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I’m fascinated by the markets of Huaqiangbei (Shenzhen) although my only exposure have been through the YouTube channel Strange Parts. The enormity of the marke

I’m fascinated by the markets of Huaqiangbei (Shenzhen) although my only exposure have been through the YouTube channel Strange Parts. The enormity of the market is shocking and I cannot think of a better place for hardware innovation. It’s somewhere I’d really like to travel one of these days.

dghughes 7y ago
Yeah Scotty at Strange Parts has shown some amazing things. There are other YouTube channels too that show some of the manufacturing in Shenzhen. Although many of the people of these channels seemed to have left China due to the big surge is anti-western feelings (either real or made-up).
- cerstiures 7y ago
  From what I’ve seen, and also experienced, the expats who were genuinely friendly have not experienced any anti-western feelings. It’s more like in the past, the locals would often defer to western expats and basically put us on a pedestal. Now, especially with the younger generation, that deference is gone. They treat western expats as any other normal person. The expats that we’re once used to a certain level of obedience are no longer comfortable with this new assertiveness and see it as anti-western feelings. Whereas those of us that were never cared for that in the first place, don’t experience anything different. I think this is also evident in the type of Youtubers that either remained or left China.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    Almost long term expats (~10 years) I knew left just because of the air pollution (that being Beijing rather than much cleaner Shenzhen). Anti westerner feelings never really got to us, but as tech workers we were never involved in politics anyways. Missionaries masquerading as English teachers probably had it much worse. It did suck that I could never get permanent residence or even just a longer than one year visa after being there for 9 years. We were always expected to leave.
- spectramax 7y ago
  Problem with Scotty is that he paints a rosy picture of all of his adventures. Unlike EEVBlog, he never criticizes Chinese manufacturing practices nor says a single thing that may offend his fan base. This is a worrying, I’m conspiring that he won’t be welcomed in China, perhaps afraid of angering CCP gods. That may not be true but it’s hard to imagine otherwise. Plus, he is sponsored by suppliers in China (PCBWay for e.g.). What good is content without objectivity?
  - netsharc 7y ago
    I'm not him, but if I were, I would respond that my YouTube is about hardware hacks and not politics. Or do you expect car reviewers to bemoan the fact that ICE cars are killing the planet or how SUVs are ego extensions? Do you expect tourism content to talk about the impact of tourism to the environment? If you do, well, there are probably YouTubers who talk about all that (just like this Medium article is talking about the cost of consumerism), but you can't demand that every content maker talk about what you want just because there's a connection.
  - scottyallen 7y ago
    Objectivity is a lie. I want to do a video about this at some point, but in learning to make videos, I’ve learned there’s no way to tell an unbiased story. That being said, I’ll be the first to admit my videos are biased. There’s tons of China bashing in the world. Some of it deserved, a lot of it not. There are a lot of very lazy journalists in the world that follow very old narratives about China because they’re too lazy and overworked to go find new ones. I could choose to follow these narratives and give viewers what they expect to hear about China. But I think it’s far more interesting and useful to the world to talk about the parts people _haven’t_ heard yet. The parts that I think are cool and amazing and exciting. All of that is real and genuine. I’m also definitely afraid of angering the CCP