In April 2018, it was reported that the so-called “Golden State Killer” (GSK) – a rapist and murderer who had terrorized northern California in the late 1970s and early 1980s – was finally tracked down and arrested using DNA evidence. Read More …

On 26th June 2017, I interviewed David Li at his Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab (SZOIL) What appears below is a fairly heavily edited version of our conversation. Any errors are my own fault.  HS: Shenzhen is perhaps most widely known Read More …

At the end of my time in Shenzhen, I wanted to reflect on the similarities between the city and my usual home of Singapore. There is no doubt that there are many similarities between the cities, and this is not Read More …

While exploring Shenzhen, I went to see an exhibition at OCT-Loft by Simon Denny called Real Mass Entrepreneurship. The aim of the exhibition was to juxtapose Shenzhen’s famous electronics markets at Huaqiangbei with the Shenzhen’s tourist theme park “Windows of Read More …

One of the distinctive features of Shenzhen are its so-called urban villages. These have a very particular history. In the communist agricultural system, villages were collectively owned and managed by their residents. As Shenzhen expanded, the municipal government was able Read More …

China (or at least Shenzhen) is now barcode land. This is perhaps one of the most surprising things and different aspects of life in Shenzhen. Locals here boast about the fact that you can leave your house without anything but Read More …

Westerners visiting Shenzhen inevitably get told to visit a few “suitable” places in the city. After “Windows on the World” and Shekou, OCT or “Overseas Chinese Town” is high on the list. OCT is more or less surrounded or enclosed Read More …

This is the first in a series of posts about Shenzhen. I am spending May-June-July 2017 in the city as a visiting scholar at Shenzhen University.  In one of our first few evenings in Shenzhen, we decided to visit the port Read More …

Originally Posted: November 20, 2011. I wanted to begin thinking about science and technology in Asia by exploring how technology constitutes the relationship East and West in the twenty-first century. I want to do this by reflecting on the story, Read More …

Originally Posted: December 5, 2011. Adrian Johns begins his history of piracy (of the intellectual property variety) by describing an attempt by a Chinese company to copy products made by the consumer electronics giant NEC. But these pirates had taken Read More …