5 Best Places to Go in Shenzhen, China for the Western Culture Vulture

A view of downtown Shenzhen. Please click on the images to get enlarged versions.

Shenzhen is only 41 years old and is still a work-in-progress culturally. Frankly, after living a number of years in Chicago and New York City, soaking up every possible aspect of urban culture, I was happy to enjoy Shenzhen's many magnificent parks with their amazing banyan trees and other forms of flora and fauna not present back in my American cities. You can come to Shenzhen and really enjoy the nature that can be found within the city. Nanshan Mountain, for example, has always been one of my favorite places to go to for some exercise and its views of the city.

Yet, you can take the guy out of New York City but you can't take New York City out of the guy and there were times when I sought out jazz or blues clubs, good art galleries, museums and a nice concert hall. Also, I was able to introduce some Chinese friends to aspects of American urban culture by finding places similar to those I patronized back home. The people of Shenzhen are adventurous and open-minded, so come over and make lots of Chinese friends and take them out to some of these venues.

That being said, here are five places in Shenzhen that the Western culture vulture might enjoy:

1. ROOTSHOUSE - a music venue/bar for soul, jazz, blues, indy-rock at OCT Loft

Here's a review I wrote of ROOTSHOUSE for Wall Street International: https://wsimag.com/entertainment/62330-an-interview-with-moss

I would argue that this is, by far, the best music venue and bar at OCT Loft. There are other jazz clubs at OCT Loft, but they are a bit pricey and not nearly as swanky, diverse or inclusive as ROOTSHOUSE. At ROOTSHOUSE you can get by on a couple bottles of beer, usually there is no cover charge, and take in the very cool atmosphere and music for maybe 200 rmb. 

So if you are there from 9pm to midnight, 200 rmb is certainly worth it. But, their bar is fabulous, so please feel free to get yourself a couple cocktails to help soak up the jazz or blues more deeply. If you leave the club at about midnight or 1am, you can take a Didi back to your place or just grab a taxi - taxis often flood OCT Loft at night. If you get stranded (you won't), just sleep under a banyan tree until morning. :P

2. OCT Loft - Hive Center for Contemporary Art Gallery, various art galleries 

OCT Loft has a smattering of art galleries, most of them good. The problem is that you have to wander around to find them. I have said many times that Shenzhen would be well-served with a gallery guide that attempted to list all the galleries in the city. Perhaps there should be a gallery coalition and they could even have gallery-crawl nights or weekends where free wine and cheese is served and folks can wander from area to area and check out the galleries. To be honest, until I got stranded in the USA due to the coronavirus, I was hoping to try to put something like that together.

The Hive Center for Contemporary Art is a truly first-class art gallery that is anchored in Beijing. That a Beijing Gallery would experiment and come down to Shenzhen is to its credit, as Shenzhen simply does not have enough meaningful art for a city its size.

Here is a review I did of a great show at Hive in Shenzhen: https://wsimag.com/art/52298-subjunctive-mood

There are other, larger, exhibition spaces at OCT Loft. Here is a review of art at one of these larger venues: https://wsimag.com/art/51630-sui-jianguo

Random images of art from an OCT Loft exhibition space:

So OCT Loft has a smattering of galleries, a smattering of music venues and many places to hang out and eat or get something to drink: either coffee, tea or potent potables. Shenzhen young (and older) folks seem to especially enjoy getting together with friends and spending time in these venues.

3. Dafen Art Museum and TNT Gallery in Dafen Oil Painting Village

In its initial stages, Shenzhen was developed, in large part, by entrepreneurs from Hong Kong. Land prices were much less expensive in Shenzhen than in Hong Kong and many Hong Kong business folks merely crossed over the river to Shenzhen to extend or further develop their businesses. One of these entrepreneurs sold replicas of famous paintings or paintings of rural scenery to various restaurants and hotels around the world. Yes, there was, and is, a huge market for knock-off paintings. So a remote area of Shenzhen known as Dafen became an area where painters could be hired to complete knock-off paintings or paintings of beautiful scenic spots for export around the world.

To this day you can go to Dafen and get a replica of a Van Gogh painting for under 100 rmb. Indeed, famous works by various old masters can be bought as replicas in Dafen. These days, the painters have branched out a little bit and some of them do their own types of decorative paintings, some of which can be quite stylish. I've traveled to Dafen to buy some inexpensive decorative pieces.

But, there is now a problem. It is much cheaper to generate these replica paintings via a computer program and using much less skilled painters. Dafen painters are facing competition from other entrepreneurs who are using the latest technology to make knock-off paintings more quickly and cheaply. 

