Learning China the Hard Way: Kent Kedl on Curiosity, Business, and Being an Outsider

In 1984, the Pearl River Delta was a region in the midst of rapid change. Shenzhen’s population had surged from roughly 300,000 to more than 1.2 million residents as the new Special Economic Zones transformed the area. It was radically different from cities like Nanjing or Beijing, where newly arrived foreigners often found themselves the only outsiders amid a sea of curious locals. There, merely…