Review | Shenzhen Superstars is a primer on China’s rival to Silicon Valley from the pen of an unconventional Swede
Review: Swedish journalist Johan Nylander delights in bucking convention in this surprising take on life in the southern Chinese technopolis – a book motivated by his shock at the world’s ignorance of ‘China’s smartest city’
Shenzhen Superstars
by Johan Nylander
Amazon Digital Services
Imagine a tech start-up venture capitalist who hasn’t heard of Google or Silicon Valley. For Hong Kong-based journalist Johan Nylander, that’s the order of absurdity he encounters when it comes to global awareness of Shenzhen and the giant technology companies that the Chinese city has spawned.
“Shenzhen has emerged as a city just as important for tech development and innovation as Silicon Valley, especially in terms of robotics and hardware,” Nylander writes. “Still, most people in the West have not even heard of the city or the world-leading firms from here. It’s rather shocking.”
And so, he has penned Shenzhen Superstars – How China’s smartest city is challenging Silicon Valley. “I want to tell the world about this amazing city,” he writes.
Nylander’s e-book is short, sharp and to the point, featuring the author’s characteristically lively take on life in southern China’s technopolis. Packed with shoe-leather reporting, the book is an essential primer on Silicon Valley’s most potent rival. But it also offers nuanced insights for those familiar with Shenzhen’s transformation from manufacturer of the world’s cheap tat to “China’s smartest city”.