- Shenzhen (comic)
Shenzhen (ISBN 0-224-07991-3) (published in English as "Shenzhen: A Travelogue From China") is a
black-and-white graphic novel by the Canadian Quebecois authorGuy Delisle published in 2000.It documents Delisle's three-month deployment in December 1997 to
Shenzhen , a big city developed by thePeople's Republic of China nearHong Kong , where he is acting as the liaison betweenDupuis , a Frenchanimation producing company and a Chinese studio, where Chinese animators draw child-oriented films ("Papyrus") from the layout phase taking the Frenchstoryboard s as a guide.He struggles with boredom, the difficulties of outsourcing and the
culture shock of a Westerner in this profit-oriented Chinese city.The book has 145 pages.
Some of the frames are drawn by Chinese artists and by a friend of Delisle's.
Plot
Delisle had already been to China in
Nanjing .He is deployed toShenzhen as part of an outsourcing project, where he will spend three months in the Great Wall Hotel.Unlike in Hong Kong, there are not many bilingual Chinese so he has language problems during his stay, including with the interpreters at work. Often he has to recourse to drawing or pointing to communicate.
Among his experiences of life in Shenzhen include a visit to a Chinese dentist to cure a toothache, but after seeing the unhygienic conditions of the clinic, he is relieved to find out it is just a case of
mesialization .Since the main leisure activity in Shenzhen is shopping, Delisle tries to read books, works for
L'Association 's "Lapin" magazine, and buys Chinese artbooks (drawings by children,Wang Chi Yun ,Hu Buo Zhong ).He realizes that the "
Spirou " that he liked as a child is no longer funny.An allegory he applies to the Chinese
rural exodus is theDivine Comedy with the Chinese countryside as the "Inferno", the USA as the "Paradiso" and the big Chinese cities, Shenzhen, and Hongkong as intermediate rings.He finds a copy of "Théodore Poussin ".His Chinese-speaking acquaintances bring him to try Chinese food.He finds Canton and Hong Kong more interesting than Shenzhen.The only tourist attraction he visits in the new city is the World Windows, since his Chinese friends are not interested in
Splendid China .He spends a Christmas dinner with a Chinese animator who, while a fan of
Rembrandt has only a black-and-white photo of "Bathsheba at Her Bath ".There is less political commentary than in his later "Pyongyang" comic.
ee also
*Pyongyang, a later black and white graphic novel, where Delisle narrates his work experience in the capital of North Korea.
External links
* [http://www.lilibeko.com/animation_delisle.htm Intervalles Shenzhen Pyongyang] , exposition on Delisle's work for French-speaking audiences, scenography by
Bekir Aysan .
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