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. "
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.
