Editing / Solo show
Editing / Solo show
In January 2001, Zeng Yin came to the warm Shenzhen from the icy and snowy Xinjiang to participate in ZTE's one-month training for new employees.
"When I got out of the car, I saw the blue sky and white clouds, and I didn't need to re-polish the wax after wearing leather shoes for a day." Shenzhen left a very good impression on Zeng Yin. He had just quit his job as a teacher and joined the enterprise from within the system. Three years later, he went south to settle in Shenzhen with his new job.
Since the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in 1980, many young people from inland areas have rushed to Shenzhen to seek gold. Zeng Yin was one of the intellectuals who jumped out of the system and went to Shenzhen in early 2000.
This wave of immigrants from Shenzhen has continued to this day.
After getting off work from the brightly lit office building in Houhai, it only takes half an hour for Chen Yi to go home. This is simply heaven and earth compared with his previous commuting distance in Beijing.
Last year, Chen Yi resigned from his eight-year media job in Beijing and chose to settle in Shenzhen. His wife and children stayed in Beijing temporarily.
"A lot of friends came to Shenzhen from Beijing." Chen Yi said. The reasons for their departure are the same. Beijing's smoggy weather, low quality of life, and especially the strict settlement policy have made these young people in their thirties gradually lose their fighting spirit when planning their future.
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Standing at Thirty: From Foundry to Hardware Paradise
"This kind of feeling is like the old cow in front of the Shenzhen Municipal Government, pulling forward desperately, but pulling a big tree stump without a foundation-I am afraid the sculptor did not expect that this "Ru Zi Niu" sculpture that implies the spirit of Shenzhen turned out to be It has become a true portrayal of Shenzhen's mentality today."
In 2002, the sense of crisis in Shenzhen reached its peak.
In November, People's Daily Online and Xinhuanet published a nearly 20,000-word article "Shenzhen, Who Are You Abandoned?", which eloquently mentioned Shenzhen's development history, pointing out that Shenzhen's amazing development in the past was more due to preferential policies and preferential policies. The city itself lacks long-term strategic planning. The "hollowed" Shenzhen has come to the corner of decline.
Zeng Yin remembers that this article was very influential at the time, and it was widely disseminated among civilians and government officials. At that time, the mayor of Shenzhen even approached the author and had a two-hour exchange of views with him.
In the first ten years since the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, relying on the preferential subsidy policy, it has attracted a large number of Hong Kong and foreign capital to build factories in Shenzhen under the "three to one subsidy" model (ie, processing with supplied materials, processing with supplied samples, assembly with supplied parts, and compensation trade).
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Photo by Dongsheng, in 1986, female workers in Shenzhen electronics factory on the assembly line
However, the low-end manufacturing foundries are always at the end of the industrial chain, and the factory profits are low. Moreover, after the financial crisis in 1997, Hong Kong, which is adjacent to Shenzhen, suffered setbacks, which also hindered Shenzhen's investment and exports at that time.
In 2000, with the reform and restructuring of various places, policies to attract foreign investment came out in droves; at the same time, China joined the WTO and connected with the world, and Shenzhen's role as a "window" became a bit embarrassing. The low-end manufacturing dividend that has been started has come to an end.
Industrial upgrading and iteration have become a necessary hurdle for Shenzhen.
In 2004, the No. 1 document of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee and Government issued the "Decision on Improving the Regional Innovation System". The government began to find its own way for the city.
Since then, the call for innovation has not stopped, and supporting policies for funding subsidies, research and development support, and subsidies for various industries have been implemented in batches.
"At that time, the government was the first to worry. It came out with a batch of policies to encourage research and development, specifically supporting innovative projects of enterprises, and the Shenzhen government never favored state-owned enterprises." Zeng Yin was deeply impressed by this. "I have applied for it myself and participated in the government defense. They are very efficient. They go in and answer questions to the organizing committee, and then all the interview results will be announced."
In Zeng Yin's view, the reason why Shenzhen has become the world's leading center for technological hardware stems from the government's attention and guidance in the later period, and also from the decades-long precipitation in the early stage. The refined and complete industrial chain enables Shenzhen to efficiently undertake high-tech manufacturing.
In 2019, affected by the sanctions incident, Zeng Yin's department had to be disbanded, and he also left ZTE. He and his former colleagues started a new business and continued their old business. "It belongs to changing the soup without changing the medicine."
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Chassis and drive
In the buildings lined up on both sides of Shennan Avenue, the signboards of TCL, ZTE, Lenovo and other companies are very conspicuous. Among them, only Tencent is an Internet company, and Tencent's initial business is not the Internet, but pagers.
Shenzhen has no Internet genes, and its foundation is hardware manufacturing.
Zeng Yin witnessed how ZTE and Huawei led China's communications industry from imitating, following and surpassing foreign technologies.
