Shenzhen People in America

Sunday, November 15, 2026 · Features · GSM News

《The Star》栏目组

Next week, the world's eyes turn to Shenzhen. On November 18 and 19, the 33rd APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting convenes in Shenzhen, bringing together the leaders of 21 economies in the city on the eastern shore of the Pearl River estuary. The White House has confirmed that President Trump will attend, and will hold a trilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Photo: The Futian central district at night, the Civic Center lit up and Ping An Finance Centre towering above it. In APEC leaders' week, this is the Shenzhen the world sees first. (Sparktour, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

It is hard to imagine that little more than forty years ago, this was a borderland of fishing villages and farmland. The Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was established in 1980, and the city grew from there at "Shenzhen speed": population up from a few hundred thousand to more than 17 million, and an economy of about 3.68 trillion yuan in 2024, among the largest of any Chinese city. The transformation from fishing village to modern metropolis is one the whole world has watched.

Photo: Mudflats and fishing boats on Shenzhen Bay, with the Shenzhen Bay Bridge to Hong Kong in the distance. Villages once made their living on these flats; the far end of the bridge now meets a modern metropolis. (laimanhoo, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The city's speed began with a single building. In the 1980s, the Guomao Building in Luohu rose at one floor every three days, a national record at the time, and "Shenzhen speed" became the city's byword. "Time is money, efficiency is life" — the slogan first raised in Shekou entered the shared memory of the first generation of Shenzheners together with that tower. Four decades on, Guomao is long past being the tallest building in town, but the drive to keep growing upward never stopped.

Photo: The Guomao Building in Luohu at sunset. Forty years ago it rose at a record pace of a floor every three days to become the tallest building in China at the time, the origin of "Shenzhen speed." (Charlie fong, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Photo: Four decades on, this is what the city's skyline grew into: in the evening light, Ping An Finance Centre rises far above the glass towers around it. (Shihu7, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Photo: Yantian Port at sunset, giant container ships at berth beneath rows of gantry cranes — Shenzhen's front gate to world trade.

For technology and innovation, America has Silicon Valley, and China has Shenzhen. Tencent, DJI and Huawei all grew out of this city. Every January at CES in Las Vegas, Shenzhen makers fill aisle after aisle, from drones to smart homes, one of the most visible city contingents at the show. Now the leaders of 21 economies are gathering in Shenzhen itself, and everyone is watching to see what sparks fly.

Photo: The technology headquarters cluster along Houhai and Shenzhen Bay in Nanshan District, in the same Yuehai Subdistrict as the Shenzhen High-Tech Industrial Park, the innovation heartland of the city. (Charlie fong, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Photo: Tencent's new headquarters campus, Penguin Island, lit up at dusk on Dachan Bay. Wave-shaped glass towers linked by a ring podium are the face of Shenzhen's newest generation of tech landmarks. (Lhzss8, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Photo: The Shenzhen Eye inside the Gangxia North transport hub, where four metro lines meet. Every day, commuters pass beneath a ceiling that looks like an eye, or a field of stars. (CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Photo: The Houhai headquarters cluster across Shenzhen Bay, China Resources Tower — the "Spring Bamboo" — at the center of the skyline, as a flock of cormorants takes off from the water.

Photo: Qianhai Bay at dusk, the Bay Glory Ferris wheel lit up, a long bridge crossing the water.

Across the Pacific, people who came from Shenzhen have long since carried the city's temperament to America. The leaders in Shenzhen will talk about the big questions; Shenzhen people in America are busy with a more everyday project: building businesses and building lives. This story is about them, and it starts with a check-in day.

On December 6, the Fifth U.S. Shenzhen Registration Day will be held in the Grand Ballroom of the Marriott hotel in Ontario, California. An opening procession, a stage show and an open runway: the event is staged like a collective check-in. GSM takes the occasion to place Shenzhen natives in America side by side along four threads — investment, entrepreneurship, technology and community — people who run businesses, factories and product lines in the United States, and who also build stages and sports teams, turning daily life into a circle of mutual support.

Start with the check-in itself. The event is hosted by the U.S. Shenzhen Federation, runs free of charge from 1:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and carries the slogans "United by Shenzhen bonds, gathering talent from everywhere, growing together" and "A joyful reunion in Los Angeles: once you arrive, you are a Shenzhener." The federation, registered in California in 2022, is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit with six industry alliances and twelve interest clubs, uniting nearly 8,000 Shenzhen natives and friends in the United States. On November 8 last year, the fourth Registration Day drew more than 800 people to Monterey Park; a year later, the fifth edition moves to Ontario, at a larger scale.