So Dafen seems to be changing. If you go there you will see many store fronts where knock-offs are painted or where painters will paint whatever you want them to paint for you. But there is now a museum in the middle of the area called the Dafen Art Museum, which actually contains real, original art from local and regional Chinese artists. Not all of it is as thoughtful as you might like it to be, but you can be surprised by quality work at that museum. Its goal seems to be to highlight the creativity of original artists in Dafen, Shenzhen and other parts of China.

Just a couple shots from the Dafen Art Museum.

One of the first REAL art galleries to set up in Dafen is called TNT. Indeed, this space not only has an art gallery, but it also has a residency program which invites several artists at a time to live together and create around and with each other at the TNT facilities. The artists are chosen from various countries, as well as China, and there is a great deal of cross-fertilization that occurs here.

Three shots from the TNT residency studios:

What's special about TNT is that it is bringing international artists to Shenzhen to interact with Chinese artists, so the artists from China are able to learn about what might be happening in the visual arts around the world while influencing those foreign artists. TNT also has a gallery with exhibitions that change periodically.

Here are a couple of shots of a recent show where a French artist focused on the Dafen community.

So if you head into Dafen I would recommend wandering around the studios of the artists who are painting commercially. You are welcome to buy directly from these artists. Also go to the Dafen Art Museum - it is 100% free. Also, drop by TNT Gallery - it is free as well.

My review of Dafen from Wall Street International: https://wsimag.com/art/57383-your-buyers-are-your-art


4. The Jupiter Museum

Some random shots from the Jupiter Museum - Shenzhen's latest and best art museum, featuring meaningful and thoughtful pieces.

The Jupiter Museum was recently created in Shenzhen and its first exhibit showcased the work of some of China's most established and respected contemporary artists. The first show was very Beijing-centered and academia-centered, as many of the artists held professorial positions at Beijing universities.

So the museum might be invaluable to current fine art students in Shenzhen who wish to see what some of their forebears have done in the field of contemporary art and where they, themselves, might want to carry the newly established tradition and trends (Chinese contemporary art seems to be younger than even Shenzhen is). 

Also, with about 60 artists represented, the show provides much challenging work for the viewer. A person could easily spend an entire afternoon in this one venue. The ticket prices are worth it: about 100 rmb at the door. The museum is located in Futian. Exhibits will change periodically.

Here is a brief notice I wrote about the opening of the museum: https://wsimag.com/art/59672-a-world-class-museum-for-contemporary-art

5. The Shenzhen Concert Hall

The Shenzhen Concert Hall is near Book City (where you can buy English books, especially at Eon Books) and the Shenzhen Central Library. There are many cafes and places to get snacks and you can even hear some pretty good buskers in a nearby square.

You can hear piano (and other) recitals at this concert hall as well as orchestral works. Indeed, they have a quite diverse program of Western and Eastern music. I was very happy to be able to see Sir Simon Rattle conduct a program of Brahms with the London Symphony Orchestra. I also went for a performance by the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra. 

I paid over 1,000 rmb for an individual ticket for the London Symphony and I paid 250 rmb for the performance by the Armenian Orchestra. My seats for the London Symphony were much better, however - behind the orchestra so I could watch the facial expressions on Rattle's face.

The standard of living in China is still more affordable than in Europe or the USA, so large, famous orchestras know they are not going to make much money playing in Shenzhen. The London Symphony is one of the few really famous orchestras that seems to come to Shenzhen, and kudos and thanks to them for this. But that's fine, the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra brought along a fun and engaging program of primarily Russian works, as well as the obligatory and super satisfying Khachaturian pieces you have heard and enjoy hearing over and over again.

Now, if you are used to going to Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall for your music, you will find a classical music concert in China to be different. At Lincoln Center or Carnegie Hall you are expected to observe a somewhat formal dress code. If you don't, that's OK, but it's kind of expected. I, actually, like that. Going to a classical performance is a special event with performances from highly skilled and often brilliant musicians. 

One should take a formal approach, in my humble opinion, and be dressed for the occasion. If you disagree, that's fine. I value your opinion but do not share it. At the Shenzhen Concert Hall the men seem to come in tee shirts and shorts while the women often come in quite elegant and stylish dresses. So there's quite a discrepancy in styles between the guys and women. Just pointing out a sociological fact, here.

Also, another big difference is the presence of children. There are often many children at these performances as parents seem to feel that immersing their kids in classical music is beneficial.

This can be problematic at piano recitals. Some of the children cannot sit still for very long, wiggle around, talk to other children, drop things - it can get pretty annoying. The Shenzhen Concert Hall is aware of this and seems conscientious about finding a solution to this issue.

If you look at the images of the hall, itself, you might feel it looks a bit angular and harsh. You might even feel it looks more like a hockey arena than a concert hall. That's OK as far as I am concerned. It's a type of modernist architecture that I am not used to, but I have fallen in love with this venue and recommend it highly. The Shenzhen Concert Hall is a great asset to the city of Shenzhen and we should all support it.