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

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Juan Du’s research and writings have been published in Asia, Europe and the United States, including The Architectural Review, Volume, Domus, Journal of Architectural Education, e-flux, Time+Architecture, Urban Flux and Urban China. Her book The Shenzhen Experiment: The Story of China’s Instant City was recently published by Harvard University Press. Juan is a recognised scholar on China’s rapid urbanisation, and her works have been featured by international journals and media such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, CNN, Wired, and Nature.

Juan Du (2011). Sustaining What? Communities as the Foundation for Social Sustainability and Development, Urban Flux New Perspective (Special Report), 20, 15-20. (In Chinese) Even at this point, the city’s destiny as the 21st century workshop of the world was far from certain. Du points out that despite the common view of the city being built on foreign direct investment, Shenzhen’s initial development in the 1980s was supported largely by investment from within China, and the value of the city’s extensive construction sector far outweighed that of manufacturing. For this reason, it was widely seen as a failure among anti-reform party dignitaries, who were looking for any reason to call the whole thing off because of its capitalist aspirations.

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Juan Du (2016), ‘From Design with Nature to Design with Carbon? – A Brief History of the Low Carbon City (LCC),’ Urban Environment Design, 101 (6): 228-235. Juan Du (2007). Urban Tools. In Hanru Hou et al. (Eds.), Beyond: An Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for Modernization (D-Lab 2), The Second Guangzhou Triennial (Conference Proceedings) (pp. 186-203). Guangzhou: Ling-Nan Arts Publishing House (In English and Chinese). PF: You challenge the idea of Shenzhen as a ‘blank canvas’ where nothing much existed before. What was Shenzhen, before it was Shenzhen? Juan Du (2007). Informal Urbanism. Paper presented at t he 2nd International Holcim Forum for Sustainable Construction — ‘Urban_Trans_formation,’ Tongji University, Shanghai, China, April 18-21. Juan Du (2008). Don’t Underestimate the Rice Fields. In Ilka and Andreas Ruby (Eds.), Urban Transformation (pp. 218-225). Berlin: Ruby Press.

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 inUntil I read Juan Du's book I knew what the average person knows about Shenzhen. A city emerged from nothing thanks to its designation as the first Special Economic Zone of China. Juan Du's book busts the myth. She does it by digging into Shenzhen's history, giving voice to its habitants, and providing tons of maps, statistics and data. It's only when we learn about these facts that we can fully understand how Shenzhen came into being the city that is today. Basically, Juan Du's work debunks the official narrative that claims the emergence of Shenzhen is the consequence of direct top-down planning, thus it's a replicable model. The consequences of this are huge. For instance, there are hundreds of SEZs in China and thousands all over the world and none of them has come to be as successful as Shenzhen. Juan Du’s book will help you understand why. Also, at this moment China is building what it claims to be the new Shenzhen just 100 km away from Beijing, in the area of Xiong'an. After reading Juan Du's book I very much believe the Xiong'an area won't live up to its expectations.

Juan Du (2015). Sustaining What? In Shi Jian (Ed.), New Observations: A Collection of Architectural Criticism. Shanghai: Tongji University Press. 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 (2016). Urban Villages and the Special Economic Zone – How Formal Planning and Informal Development Generated the Exceptional Urbanism of Shenzhen. In Dai Chun (Ed.) Shenzhen Contemporary Architecture 2000-2015 (pp. 400-405). Shanghai: Tongji University Press.The Shenzhen Experiment’ Review: Building Up a ‘Fishing Village’ – The overlooked history of Shenzhen doesn’t necessarily fit the government’s myth of a well-planned ‘instant city’.” The Wall Street Journal, January 22, 2020 ( https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-shenzhen-experiment-review-building-up-a-fishing-village-11579735008). Over the next 14 years, I worked with various communities in both cities. The initial fascination of Shenzhen’s urban villages gradually developed into a more comprehensive understanding of the overall city and the surrounding region. Juan Du (2018). Shenzhen: Urban Informality in a Formal City, IASTE 2018: The Politics of Tradition, 16th Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments, Portugal, October 2018. 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 asks whether Shenzhen is the blueprint for a modern Chinese city, and what lessons have been learned since Deng Xiaoping supported the opening up of a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).

From serving as an important salt-production and administrative capital during the Han Dynasty to that of a major port on the South China Sea’s ancient maritime Silk Road, the area’s history was no less remarkable before it became Shenzhen. In addition, Shenzhen was the first city in China to break the mould of state-owned enterprises with tenured employment. Not only was the city new to the arriving population, but the rules of work were also new. 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

References

Juan Du (2017). History of Shenzhen and the formation of Urban Villages, Special Issue on Design for the City/ Shenzhen, Urban Environment Design, 108 (8): 34-39.