He recalled that the gathering of leading companies such as Huawei and ZTE in Shenzhen also led to the improvement of the industrial chains of surrounding cities. The industrial chains of Shenzhen, Dongguan, and Huizhou are highly developed and highly refined.
"Here, any sweeping lady can assemble a mobile phone for you." Although this is a joke, it is a true portrayal of Huaqiangbei. The owner of the counter here told Zinc Finance, "You can buy any components you need, even if you can't buy them, we can help you produce them overnight." Huaqiangbei is Shenzhen's growth in the electronic components industry. special phenomenon".
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SEG Electronics Mall, 2003
Most of the hardware manufacturing in Shenzhen exists in clusters like Huaqiangbei. The complete industrial chain supporting facilities allows manufacturers to quickly find raw materials, shorten the production chain, and increase profits. This mature model has attracted many hardware entrepreneurs.
Haxlr8r, a hardware venture capital organization, chose to settle in Shenzhen to facilitate the entrepreneurs it invests in to quickly find factories, make prototype products, and then go to Silicon Valley to lobby investors.
Its founder and CEO Cyril Ebersweiler once mentioned that Shenzhen really has everything, from designers, mechanics, foundries, parts sellers... you can find anything you want.
If hardware manufacturing is the chassis of Shenzhen, then the private economy is the self-driving force of Shenzhen.
In 1986, the Shenzhen Municipal Government wanted to implement a pilot joint-stock system in the state-owned enterprise system. Wang Shi decided to seize the opportunity to allow Vanke to operate independently. After a lot of wrestling, in December 1988, Vanke finally got rid of the state-owned "Tathagata Palm", and the share reform plan was approved.
Due to its location in Shenzhen, Vanke became the first batch of lucky companies to eat crabs. There are quite a few well-known enterprises in Shenzhen, including Huawei, Ping An, Kingdee, etc., all of which were founded in 1988. It is no accident. Since then, private forces have become the internal driving force for Shenzhen's economic vitality. Looking at the whole country, this is a unique case.
Some people in the industry believe that Beijing's economic chassis is supported by the state-owned economy, and class interests are solidified. Many businesses rely on political resources and connections. The vitality of Shenzhen's private economy comes from its unique policy and capital environment.
"In recent years, the economy has been depressed, but Shenzhen has not been affected too much, which is due to its strong internal driving force and vitality," Zeng Yin told Zinc Finance.
"During the epidemic, Shenzhen only stopped for two months, and it started to resume operations in March. Unlike those factories that rely on foreign trade processing, they cannot produce without orders." After undergoing highly market-oriented education and self-reform, Shenzhen's industrial economics has learned to operate on its own.
However, the mature industrial economy has also set up a very high threshold for latecomers.
Zeng Yin also lamented that starting a business in Shenzhen, in the field of hardware, it is almost impossible for young people who have just graduated to do it. At least seven or eight years of accumulation or superhuman skills in software technology are required.
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Entrepreneurship Red and Black
Wu Guihua has witnessed the gradual narrowing of the entrepreneurial track.
In the late 1990s, Wu Guihua, who graduated from technical secondary school, followed the second wave of immigration to Shenzhen. At that time, Hong Kong's manufacturing industry moved northward, and many foundries were built in Shenzhen and surrounding cities, attracting a large number of laborers from rural China.
Through the introduction of a fellow villager, I entered a kitchen appliance sales store as a clerk. Relying on the hard-working spirit and agility of Chaoshan people, he started from scratch, from door-to-door sales to becoming a regional executive, and accumulated resources, contacts and original capital in Shenzhen little by little.
After more than ten years, Wu Guihua founded a brand of small kitchen appliances. In its heyday, there were more than 40 stores. Relying on Shenzhen's mature processing industry chain, Wu Guihua sets product standards by himself and finds factories in Shenzhen to manufacture; a small part buys out small production lines and designs and processes by himself.
Around 2010, the monopoly effect of leading companies became more and more obvious, and the market space for small brands became smaller and smaller.
Wu Guihua's company's offline channels are under increasing pressure. In addition, he has found out a little bit of e-commerce, and he feels that the transition is coming, so he sells all the factories and stores, and fully converts them to e-commerce agency operations.
In Wu Guihua's view, the earliest entrepreneurs who came to Shenzhen were able to rely on channels to dominate the mountains, but the entrepreneurs who came to Shenzhen in the second and third waves could hardly enjoy channel dividends.
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Image source network
Chen Yi and Chen Lu are the new batch of Shenzhen immigrants. Different from the gold panning of the predecessors, they came to Shenzhen after weighing their choices.
Before coming to Shenzhen last year, Chen Yi worked in the media for eight years in Beijing. Perhaps it is because I am closer to Internet companies, have seen the expansion of the trend, and the absurdity of the tide behind the tide. He is full of doubts about Beijing's Internet business model from the bottom of his heart.
