Original version

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

Witness History: Shenzhen - Special Economic Zone

Magazines & Reviews

News

Shenzhen - Special Economic Zone

08/05/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, Shenzhen - Special Economic Zone

In May 1980 Communist China allowed capitalist activity for the first time.

In May 1980, China allowed capitalist activity for the first time since the Communist Revolution, in four designated cities known as the Special Economic Zones.

In May 1980 China allowed capitalist activity for the first time since the Communist Revolution, in four designated cities known as the Special Economic Zones. The most successful was Shenzhen, which grew from a mainly rural area specialising in pigs and lychees to one of China's biggest cities.

Lucy Burns speaks to Yong Ya, a musician who has lived in Shenzhen since the 1980s, and to ethnographer Mary Ann O'Donnell.

IMAGE: Pedestrians and cars stream by a giant poster of Chinese patriarch Deng Xiaoping in Shenzhen, the first of China's special economic zones. TOMMY CHENG/AFP/Getty Images

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

Shenzhen - Special Economic Zone

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

About BBC World Service