[scottyallen]

I’m here in Shenzhen now, after being in the US all summer. Not really feeling any anti-western feelings so far, though I was worried about that given everything that’s going on with the trade war and Hong Kong. I’ve also only been in Shenzhen a day, and prior to that was insulated in a factory up north shooting for a week, and didn’t really see much of the regularly world outside the factory and hotel.

We’ll see. I’m here for the next few weeks. But right now it feels surprisingly like the Shenzhen and China I’ve gotten to know and love, with all the good and the bad.

That being said, whether I want to really double down on a life in Shenzhen is on my mind right now. It’s difficult being a foreigner here, for lots of different reasons. Everything is harder if you’re not a Chinese citizen and don’t have a chinese id card. There’s no path to being allowed to stay in China permanently, so the rug could be pulled out from underneath you at any moment. There’s also just simple quality of life things. It’s harder to eat healthy food here. Shenzhen, like San Francisco, is a place people come to seek their fortune. Which makes it very transient, and a hard place to build long term friendships.

But yeah, so far, my read is that there a lot of what’s said about leaving China because of anti-western feelings is made up for views, and that folks left for other reasons. It’s apparently trendy to bash China right now.