"Entrepreneurs hold a business model in their hands, go to investors to invest money, and then burn the money to attract users. After several rounds, the valuation is raised, and it is listed on the market, and then the investors and founders take money together to exit. You say this kind of Can the enterprise bring anything to the society in the end?" Chen Yi asked.
After coming to Shenzhen, Chen Yi also left the media. He has a good impression of Shenzhen. Most of the startups here are made by investing real money and working hard. "This is the way to rejuvenate the country through industry."
Chen Lu came to Shenzhen earlier, and started his business in Shenzhen in 2015. He generally agrees with Chen Yi's perception of Shenzhen. "Shenzhen is very pragmatic. Entrepreneurship attaches great importance to return on investment. It is difficult for companies that follow the money-burning model to start in Shenzhen."
Compared with Beijing, it is easier to start a business in Shenzhen. After all, the network and circle in Beijing are very stable. As an immigrant city, Shenzhen may not be prepared. As long as you say you can make money, everyone is willing to listen to you.
However, this does not mean that Shenzhen will not blindly catch up with the trend. Chen Lu believes that Shenzhen has an opportunistic temperament. As long as it is said that it can make money, everyone rushes to make money. It is difficult for non-tech start-up companies to raise capital in Shenzhen.
Chen Lu feels that compared with Beijing, Shenzhen lacks ideological innovation. "Too much emphasis on the moment and practicality makes it difficult for enterprises that are truly influential and truly change the model to emerge."
Chen Lu's conclusion has already been preceded.
Some people have listed that among the small Internet giants in China, Meituan, Didi, and ByteDance are all in Beijing, while Pinduoduo and Xiaohongshu have appeared in Shanghai; only Shenzhen seems much deserted.
sense of belonging
sense of belonging
"When you come, you are from Shenzhen." However, it is not easy to find a sense of belonging in Shenzhen.
Due to the extremely high industry threshold, most entrepreneurs failed to stand on the economic stage, and more people just became screws in the operation of the industry.
Zeng Yin recalled that most of the people who came to work in the south never thought of taking root in Shenzhen, but wanted to earn some money to return to their hometown. Dare to go out alone, robbery cases happen from time to time."
"At that time, housing prices in Shenzhen were very low, but whoever thought of buying a house here, all they wanted was to earn money and go home." Zeng Yin mentioned that when he came to Shenzhen, his future was uncertain, and he just wanted to jump out of the system and enter the new world. In the era of underdeveloped information, people have very few choices, only the bravery and idealism of "desperately throwing themselves into the torrent of the times".
The sense of alienation between the city and people continues to this day.
Chen Yi is a "new immigrant" in Shenzhen. They are extremely cautious and budget-conscious in choosing cities and career paths. Under the huge pressure of the city, the cost of choosing seems to have become extremely expensive. One wrong step makes one tremble.
The reasons why "Chenyi" choose Shenzhen are highly similar: Beijing's household registration policy directly forces them away. Considering development opportunities, growth environment, and quality of life comprehensively, Shenzhen becomes the choice of taking a step back. The higher the degree of industrialization in society, the more people gradually become a screw in a precision-operating system, under tremendous pressure, trying to make the best solution for their own life.
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Nanshan Science and Technology Park
In hot August, the air in Shenzhen carries the humid smell of the sea.
At nine o'clock in the evening, the high-rise buildings in the high-tech park are still lit. Individuals under each light are writing different versions of Lai Shen's stories. They share the city's environment and resources, and feel the pressure of the city's rapid development and the times. with anxiety.
Cities and people choose and shape each other.
For forty years, generations of immigrants have moved south and interacted with Shenzhen. At the end of 1979, Shenzhen had a permanent population of 310,000. By the end of 2019, this number had become 13.43 million. Shenzhen’s GDP also jumped from 196 million yuan in 1979 to 2.6 trillion yuan in 2017, surpassing the neighboring city of Hong Kong. , among the top five economies in Asia.
The education structure of the population is also changing. Affected by industrial upgrading, the education structure of the newly added population in Shenzhen is also improving. At the beginning of its establishment, only 4,000 of the 310,000 people in Shenzhen had a junior high school education; in 2008, the proportion of talents with junior college or intermediate professional titles reached 10%; by 2018, Shenzhen had added 490,000 people throughout the year, of which freshmen College students and all kinds of talents accounted for 60%.
Born in the 1980s when social classes were rapidly flowing, the ever-changing market economy gave birth to many wealth myths in Shenzhen. From the age of 40, Shenzhen's temperament is becoming more and more stable, and the story of wealth creation has become a myth of the past.
However, Shenzhen is still the heart of young immigrants. In contrast, after 40 years of market economy, Shenzhen has a more pragmatic temperament than other first-tier cities. This temperament allows latecomers to see the opportunity to get out of the screw system and get a leap.
(At the request of interviewees, Zeng Yin, Wu Guihua, Chen Lu, and Chen Yi are all pseudonyms.)
