Shenzhen may not be home to many English-language blogs, but one has been providing excellent and insightful content for more than ten years. Shenzhen Noted is written by Mary Ann O'Donnel, who labels her site as "blogging urban change since 2005."
But Shenzhen Noted is about so much more than just urban change. O'Donnel's years of musings and observations on Shenzhen provide a deeper understanding of this evolving city than possibly any other English source.
O'Donnel's blog features pictures of Shenzhen like the above picture from Shahe Jie, where destruction of an industrial park recently began.
Her latest entry looks at a specific Lanzhou noodle shop owner and the overall impact Shenzhen's destruction of urban villages is having on the lower class's ability to move up in the world.
The Lanzhou Noodle Shop owner’s story, for example, exemplifies both the current cost and risk of buying into the Shenzhen Dream. The current threshold for setting up an independent business (a start-up) leaves no room for failure.
O'Donnel, who first came to Shenzhen in 1995, was described by CNN as "an anthropologist so inspired by Shenzhen she abandoned academia for poetry" in a 2010 article about her.
READ MORE: They're Tearing down Part of Shenzhen's Baishizhou Neighborhood
[Images via Shenzhennoted.com]
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