gods. I’m also careful to not put anyone in harms way because of something I showed in one of my videos. And I don’t think it’s fair to shit all over a factory who has invited me in as their guest. I feel like I walk a very fine line with what I show. I think there’s more value to be had by continuing to have access to show an authentic view of what China and Chinese factories are like, even if I can’t always directly comment on it. The alternative is potentially showing one or two really critical things that are already being covered well by more traditional outlets, and then never being allowed back. Which seems like a huge waste of an opportunity to create some good in the world. As for factories sponsoring videos, I turn down far more than I accept. Those videos are intended to be about how things are made and how factories work, not reviews or advertisements of a given factory. I could make that same video at a number of factories. They offer to pay to be the factory in shoot it at because it gets them a lot of useful visibility. I insist on having full creative control over the video. The only input they have is what’s confidential that I can’t show on camera (usually just customer designs or logos). If a factory is bad, or makes a bad product, I won’t accept the sponsorship. But I’m not going to go to a factory, sponsored or not, and then badmouth them. That’s rude, and would quickly mean I wouldn’t be invited to other factories to make the educational content I’m so excited to make.
- scottyallen 7y ago
  I’m here in Shenzhen now, after being in the US all summer. Not really feeling any anti-western feelings so far, though I was worried about that given everything that’s going on with the trade war and Hong Kong. I’ve also only been in Shenzhen a day, and prior to that was insulated in a factory up north shooting for a week, and didn’t really see much of the regularly world outside the factory and hotel. We’ll see. I’m here for the next few weeks. But right now it feels surprisingly like the Shenzhen and China I’ve gotten to know and love, with all the good and the bad. That being said, whether I want to really double down on a life in Shenzhen is on my mind right now. It’s difficult being a foreigner here, for lots of different reasons. Everything is harder if you’re not a Chinese citizen and don’t have a chinese id card. There’s no path to being allowed to stay in China permanently, so the rug could be pulled out from underneath you at any moment. There’s also just simple quality of life things. It’s harder to eat healthy food here. Shenzhen, like San Francisco, is a place people come to seek their fortune. Which makes it very transient, and a hard place to build long term friendships. But yeah, so far, my read is that there a lot of what’s said about leaving China because of anti-western feelings is made up for views, and that folks left for other reasons. It’s apparently trendy to bash China right now.
Taniwha 7y ago
It's not hard from Hong Kong (you do need a China Visa) - essentially you take the Hong Kong subway (last bit's really a train, but part of the subway system, light blue line) to Lo Wu, exit the subway, walk thru HKG immigration exit, cross a bridge, thru China immigration, back down into the subway (green line), 5 stops to HQB. It's worth hunting down one of the Hardware hacker oriented maps like: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/File:Hqb-map-front.png http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/File:Hqb-map-front.png or http://www.seeedstudio.com/document/pdf/Shenzhen%20Map%20for%20Makers.pdf http://www.seeedstudio.com/document/pdf/Shenzhen%20Map%20for...
- 55555 7y ago
  I did this and it was amazing. I highly recommend seeing Shenzhen
405nm 7y ago
you better get over there soon, the HQB markets are closing and rapidly being replaced by consumer-oriented products and massive shopping malls! rent is high and many of the vendors are moving out to dongguan, guangzhou, or fully online.

