In the summer of 2019, I spent two months in Shenzhen. The weather wasn’t as hot as I imagined, and many evenings I ran in Shenzhen Bay Park. I had just managed to run 10 kilometers and was still immersed in a certain excitement.
The park is large and long, and it is said that you can keep running forward. In the evening, there will be some young people in the park, running, walking and cycling, and many people just sit there, watching the opposite side of the sea.
This is good, but at that time I felt that Shenzhen was missing something: young people yearn for progress and earn more money, which is not wrong. However, Shenzhen seems to be too healthy and too positive, lacking some emotional factors.
A friend returned to Chengdu from Shenzhen in 2020. She said: When those technological advances are used for control, it’s really airtight. In Chengdu, she can feel a certain gap.
I think, “one-way” progress is ultimately a bit regrettable, even a bit dangerous.
I saw a self-media in Shenzhen who said “I’m sorry” for the death of the Japanese child. The article disappeared and then reappeared, and later disappeared again.
I saw photos of people giving flowers. In Suzhou, someone gave flowers, and now someone in Shenzhen is giving flowers. Just giving flowers seems to be not enough, but besides that, it seems that nothing can be done.
It is a pity that the name of the school was covered in those photos of giving flowers. The security guards worked diligently and kept taking away the flowers people placed.
“Shenzhen Japanese School”, only the two words “Shenzhen” are left. This makes the word a bit lonely, it loses its reference, and it also loses its emotional support.
The people who offer flowers will come again. Without seeing those words below, their flowers are dedicated to “Shenzhen”. This actually constitutes a criticism. Shenzhen must become rich, be able to accept, be able to listen—more importantly, be able to express.
This also made me finally understand what Shenzhen lacks: as a big city, it is not yet worthy of being called a “great metropolis” because it cannot express itself.
It still can’t say “I’m sorry”, just like it doesn’t know how to love.
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