Shenzhen-Hong Kong Borderland
FORUM Transformation of Shen Kong Borderlands Edited by Mary Ann O’DONNELL Jonathan BACH Denise Y. HO Hong Kong view from Ma Tso Lung. PC: Johnsl. Transformation of Shen Kong Borderlands Mary Ann O’DONNELL Jonathan BACH Denise Y. HO n August 1980, the Shenzhen Special and transform everyday life. In political Economic Zone (SEZ) was formally documents, newspaper articles, and the Iestablished, along with SEZs in Zhuhai, names of businesses, Shenzhen–Hong Kong is Shantou, and Xiamen. China’s fifth SEZ, Hainan shortened to ‘Shen Kong’ (深港), suturing the Island, was designated in 1988. Yet, in 2020, cities together as specific, yet diverse, socio- the only SEZ to receive national attention on technical formations built on complex legacies its fortieth anniversary was Shenzhen. Indeed, of colonial occupation and Cold War flare-ups, General Secretary Xi Jinping attended the checkpoints and boundaries, quasi-legal business celebration, reminding the city, the country, opportunities, and cross-border peregrinations. and the world not only of Shenzhen’s pioneering The following essays show how, set against its contributions to building Socialism with Chinese changing cultural meanings and sifting of social Characteristics, but also that the ‘construction orders, the border is continuously redeployed of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macau Greater and exported as a mobile imaginary while it is Bay Area is a major national development experienced as an everyday materiality. Taken strategy, and Shenzhen is an important engine together, the articles compel us to consider how for the construction of the Greater Bay Area’ (Xi borders and border protocols have been critical 2020). Against this larger background, many to Shenzhen’s success over the past four decades.
[Show full text]