ABSTRACT
The study contained in this book was conducted in Shenzhen, a city at the vanguard of the economic reform and opening-up in China. As a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) situated in the Pearl River Delta of the south-eastern coast, Shenzhen underwent rapid economic development in the reform era, and was thus dubbed an ‘overnight’ city. Designated as a ‘laboratory’ and a ‘window’ for economic reform and openness, Shenzhen leads the inland areas in economic transition and social changes, with the slogan, ‘Shenzhen today is the interior areas tomorrow’. Its impressive economic achievement, however, ran in parallel with rapid population growth and an escalating crime problem. Thus, compared with those hinterland cities, Shenzhen exhibits both similarities and differences in diverse perspectives of social life. From a methodological viewpoint, the aspect of similarities is important because it is still Chinese, while the aspect of differences signifies the direction of future development of China as a whole. Therefore, through the prism or vantage point of Shenzhen, the past, present and future of China may be crystallized and captured in one picture. However, the specialness of Shenzhen does not translate into less difficulties and challenges in carrying out a criminological study. Moreover, as a native Chinese growing up in China's reform era and as a student of criminology in Hong Kong (a Special Administrative Region since its handover of sovereignty in 1997), I was also confronted with a bitter struggle between the West and the East and between the traditional and the modern. So this chapter is organized into four sections. First, it introduces Shenzhen, where the fieldwork for this study was conducted, including hukou and migration, population and economic growth, and crime. Second, it provides an overview of the five communities to which access was granted by the authorities. Third, it discusses the dilemmas in the process of conducting China studies, including dilemmas within and dilemmas without. Last, it briefly discusses two obstacles in conducting fieldwork in Shenzhen and introduces the research methods used in this study.
