Content area
Full Text
Shenzhen has emerged as a haven for biotechnology and cutting-edge hardware.
On a Sunday afternoon in March, children snake through the exhibits at the Shenzhen Science Museum in southeastern China. Two dozen have gathered in the foyer for a circuit-making demonstration led by a woman in her early twenties, who elicits answers and gently dissuades them from climbing on her desk.
In the main hall, a boy in blue overalls turns a wheel that controls the movements of a mechanical dog. Others admire a variety of rolling ball sculptures and play with robotic arms of the sort used in heavy industry. A girl of around five applauds a machine that generates tiny tornadoes out of vapour.
Two quotes in embossed metal command the wall above the main hall, in Chinese and English: "Imagination is more important than knowledge" (Albert Einstein), and "Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower" (Steve Jobs).
Imagination and innovation are ubiquitous motifs in the manufacturing powerhouse of Shenzhen. For decades, the city grew rich by manufacturing products designed overseas. Now, as wages rise and low-tech manufacturing drifts elsewhere, necessity has become the mother of invention for a city seeking a ticket out of a manufacturing slump.
FROM FISHING TO CHIPS
Shenzhen's rags to riches story has been told and retold. It was once Bao'an county, the fishing village across the border from Hong Kong that was chosen by Chinas defacto leader Deng Xiaoping in 1980 to be the country's first special economic zone - a place where foreign and domestic trade could take place without the explicit authorization of Chinas central government. Since then, Shenzhen has been flooded with thousands of foreign investors and millions ofdomestic workers hoping to improve their lot. At last count, the city's official population was nearing 12 million.
Deng initiated the national policy of gaige kaifang - reform and opening up - in 1978. Now, this chain-smoking, five-foot titan of economic reform smiles down over Shenzhen's arterial Shennan Middle Road from a billboard - he faces a bike park brimming with various brands of privately rented bicycles, which can be unlocked by smartphone. Gaige kaifang has been supplanted by gaige chuangxin - reform and innovate. The slogan adorns everything from local government signs to...