Shenzhen
October 9, 2006 | Trades
Shenzhen
Guy Delisle
Drawn & Quarterly
$24.95/$19.95 US (Hardcover)
*** 1/2 (out of five)
If Guy Delisle has many more “fish-out-of-water” trips to Asia, he may just turn up floating at the top of the bowl.
This Quebecois artist, now living in France and working for an animation company that outsources work to foreign markets, delighted readers with his wistful and perceptive illustrated journey to North Korea’s capital with his critically acclaimed book, Pyongyang.
This time, Delisle is dispatched on a months-long stint in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. While things aren’t exactly rosy in this neo-communist metropolis (the edges of the city are blocked off with guard towers and electrified fences), it’s a heck of a lot less messed up than the artist’s portrayal of life in North Korea and it makes for a bit of a letdown. Sure things are odd there, but aren’t things odd in any foreign city where you don’t speak the language or know all the customs?
Still, Delisle does have a knack for painting himself as a likeable everyman in a strange land that makes Shenzhen very much worth a try.
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