Editor’s note

Welcome to Gen Z Weekly, our new column dedicated to showcasing the voices and experiences of Generation Z in Shenzhen and beyond. We’ve created this space to share authentic, youth-driven narratives that reflect the energy and perspectives of today’s young people. Through Gen Z Weekly, expect to hear directly from international students and Chinese youth about their campus lives, personal journeys, and thoughtful insights.

Yang Mei

yangmei_szdaily@163.com

FOR Rayan Boukhanifi, the journey to Shenzhen was an odyssey in every sense of the word. At 17, his trip began with a denial of entry at the airport due to his age, followed by flight delays, missed connections, and a makeshift stay at a stranger’s home. It took three grueling days to navigate from Morocco to Italy, Italy to Beijing, and finally, Beijing to Shenzhen.

Hailing from El Jadida, a major port city on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, the now 18-year-old is a freshman majoring in computer science and engineering at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen (CUHK-Shenzhen). Just four months into his college life, the former competitive gamer is “leveling up” in the real world — a city where he believes he could “win the future.”

“If you’re a real tech person, you have to go to a tech hub to meet people who are truly obsessed with technology,” Boukhanifi told Shenzhen Daily. “If you go to Shenzhen, that’s where you win the future.”

The discipline to reset

Standing 180 cm tall, Boukhanifi is fit and well-built today, but it wasn’t always this way. In high school, he weighed 100 kilograms. His motivation to change was simple but powerful: football.

“Football is the national sport of Morocco, but I was too heavy to play,” Boukhanifi said candidly. “If you can’t play football, people tend to look down on you.”

Beyond the pitch, he simply wanted to breathe easier and sleep better.

“I had really low energy. I needed to lose weight to grow into a better person. I wanted to be free,” he recalled.

Applying the same focus he uses in gaming, Boukhanifi committed to a strict regimen: intensive jump roping and online workout tutorials at least six times a week, paired with a strict diet of boiled potatoes and skinless chicken. The effort paid off — in 10 months, he shed 40 kilograms.

“That period was the hardest, but everything was worth it,” he said. “I became free physically and mentally. I breathed better, felt more confident, and could talk to people as a normal person.”

Switching from gaming to coding

Educated in a French school in Morocco, Boukhanifi is a polyglot who speaks Arabic, French, English, and Spanish, and he is currently learning Mandarin.

While he was a top-5 student in high school who excelled in physics, he credits his sharp mind not to traditional studying, but to his obsession with video games. To him, games were about solving puzzles, navigating adventures, and absorbing English text.

“I was the only student in my school not going to night school (cram school). I would just go home and play video games,” he admitted.

His favorite game, “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” encouraged him to explore open worlds and solve complex logic puzzles. “At a young age, your life is like a series of puzzles. When you’re exploring an open-world game, you’re learning how to learn,” he explained, adding that he was one of the top “Fortnite” players in Morocco.

For Boukhanifi, the transition from gaming to coding was natural and seamless. “I shifted from video games and found a new passion — programming,” he said. He taught himself Python online. “For me, it was natural. It’s on the same computer; I just needed to switch windows.”

The ‘Three Big

Decisions’

At 15, Boukhanifi attended a summer engineering program at Oxford University. Upon graduating high school, he received scholarship offers from prestigious institutions like Sorbonne University and the University of Montreal. Yet, he chose CUHK-Shenzhen.

His choice was inspired by the philosophy of angel investor Naval Ravikant, who stated that the three biggest decisions in life are where you live, who you’re with, and what you do.

Boukhanifi didn’t choose Shenzhen on a whim, but after careful consideration. “It took me a year and a half to figure out where I wanted to live,” Boukhanifi said. For a tech geek, Shenzhen was the ultimate destination.

“Shenzhen is the most advanced technological hub in the world. It was mind-blowing: new technology everywhere, hardworking people, a clean city, and skyscrapers.”

He was equally impressed by the sheer scale of CUHK-Shenzhen — particularly the Maker Lab, a collaboration with Stanford University. “The lab has 3D printers and everything you need to build technical and physical things,” he noted. He joined a student team building robots for the RoboMaster Championship, an international robotics competition organized by DJI.

Building the future

Boukhanifi isn’t waiting for graduation to start his career. Until recently, he spent five months working remotely in his spare time as a founding engineer for Pickle, a Silicon Valley AI startup backed by Y Combinator, a well-known startup accelerator. He leveraged his location in Shenzhen to help the U.S.-based company handle hardware supply chains and factory connections.

He landed the role after Pickle’s CEO met him on campus and issued a challenge: hire an engineer in three weeks. Boukhanifi spoke to 200 people and found the right candidate in just one week.

“San Francisco doesn’t have the factories to manufacture a product. Many Americans are coming to Shenzhen to build their hardware,” he explained.

The young entrepreneur is also launching his own project — Mortar, an AI tool for real-life operations, for which he is currently raising funds. He believes Shenzhen is the “best place” to run a startup.

Boukhanifi told Shenzhen Daily that Mortar has signed contracts with 13 enterprises, including multibillion-dollar companies. He envisions Mortar becoming the brain of all robots in the future. “All companies will use it to power their infrastructure,” he said.