Photo: Shenzhen Civic Center, seat of the municipal government, its roof shaped like a roc spreading its wings, with the Futian central district behind it. (Dinkun Chen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The investment thread: Shenzhen's presence hides in the shareholding

Los Angeles is a capital of the American games industry, and Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends, is headquartered there. The shareholder of that Los Angeles company is Tencent, founded in Shenzhen in 1998. Tencent took a majority stake in Riot Games in 2011 and bought the remaining shares in December 2015; it has held the company outright ever since.

GSM's observation is that Shenzhen capital often lands in America not by building a new plant, but by acquiring a local company and holding it for the long term, letting it keep its name, its city and its team. The Shenzhen identity sits inside the ownership structure, while the face the public sees remains a Los Angeles company and a Los Angeles product. The presence is quiet, but the weight is real: at the top of the decision chain of one of the world's most played games sits Shenzhen.

Photo: The Civic Center and the Futian central district skyline seen from Lianhuashan Park. (Sparktour, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The entrepreneurship thread: a factory next door to the game table

This fall, America's mahjong boom acquired hard numbers. Yelp data shows that from September 2024 to August 2025, U.S. searches for "mahjong clubs" rose 4,467% year over year, and searches for mahjong lessons rose 819%. The tables heated up, but the tiles still mostly arrive by sea: a mahjong set costs about $30 to produce in Taixing, Jiangsu, and can sell for $300 to $400 in the United States.

In an industrial unit in Ontario, a Chinese-run 3D printing company chose the other route. 3D Print Joy put nearly 50 American mahjong products — travel sets, practice boards, push boards, racks and dice trays — onto its local printer fleet, designing, printing and shipping everything from Southern California; change a design today, and a new batch prints tomorrow. The company's owner is a member of the U.S. Shenzhen Federation; surfacing in a federation group chat, he noted that almost no Chinese makers had touched this niche. His story is only one among many Shenzhen entrepreneurs in America, a small slice that says a lot: stay close to the market and move fast — that is how this group works.

The technology thread: let the product land in American backyards first

No account of Shenzhen technology in America can skip drones. DJI was founded in Shenzhen in 2006 by Frank Wang, set up its North America subsidiary in 2011, and went on to become a byword for consumer drones in the United States: by 2020, DJI held about 77% of the U.S. consumer drone market, with no other company above 4%. Forbes has called Wang the world's first drone billionaire. In recent years DJI has also met regulatory disputes and restrictions in the U.S. market, which the company is contesting in court — a later chapter of the story.

Photo: The Houhai skyline in Nanshan District across Shenzhen Bay, with China Resources Tower, known as the Spring Bamboo, rising above it; Nanshan hosts the densest cluster of Shenzhen tech firms. (Windmemories, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

GSM's observation is that Shenzhen technology firms enter America in a consistent order: the product goes first. Let Americans use it and get used to it; the brand, and the controversy, come later. Drones followed that order, games followed it, and mahjong gear is following it now. Whether the product holds decides how long this group's American story runs.

Photo: Shoppers at a drone counter in Huaqiangbei. In Shenzhen today, even the deliveries fly: Meituan and SF Express delivery drones now run regular routes over the city, bringing food and parcels down from the sky. (Benlisquare, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The community thread: hometown feeling, organized

If the first three threads are about what Shenzhen people do in America, the fourth is about how they live — and the organizer of that life is the U.S. Shenzhen Federation from the top of this story. Its six industry alliances handle business connections; its twelve interest clubs handle the warmth of daily life. On November 7, the Shangrao Cup pickleball tournament, co-hosted by the federation and a Southern California university alumni alliance, opened in Lake Forest, Orange County; when the matches end, a BBQ gathering follows, with a pickleball celebration, guandan lessons and a photo contest on the same program. The federation's promotional film puts the method in one line: build the alliances and the clubs, and the people stay together.

Photo: Panorama of the Futian central district in Shenzhen, with Ping An Finance Centre rising at the center of the skyline. (Charlie fong, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

The Shenzhen temperament: the common trait of a city of migrants

With the four threads side by side, GSM can take up the two questions the editors posed: what is the Shenzhen temperament, and what do Shenzhen people share?

First, a pragmatism that gets things done. The 3D printing owner's method is to print locally and revise the same day; the Registration Day's method is to gather people first and talk cooperation second. Less talk of identity, more talk of progress — a working habit carried straight out of Shenzhen.

Second, an openness summed up in "once you arrive." Shenzhen is itself a city of migrants; trace most Shenzhen family trees back a generation or two and they lead somewhere else. The slogan "once you arrive, you are a Shenzhener" has been carried to Los Angeles unchanged: no one asks where you came from — check in first, put down roots first. What these people share is not a birthplace; it is a common experience of migration.

