Year of the Dragon

It's Chinese New Year, the year of the Dragon, "my year." The University of Macau has the week off, which gives me some time to get caught up and do a little exploring. This past week I went to Dongguan, China and visited a friend there. They treated me very well and took me on a trip to nearby Shenzhen and Hong Kong. We had wonderful meals and did a lot of shopping! I also met people from many parts of China and the world. The few people I met had stories similar to those narrated by Leslie Chang in her book, Factory Girls. "Jackie" is a 30 something woman from western China. She came to Dongguan about 10 years with no money, little education, and few connections. Now she is a successful manager in an international company. Likewise "Tiger" came from western China with only a junior high school education at about the same time. He now drives a nice car and handles orders in his shoe company that are made by Taiwanese managers. I also met a musician from the Philippines who says business is good. I met two Spaniards working for a successful clothing company based in Europe. And there are many Taiwanese working in Dongguan. It's a place where there is money and opportunity.

In Shenzhen, a sprawling and chaotic city located on the border with Hong Kong, we shopping in the Luohu district. There are thousands of small retail shops where you can buy "authentic fakes" at low prices, if you're good at bargaining. While my friends were bargaining, I spoke with some of the shop keepers. They were speaking what sounded like Taiwanese to each other. I could understand what they were saying. Most were young teenagers and adults. There was one young woman, noticeably pregnant, who I'd guess was 17 or 18, a middle aged woman, and young men with "fashionable" hair. They told me they are from Chaozhou, Guangdong province, about 300 kilometers away. They came together and have been in Shenzhen for 4 years. The middle aged woman said business is "okay." They're not making money like the people I met in Dongguan, but they are making it.

This is quite the place. There is construction everywhere, signs of wealth, expensive restaurants, shops, and a kind of vitality that has to be seen to be believed. If we were able to go back to Athens, Greece in the time of Perikles, or to Venice during it's golden age, New York in the first half of the 20th century, you'd see the same kind of vitality. It's messy and chaotic at times, for sure. But it's the place to be. Yesterday I spoke with a young man who has an American mother and Portuguese father and is studying at the University of Macau. He said many Portuguese are "coming back" to Macau.