Shenzhen

Wednesday 6/16/ 10
Today we made a visit to Shenzhen. Shenzhen is a “new” city, our tour guide told us. It began its rapid growth in the 80s. It has grown from a collection of small fishing villages to become home to 15 million people. Many of those people are migrants. They have migrated to the city for work in factories. Officially, they live in the country. Their children must stay at home with grandparents, because Shenzhen will not educate the children of these workers! We saw high-rise slums (urban villages) right next to brand new multimillion dollar developments. The contrast was remarkable.
We also visited an international school with (wealthy) children from China as well as Europe, Korea, India and the U.S. Learn in English and Chinese. The parents of these students have chosen this school in hope that their children can achieve success through impeccable English language skills. They have lost faith in the traditional “Gaukau” testing system and are trying to find another way.
We also went to oil painting village called Dafen. There they copy masters like Van Gogh or Monet and paint hundreds of copies. The mass produced oil paintings are mostly for wholesale to the U.S. or Europe. They also are beginning to paint originals as well. Some members of our group did not like that there was little creativity in the “art”. They also did not like that mostly the subjects of the Dafen paintings were western. But at the museum, they stated that it is in this way that Chinese are beginning to learn to appreciate art and the creativity will come later. The village was full of some of the happiest kids you’d ever hope to see. There was a real sense of community there. They are prospering through this work. I don’t want to buy the artwork, but I enjoyed seeing the good life they are building for themselves there.
I may have spotted just the thing for my students. There is a very popular anime’ cartoon featuring blue and pink goats. Think Hello Kitty with horns. Wouldn’t all the 8th grade boys love little fluffy goat souvenirs?