Third, mutual aid, organized. Nearly 8,000 members, six alliances, twelve clubs: the federation has turned hometown feeling into an institution with bylaws, divisions of labor and an annual calendar. For a newly landed Shenzhener, it is the first stop for work, partners and friends; for those already settled, it is the channel through which experience flows back.

Fourth, products and business go first. Drones flew into American backyards, games moved into young Americans' computers, and mahjong gear arrived on American tables before community roots and identity talk caught up. Shenzhen's connection with America was built by business and products first — the reverse of the community-first path many groups have taken.

On December 6, the fifth Registration Day opens in Ontario, with the six alliances, twelve clubs and friendly associations entering in full dress. "Check-in" is the right closing note for this group portrait: arrive in a new place, check in, take root, build the business, build the life. That is what Shenzhen people in America share.

As this story is published, the countdown to the APEC leaders' meeting is on. On November 18 and 19, the leaders of 21 economies arrive in Shenzhen: a trilateral meeting among Trump, Xi and Putin is already scheduled, and GSM will follow every new development, from the bilateral meetings to the leaders' sessions themselves. The leaders' encounter in Shenzhen and the story of Shenzhen people in America are two faces of the same city.

Photo: The Shenzhen Bay Bridge at dusk. During leaders' week, aircraft and motorcades from across the Pacific will arrive in this city one after another. (Sparktour, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Photo: Night falls, and Ping An Finance Centre lights up above Futian. (Chris from Shenzhen, China, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Source: The Star

Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 图：从莲花山公园俯瞰深圳市民中心与福田中心区天际线，平安金融中心高耸其间。（摄影：Sparktour，CC BY-SA 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons）正文图：深圳市民中心近景（摄影：Dinkun Chen，CC BY-SA 4.0）、深圳湾南山后海天际线（摄影：Windmemories，CC BY-SA 4.0）、福田中心区全景（摄影：Charlie fong，CC BY-SA 4.0），均经Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Shenzhen Civic Center and the Futian skyline from Lianhuashan Park, with Ping An Finance Centre. (Sparktour, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons) In-body photos: Civic Center close view (Dinkun Chen, CC BY-SA 4.0); Shenzhen Bay Houhai skyline (Windmemories, CC BY-SA 4.0); Futian panorama (Charlie fong, CC BY-SA 4.0), all via Wikimedia Commons. || 正文补图（2026-11-15主编按James指示补入，逐张目检）：市民中心夜景全景 File:Civic Center, Shenzhen Lianhuashan Park (2018.9) Night cropped.jpg，Sparktour 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0；深圳湾滩涂 File:Shenzhen Bay14.jpg，laimanhoo 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0；南山科技总部集群 File:MFG No1 Shenzhen Bay in Weilanhaian District2020.jpg，Charlie fong 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0；平安金融中心 File:Ping An Finance Centre Shenzhen city China (36461945211).jpg，Chris 摄，CC BY-SA 2.0；华强北送货员 File:Man on a scooter pulling a cart with packages in Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei..jpg，Shenzhen Pages 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0；深圳湾大桥黄昏 File:Sunset in Senzhen Bay (Deep Bay) Bridge.jpg，Sparktour 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0；均经Wikimedia Commons。；2026-11-15增补（James指示）：国贸大厦＝File:Guomao Building in Shenzhen2021.jpg（Charlie fong，CC BY-SA 4.0）；无人机柜台＝File:Quadcopter drone vendor at Shenzhen Huaqiang Electronic World.jpg（CC BY-SA 4.0）；企鹅岛＝File:深圳腾讯总部园区 3.jpg（CC BY-SA 4.0）；深圳之眼＝File:SZ 深圳 Shenzhen 福田 Futian 崗廈北站 Gangxia North Station concourse ceiling eye June 2024 R12S 03.jpg（CC0，已裁去右下角日期戳）；莲花山市民中心图由主图移入正文（Sparktour，CC BY-SA 4.0）；2026-11-15再增补（James指示两张进正文）：晚霞天际线＝File:Shenzhen Skyline Fuhua Road Ping An International Finance Center.jpg（CC BY-SA 4.0）；平安夜景＝File:PingAn Finance Centre at Night Shenzhen City China (41379919314).jpg（CC BY-SA 2.0）；2026-11-15首图定版（James点定）与正文增补三图均为APEC中国年官方网站（apec2026.cn）深圳主办城市页官方图：首图＝福田中心区航拍（市民中心居中）、apecbay＝深圳湾后海天际线、apecqianhai＝前海湾黄昏、apecport＝盐田港黄昏

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