As of May 2014, I, Sean Upton-McLaughlin, have officially relocated to Shenzhen to continue my work with Chinese companies and executives, this time with a multinational Chinese firm in the ICT sector. From this new location I will continue to bring you, the reader and China enthusiast, new and useful insights into Chinese business, culture, and language through “the China Culture Corner.” As some of you may not be familiar with the city of Shenzhen, I have provided a brief introduction below.
A Short Overview of Shenzhen
The modern city of Shenzhen is, in effect, something made from nothing. Shenzhen does not possess the rich history and culture which many Chinese cities can lay claim to, and prior to China’s “opening up” possessed a relatively small population, around 30,000 in 1979. Following the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping took over the leadership of China and spearheaded China’s move toward market capitalism. Initially, Shenzhen served as the sole test bed for what were very new concepts to the China of that era, and its proximity to Hong Kong (right across the border) served as an effective mode to attract investment, both from Hong Kong as well as from overseas. In just three decades the population of Shenzhen grew to over 10 million (as of the last census), practically an overnight success.
Along with its population, Shenzhen’s economy also grew by leaps and bounds. Shenzhen began as and continues to be a center for low-cost manufacturing, though in recent years the city has begun branching out into new areas. Currently, aside from manufacturing, Shenzhen is also focusing on areas such as hi-tech, logistics, finance and culture. In fact, many now famous Chinese hi-tech firms are based in Shenzhen, including Huawei, ZTE, and Tencent. Several top Chinese banks are headquartered in Shenzhen (e.g. China Merchant’s Bank), and Shenzhen is also a busy container port.
Today, Shenzhen stands as one of China’s most prosperous metropolises, only falling short of megacities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. However, unlike many of China’s large cities, Shenzhen has a decidedly “green” feel to it, with a multitude of parks and green spaces, along with a visibly lower level of pollution than other Chinese cities.
Send Me Your Feedback
As always, I remain committed to raising and discussing issues that can help my fellow Westerners better understand China, including its culture, language, and business environment. To this end, I am always happy to receive feedback and article suggestions. If any of you has a specific issue you would like to see me write about, please feel free to contact me through the “contact info” page.
Best of luck to all of you with your own China adventures, and thanks for reading!
-Sean Upton-McLaughlin
The China Culture Corner 
Maybe this is off subject as I only recently discovered this website, but as you say you are open to suggestion as to what to discuss about China, I would be quite interested to gain insight as to how the big internet and technology companies are managed in China and what’s the working environment (like in Tencent, rising to be in the top 3 internet companies in China).
We know that in western countries there is a sort of dream of working in companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Because they are so innovative in the way they manage people and the working environment they offer (even though these practices are in the end quite ambivalent if you watch carefully the results of these practices).
I’ve always wondered how Chinese culture and management practices have reacted to that in internet and technology companies because they don’t seem to be compatible as Chinese are culturally very hierchical.
Well, that’s my two cents 🙂
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Yohan, thanks for the comment.
As it so happens I agree with you completely. Since I have now joined a Chinese company in the ICT space (including internet), it has provided me with motivation to find out more about Chinese tech companies, and like you say, how they work in China under local management styles. As is probably understandable I will not be writing anything indepth about my own company (aside from maybe summarizing public information), though there are many interesting areas to explore on China’s tech scene regardless.
It does diverge from topics I have written about previously, so don’t expect any articles on Chinese tech space right away, though I’ll certainly make a point of getting started!
Thanks again.
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