dghughes 7y ago

Yeah Scotty at Strange Parts has shown some amazing things. There are other YouTube channels too that show some of the manufacturing in Shenzhen. Although many of the people of these channels seemed to have left China due to the big surge is anti-western feelings (either real or made-up).

cerstiures 7y ago
From what I’ve seen, and also experienced, the expats who were genuinely friendly have not experienced any anti-western feelings. It’s more like in the past, the locals would often defer to western expats and basically put us on a pedestal. Now, especially with the younger generation, that deference is gone. They treat western expats as any other normal person. The expats that we’re once used to a certain level of obedience are no longer comfortable with this new assertiveness and see it as anti-western feelings. Whereas those of us that were never cared for that in the first place, don’t experience anything different. I think this is also evident in the type of Youtubers that either remained or left China.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  Almost long term expats (~10 years) I knew left just because of the air pollution (that being Beijing rather than much cleaner Shenzhen). Anti westerner feelings never really got to us, but as tech workers we were never involved in politics anyways. Missionaries masquerading as English teachers probably had it much worse. It did suck that I could never get permanent residence or even just a longer than one year visa after being there for 9 years. We were always expected to leave.
spectramax 7y ago
Problem with Scotty is that he paints a rosy picture of all of his adventures. Unlike EEVBlog, he never criticizes Chinese manufacturing practices nor says a single thing that may offend his fan base. This is a worrying, I’m conspiring that he won’t be welcomed in China, perhaps afraid of angering CCP gods. That may not be true but it’s hard to imagine otherwise. Plus, he is sponsored by suppliers in China (PCBWay for e.g.). What good is content without objectivity?
- netsharc 7y ago
  I'm not him, but if I were, I would respond that my YouTube is about hardware hacks and not politics. Or do you expect car reviewers to bemoan the fact that ICE cars are killing the planet or how SUVs are ego extensions? Do you expect tourism content to talk about the impact of tourism to the environment? If you do, well, there are probably YouTubers who talk about all that (just like this Medium article is talking about the cost of consumerism), but you can't demand that every content maker talk about what you want just because there's a connection.
- scottyallen 7y ago
  Objectivity is a lie. I want to do a video about this at some point, but in learning to make videos, I’ve learned there’s no way to tell an unbiased story. That being said, I’ll be the first to admit my videos are biased. There’s tons of China bashing in the world. Some of it deserved, a lot of it not. There are a lot of very lazy journalists in the world that follow very old narratives about China because they’re too lazy and overworked to go find new ones. I could choose to follow these narratives and give viewers what they expect to hear about China. But I think it’s far more interesting and useful to the world to talk about the parts people _haven’t_ heard yet. The parts that I think are cool and amazing and exciting. All of that is real and genuine. I’m also definitely afraid of angering the CCP gods. I’m also careful to not put anyone in harms way because of something I showed in one of my videos. And I don’t think it’s fair to shit all over a factory who has invited me in as their guest. I feel like I walk a very fine line with what I show. I think there’s more value to be had by continuing to have access to show an authentic view of what China and Chinese factories are like, even if I can’t always directly comment on it. The alternative is potentially showing one or two really critical things that are already being covered well by more traditional outlets, and then never being allowed back. Which seems like a huge waste of an opportunity to create some good in the world. As for factories sponsoring videos, I turn down far more than I accept. Those videos are intended to be about how things are made and how factories work, not reviews or advertisements of a given factory. I could make that same video at a number of factories. They offer to pay to be the factory in shoot it at because it gets them a lot of useful visibility. I insist on having full creative control over the video. The only input they have is what’s confidential that I can’t show on camera (usually just customer designs or logos). If a factory is bad, or makes a bad product, I won’t accept the sponsorship. But I’m not going to go to a factory, sponsored or not, and then badmouth them. That’s rude, and would quickly mean I wouldn’t be invited to other factories to make the educational content I’m so excited to make.
scottyallen 7y ago
I’m here in Shenzhen now, after being in the US all summer. Not really feeling any anti-western feelings so far, though I was worried about that given everything that’s going on with the trade war and Hong Kong. I’ve also only been in Shenzhen a day, and prior to that was insulated in a factory up north shooting for a week, and didn’t really see much of the regularly world outside the factory and hotel. We’ll see. I’m here for the next few weeks. But right now it feels surprisingly like the Shenzhen and China I’ve gotten to know and love, with all the good and the bad. That being said, whether I want to really double down on a life in Shenzhen is on my mind right now. It’s difficult being a foreigner here, for lots of different reasons. Everything is harder if you’re not a Chinese citizen and don’t have a chinese id card. There’s no path to being allowed to stay in China permanently, so the rug could be pulled out from underneath you at any moment. There’s also just simple quality of life things. It’s harder to eat healthy food here. Shenzhen, like San Francisco, is a place people come to seek their fortune. Which makes it very transient, and a hard place to build long term friendships. But yeah, so far, my read is that there a lot of what’s said about leaving China because of anti-western feelings is made up for views, and that folks left for other reasons. It’s apparently trendy to bash China right now.

Taniwha 7y ago

It's not hard from Hong Kong (you do need a China Visa) - essentially you take the Hong Kong subway (last bit's really a train, but part of the subway system, light blue line) to Lo Wu, exit the subway, walk thru HKG immigration exit, cross a bridge, thru China immigration, back down into the subway (green line), 5 stops to HQB. It's worth hunting down one of the Hardware hacker oriented maps like: http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/File:Hqb-map-front.png http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/File:Hqb-map-front.png or http://www.seeedstudio.com/document/pdf/Shenzhen%20Map%20for%20Makers.pdf http://www.seeedstudio.com/document/pdf/Shenzhen%20Map%20for...

55555 7y ago
I did this and it was amazing. I highly recommend seeing Shenzhen

405nm 7y ago

you better get over there soon, the HQB markets are closing and rapidly being replaced by consumer-oriented products and massive shopping malls! rent is high and many of the vendors are moving out to dongguan, guangzhou, or fully online.