Shenzhen’s Model Bohemia and the Creative China Dream
In 1999, culture and propaganda officials in Shenzhen’s Buji Township (later redesignated Street Office) learned from a Guangzhou newspaper of the existence of an “artists’ village” right under their noses. According to the article, Dafen Village, then a rural village located outside the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) border checkpoint in an otherwise undistinguished and impoverished district (Longgang), was home to a large and thriving community where oil painters were working, living, and selling their artwork to buyers in Europe and America. In the wake of the sudden international success of Beijing’s East Village and 798, artists’ villages on the outskirts of Beijing where Chinese artists had gained the attention of influential foreign collectors and curators, Shenzhen officials saw in Dafen Village a rare opportunity to put the city on the cultural map.
in Learning from Shenzhen, 2017
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