Editor’s Note: Ever wanted to leave home and move far away, maybe even to China? That’s what Mark Obama Ndesandjo, a half-brother to United States President Barack Obama, did seven years ago. Born in Kenya, Mark studied and worked in the U.S., but now lives in Shenzhen, a boomtown in China’s Guangdong Province. A musician, artist and writer, he has written a novel, Nairobi to Shenzhen, in which the main character has a background much like his own. Asking a few questions and finding the answers in Mark’s novel reveals much about life in southern China.

Interview With a Book, Nairobi to Shenzhen
(A Different Kind of Book Review)

What are a newcomer’s first impressions in Shenzhen?

“Finally unburdened by the shackles of war or the excesses of ideology, China poured billions into its cities, infrastructure and people. To walk on the streets of its newest city, Shenzhen, just over 30 years old, was to see a place that reached for the stars. The new conference centre with its wave-like curves that washed colors of gold, white and orange over the city at night, the gleaming subways that shot its metal bullets through the innards of the city from dawn to late at night, the soaring banks and hospitals whose windows, like encrusted diamonds, sparkled in the rarefied air, all said to the world, ‘Look at Me.’

“In all of this gleaming metal and marble, rough stone and wet concrete and loam, clean linen clothes and cellphones galore, even in the filth and garbage that streamed from the shanty towns to the streams and in the hard-scrabble canteens and worker dormitories that leached pain and desperation, there was still the unmistakable rush of hope and promise, and belief, that not only to be rich was a glorious thing, but that hard work would always be rewarded.”

It’s a unique place, huh?

“There is no single culture in Shenzhen. It is a mix of people from different parts of China, each imbuing the city with its unique vitality. From the vast reaches of Tibet and Shangri La to the bookstores and narrow streets of Beijing and Hangzhou, from the villages of Lijiang to the clay mines of Henan, a new multi-cultural phenomenon has arrived. The dreams and vigor of its ever-varying inhabitants create a cycle of energy that constantly rejuvenates itself. Shenzhen is the mill and the Chinese people are the rushing water that drives the wheel around.”

In some ways, it’s quite a high-tech city, right?

“Email, text messages, messaging services such as QQ and Skype, cell phones and computers (are) as typical of Shenzhen as the innumerable high-rise complexes, beauty salons and shampoo commercials. Every day, from alleys, buses, offices, gyms and bathroom stalls, ring tones… dissipate and congeal in an ever-dissonant chorus.”

So the place can be loud too?

“Not occasionally loud, but persistently, abrasively, extremely loud…. Wherever one went, people would scream into their cell phones, cars would honk… drinkers would toast each other…. TVs would be turned on full blast.”

Is it difficult to cope on the crowded streets?

“….it’s as though one is swept up like a surfboard on the crest of a wave. Yet, unlike the surfer, one is almost exhausted at the maneuvering, strategizing, ducking, twisting, weaving and stepping required to get through the crowd. Miraculously, however, perhaps due to the fluidity and instinctive agility of the Chinese, one almost never makes skin contact or bumps into anyone…. The vendors… insistently shove their DVDs in front of the foreigner, yelling, ‘DVD, DVD. Good movie. Have fun. Hello! Hello!’ ”

What do the locals think of foreigners?

“In much of China, the foreigner is a curiosity and the source of myths, legends and superstition. To the simple citizen, or villager, foreigners have strange appearances and stranger fashions. Their bodies are often bigger and broader next to the generally slim Chinese. And they have hair on their arms….

“They (foreigners) don’t wash enough, they refuse to shave correctly…. They don’t throw away their tissue paper, they have sex before marriage, and do not look after their old people.

“(In restaurants, it’s) good business to seat foreigners in conspicuous places as some Chinese would sometimes buy drinks and food just to sit close and observe them. Also, having foreigners seated at one’s restaurant (is) a sign of status and gives the proprietor face….”

In the West, people express outrage that the Chinese government denies basic human rights and freedoms to its own people. Why don’t more Chinese people object and protest against their rulers?

“I read, for example, in a newspaper once about foreigners who had been deported for telling their Chinese friends about their government’s infamous policies. Then again, I also see the popular police, nurse and teacher television shows, every one of them without a bad thing to say about government and its workers. Chinese are often simply unaware of the many injustices at home, and, when called upon to be patriotic and xenophobic, often rally behind the flag and against those of others.”

China has an ancient culture. How strong is its potential for modern art?

“Except for calligraphy and brush painting, art in China is a low-key affair. The government promotes so-called ‘cultural fairs’. The items on display and the artists supported often have a strong folk component. This art, though genuine, often has the effect of portraying minorities as benign, perennially happy, colorfully clothed folk dancers with quaint traditions. The raw stuff of personal and social psychological conflict often seen in western art is here rarely on display. Part of the reason is a quiet censorship, but it also has much to do with the diminution of the individual in Chinese society. ‘Society first, individual second’ goes a well-known expression.”