Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Winners 2020 | Page 30

Winning Entries
development is almost unparalleled: its use of 4% of its GDP in 2018 is rivalled only by the
innovative economies of Israel and South Korea. For instance, Tencent’s brainchild Wechat
is the most popular social media network in the world, connecting around a billion users.
However, to suggest that it is a social media application would be a vast understatement:
it offers a multitude of features, ranging from online payments to video calls to options
for advertising. In reality, it means that one can pay for groceries, book an appointment
to the doctor, and send anyone a voice message while catching up with your friends’ latest
adventures, not to mention to pay for utilities in case you’ve forgotten, all without leaving
the app. It is then no surprise that Tencent is one of the miracles of the past decade: its Hong
Kong-listed stock price increased up to 12,200 percent since its inception in 2014. In addition,
the smartphones that are used for accessing this expanding network could take a radically
different form: Huawei, another tech giant headquartered in the vibrant city of Shenzhen,
which stretches from the smartphone industry — in which it is neck and neck with the global
leader, Samsung — to the nascent 5G sector, a subject that has attracted global attention.
It is then easy to foresee a future where you can call a taxi and pay the driver in advance,
when you tap on your Huawei that boasts a smorgasbord of features, including a top-class
semiconductor chip that could be manufactured by Alibaba, which recently released the
Hanguang 800 chip that the firm claims to be the fastest in the world. Although the artificial
intelligence chip right now is being used internally for product search and advertising, it is not
impossible to envision a future where the two titans join forces and create a chip that could be
used both for supporting smartphones and digital infrastructure.
These electronics could be assembled just a few miles up north in the city of Dongguan,
which is suffering from its overreliance on migrant workers: some 75% of its 8.3 million
population are migrants who leave the city deserted during festivals such as during Chinese
New Year. Instead, it has repositioned itself as a production base, as more enterprises
are attracted to its allure. It is already home to about 9,000 enterprises according to the
Hong Kong Trade and Development Council, and it is readjusting to meet the demand of
neighbouring cities. Spanning an area of 60 square km, the emerging district of Binhaiwan
will be a hotspot for innovative industries, including university startups which have seen
increased engagement in the technological sphere. One in five smartphones in the world are
made in Dongguan due to its large workforce and abundant supply of materials, and this is set
to accelerate as semiconductors are in the spotlight of the city’s development. A major reason
for this is the “Made in China 2025” plan: China aims to produce 40% of the semiconductors
it uses by 2020 and 70% by 2025. Self-sufficiency is significant as the global economy is still
volatile in the wake of the US-China trade war, and Dongguan is a prime actor in realising
that goal in the years to come.
Hop on a state-of-the-art high-speed rail and you could be minutes away from Guangzhou,
the provincial capital of Guangdong and the region’s most populous city. Apart from the
spectacular transportation network that solidifies its position as a gateway city, its culture which
had been shaped by decades of change is also worthy of attention. The Wuxian Guan, a Taoist
temple engraved with sculptures of five sheep, is a prominent example of the city’s heritage: it is
believed that five celestial rams arrived in Chuting (Guangzhou during the Zhou Dynasty) and
blessed the city with good harvests, bringing an end to an era of sustained famine. Go into the
city centre and you would be stunned by the ancient architecture in Old Xiguan, which was
home to elaborate Cantonese mansions owned by the most affluent personalities a few centuries
ago. All sharing the traditional Lingnan characteristics, they are immaculately designed with
timber-masonry structures and have withstood the test of time: the Xiguan houses are currently
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