Unsung hero of China’s opening up 40 years ago remembered at Shenzhen museum
- Shekou was where economic reform began, and in 1979, not 1980 when Deng Xiaoping made Shenzhen a special economic zone, exhibition shows
- Official Yuan Geng reported to State Council on special industrial zone idea before Deng got party backing for reform, and set one up in Shekou, it shows
As China celebrates the 40th anniversary of the groundbreaking policy that triggered the country’s economic renaissance, a museum dedicated to the story of reform and opening up celebrates a pioneer of the policy who is often played down in official accounts.
The Shekou Museum of China’s Reform and Opening Up is on the third floor of the impressive Seaworld Culture and Arts Centre, overlooking Shenzhen Bay in Shekou, a district of Shenzhen, the southern Chinese city that borders Hong Kong.
Situated on the western periphery of the Shenzhen metropolis, Shekou is one of the most progressive, popular and affluent residential districts in China. Home to a wide range of Western-style bars and restaurants, it boasts high-end apartment blocks, a luxury yacht marina and five-star hotels.
The arts centre that hosts the museum was developed by a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, China Merchants Group, in collaboration with London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, and the striking white angular building was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki.
The large-scale exhibition contains photos, letters and artefacts from the formative years of the reform and opening up initiative in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
It pulls no punches when describing the impoverished state of this part of coastal Guangdong province; before the radical change in the direction of economic policy change, there was no such place as Shekou. The area was a remote backwater of Baoan county and the Seaworld pedestrian zone, now dotted with upmarket shops and restaurants, was reclaimed from the sea.
