Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    “A TALE of Two Cities,” a novel by English writer Charles Dickens set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution, depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French aristocracy in the years before the revolution, the corresponding brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats in the early years of the revolution and many unpleasant social parallels with life in London during the same time period.

    Even people who have not read the book have undoubtedly heard its famous opening line, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.”

    I would like to relate the story of two other cities: Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Shenzhen’s epic rise and Hong Kong’s lackluster standstill in development in the past 30 years is the best illustration of the Chinese saying, “What used to be on the east bank of the Yellow River 30 years ago is now on the west bank.” The saying describes profound changes over time.

    If someone who was familiar with both Hong Kong and Shenzhen had left 30 years ago and returned now to visit the two cities, she would hardly recognize Shenzhen and find little change in Hong Kong.

    Statistics are dull but telling. When the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was established in August 1980, the former fishing town had a paltry GDP of 200 million yuan (US$33 million) while Hong Kong’s GDP surpassed US$20 billion. In 2013, Shenzhen’s GDP rocketed to US$236 billion (1.45 trillion yuan) while Hong Kong was only slightly ahead of Shenzhen with US$273.6 billion.

    Magnetized by its promising prospect as a reform test tube, I reached Shenzhen shortly after the New Year holiday of 1985. In March, I joined 300 other hotel trainees and entered Hong Kong, then still a British colony, to attend a three-month hotel training program.

    Dazzling neon signs, brightly lit skyscrapers, shops packed with great varieties of consumer goods never seen on Chinese mainland, people dressed in colorful and fancy attires ... everything in this tiny capitalist peninsula amazed me. I was stunned by the sharp contrast between an impoverished Chinese mainland and an affluent Hong Kong!

    At that time, in the eyes of mainland Chinese, every Hong Kong resident was rich, and in the eyes of Hong Kong people, all mainland Chinese were country cousins. Quite a few of the girls in my training group chose to marry Hong Kong men, many of whom were cooks or restaurant managers. The Hong Kong dollar was in short supply, popular songs by Hong Kong singers swept the nation, and people took pride in speaking Cantonese, Hong Kong’s native language.

    Since then, Shenzhen has been whizzing forward while Hong Kong has been lurching along; the former Asian tiger has been living on its past gains.

    Shenzhen has been pursuing fast and healthy economic and social growth through constant reforms. During the past few decades, Shenzhen has evolved from a labor-intensive manufacturing hub to a metropolis with highly developed industries like financing and insurance, high technology, IT, cultural creativity and, particularly, Internet-based industries.

    Alas, at the same time, Hong Kong has seen little progress in industry upgrading and economic restructuring; its economy is still heavily relying what has fed the city for decades: financing, real estate and service.

    As Hong Kong’s closest neighbors, Shenzheners have been accustomed to seeing Hong Kong as a giant department and grocery store.

    The new story of two cities brings home the Chinese saying, “Not to advance is to reverse.”

    Shenzhen, like the rest of the country, is fully aware of the consequences of complacency and refusal to reform, so it has never ceased to seek new momentum for development. On the other hand, Hong Kong has been caught up in endless “internal friction.” Faced with political bickering, Hong Kong can hardly do anything to upgrade the city’s economy, so the territory’s trouble is far from over.

    Time keeps vindicating Deng Xiaoping’s famous remark: “Development is the absolute truth.”

    (The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)