Learning from Shenzhen
China’s Post-Mao Experiment from Special Zone to Model City
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Foreword
Ezra F. Vogel
Introduction: Learning from Shenzhen: Experiments, Exceptions, and Extensions
Mary Ann O’Donnell, Winnie Wong, and Jonathan Bach
Part 1 Experiments (1979–92)
1 Shenzhen: From Exception to Rule
Jonathan Bach
2 Heroes of the Special Zone: Modeling Reform and Its Limits
Mary Ann O’Donnell
3 The Tripartite Origins of Shenzhen: Beijing, Hong Kong, and Bao’an
Weiwen Huang
4 How to Be a Shenzhener: Representations of Migrant Labor in Shenzhen’s Second Decade
Eric Florence
Part 2 Exceptions (1992–2004)
5 Laying Siege to the Villages: The Vernacular Geography of Shenzhen
Mary Ann O’Donnell
6 The Political Architecture of the First and Second Lines
Emma Xin Ma and Adrian Blackwell
7 “They Come in Peasants and Leave Citizens”: Urban Villages and the Making of Shenzhen
Jonathan Bach
8 Sex Work, Migration, and Mental Health in Shenzhen
Willa Dong and Yu Cheng
Part 3 Extensions (2004–Present)
9 Shenzhen’s Model Bohemia and the Creative China Dream
Winnie Wong
10 Preparedness and the Shenzhen Model of Public Health
Katherine A. Mason
11 Simulating Global Mobility at Shenzhen “International” Airport
Max Hirsh
Conclusion: Learning from Shenzhen
Mary Ann O’Donnell, Winnie Wong, and Jonathan Bach
Glossary
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Index
Ezra F. Vogel
Introduction: Learning from Shenzhen: Experiments, Exceptions, and Extensions
Mary Ann O’Donnell, Winnie Wong, and Jonathan Bach
Part 1 Experiments (1979–92)
1 Shenzhen: From Exception to Rule
Jonathan Bach
2 Heroes of the Special Zone: Modeling Reform and Its Limits
Mary Ann O’Donnell
3 The Tripartite Origins of Shenzhen: Beijing, Hong Kong, and Bao’an
Weiwen Huang
4 How to Be a Shenzhener: Representations of Migrant Labor in Shenzhen’s Second Decade
Eric Florence
Part 2 Exceptions (1992–2004)
5 Laying Siege to the Villages: The Vernacular Geography of Shenzhen
Mary Ann O’Donnell
6 The Political Architecture of the First and Second Lines
Emma Xin Ma and Adrian Blackwell
7 “They Come in Peasants and Leave Citizens”: Urban Villages and the Making of Shenzhen
Jonathan Bach
8 Sex Work, Migration, and Mental Health in Shenzhen
Willa Dong and Yu Cheng
Part 3 Extensions (2004–Present)
9 Shenzhen’s Model Bohemia and the Creative China Dream
Winnie Wong
10 Preparedness and the Shenzhen Model of Public Health
Katherine A. Mason
11 Simulating Global Mobility at Shenzhen “International” Airport
Max Hirsh
Conclusion: Learning from Shenzhen
Mary Ann O’Donnell, Winnie Wong, and Jonathan Bach
Glossary
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Index
Review Quotes
Gordon Mathews, Chinese University of Hong Kong
“Shenzhen is an extraordinary city, but until now, surprisingly little had been written about it. This book, which traces the story of Shenzhen from its late 1970s beginnings to its subsequent explosive growth into the present, fills that void. These chapters clearly and eloquently depict the ‘Shenzhen Miracle’ in its successes—and also its considerable human costs. Anyone who reads this volume, whether social scientist or interested layperson, will come to see Shenzhen in an altogether new light.”
Judith Farquhar, University of Chicago
“Fluidly combining historical, ethnographic, geographic, humanities, and policy research approaches, this is much more than a study of the history and contemporary life of one city. Especially emphasizing the place of Shenzhen as model and anti-model in China’s marked turn toward urbanization, these essays sensitively explore the irreducible complexity of a Special Economic Zone turned futuristic urban exemplar. Clearly in conversation with each other, the contributors offer fresh theories and methods for engaging in critical scholarship on cities anywhere. This volume is a model of how to study the global contemporary moment with its burgeoning economic centers, mobile populations, and recurring crises.”
Economist
"An incisive new book, Learning from Shenzhen... reveals that many of the advances seen since the city was opened up in 1980 came disruptively from below."
Journal of Economic Literature
"Twelve papers examine the political, economic, and social transformation of Shenzhen since 1979 as a pivotal case study of development in China, considering how policy experimentation and political model making came to be integrated into the official narrative."
Pacific Affairs
"Learning from Shenzhen dives deeply into the ground-level dynamics of change to illuminate the forces and evolving cast of characters that made Shenzhen’s development process much more contingent and chaotic than suggested by dominant narratives about Shenzhen’s history. . . .An important addition to the literature on China, providing a rare in-depth look into the nature of Shenzhen and raising useful questions about the process of China’s transformation."
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