student protest and have grown to include the social history of China and comparative social history. Wasserstrom also writes about China for a popular audience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Time is Money, Efficiency is Life</span>

"Time is Money, Efficiency is Life" is a well-known slogan of Chinese economic reform. It was initially a quote from Yuan Geng who made it public in 1981 as the director of Shekou, Shenzhen. The slogan is often associated with the "Shenzhen speed". After Deng Xiaoping made an inspection tour to Shenzhen in 1984, the slogan became widely known in China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baishizhou</span> Area of Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Baishizhou is an area of Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. As of 2016 about 150,000 people live in Baishizhou. With an area of 0.23 square miles (0.60 km2), it has the most inhabitants, as well as the highest building and population density, of any urban village within Shenzhen. Accounting for unregistered and undocumented residents, some estimates of Baishizhou's rental population are well above two hundred thousand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">He Jiankui</span> Chinese scientist (born 1984)

He Jiankui is a Chinese biophysicist who was an associate professor in the Department of Biology of the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China. Earning his Ph.D. from Rice University in Texas on protein evolution, including that of CRISPR, He learned gene-editing techniques (CRISPR/Cas9) as a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in California.

Shuiwei is an area of Futian District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China.

<i>Learning from Shenzhen</i>

Learning from Shenzhen: China's Post-Mao Experiment from Special Zone to Model City is a 2017 collection of essays, co-edited by Mary Ann O'Donnell, Winnie Wong, and Jonathan Bach, and published by the University of Chicago Press. It discusses the development of Shenzhen, Guangdong, China and how it influenced the development of other places in China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shenzhen speed</span>

The Shenzhen speed was a term originally used during the early stages of Chinese economic reform to describe the fast construction of Guomao Building in Shenzhen, China. Being the tallest building in China at the time, Guomao Building, constructed by China Construction Third Engineering Bureau Group Co. Ltd, boasts an efficient construction progress in which the completion of every storey took a mere three days.

Carlos Rojas is an American sinologist and translator. He is currently Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University's Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. He is a cultural historian and his work and teachings primarily focus on Chinese culture. He also teaches the subjects of film, gender, sexuality, and feminist studies. He received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1995 and a Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2000. Before his professorship at Duke, Rojas was Assistant Professor of Modern Chinese Literature and Film at the University of Florida. Rojas lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Juan Du is an architect and professor of architecture. She is professor and dean at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto. She previously taught at Hong Kong University and maintains a private architecture practice IDU. In 2020, she published The Shenzhen Experiment, examining the historically contingent factors that influenced the city’s development.

References

Notes

  1. Campbell, p. 589.
  2. Nathan, Andrew J. (May–June 2020). "The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China's Instant City". Foreign Affairs . Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  3. Ho, p. 579.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Wasserstrom, Jeffrey N. (2020-01-22). "'The Shenzhen Experiment' Review: Building Up a 'Fishing Village'". The Wall Street Journal . Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  5. 1 2 Blackwell, Adrian (2021). "Review: The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China's Instant City, by Juan Du". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians . 80 (1): 121–123. doi: 10.1525/jsah.2021.80.1.121 . S2CID   233794377.
  6. Brook, Daniel (2020-08-04). "Review of 'The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China's Instant City'". Architectural Record . Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  7. McHugh, Fionnula (2020-02-16). "In Shenzhen, 'urban villages' like Baishizhou have been lost to the megacity myth". South China Morning Post .
  8. 1 2 3 Ho, p. 580.
  9. 1 2 McDonogh, first PDF page.
  10. McDonogh, second PDF page.
  11. 1 2 Zhou, p. 983.
  12. Stein, p. 588.
  13. Baily, p. 436.
  14. Baily, p. 441.
  15. Campbell, p. 590.
  16. Ho, p. 581.
  17. McDonogh, third PDF page. "[...]with O’Donnell et al.’s less complete but provocative collection."
  18. Stein, p. 587.
  19. Zhou, p. 984.
  20. China City Planning Review , p. 87.