Learning from Shenzhen

This multidisciplinary volume presents, for the first time, a definitive account of China’s socialist transition from the perspective of one of its most-important and yet overlooked cities: Shenzhen, situated immediately north of the Hong Kong special district. Shenzhen was created to be the emblem, frontier, and model city of China’s post-Mao transition during the beginning of economic liberalization. Created as the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, the city was built as an experimental site for policy reform and global contact. Known for its spectacular growth, in 30 years Shenzhen has exploded into a city of fifteen million residents, making it one of the world’s largest centers of manufacturing, research, development, shipping and trade. It is also one of the most intensive sites of urban density, rural-urban migration, and trans-border traffic. Yet the city and the history of its seemingly miraculous growth remain understudied. This volume introduces Shenzhen to the non-specialist, providing the first account of major developments in the city’s history while also offering scholars a comprehensive narrative of Shenzhen’s symbolic place in the post-Mao transition.