Deng Xiaoping billboard in Shenzhen, Feb. 1993

Deng Xiaoping overlooking Shenzen, China, 1993

I took this picture in Shenzhen back in February, 1993--my first and only trip to China (aside from a layover in Shanghai a few years ago). In the picture, he's saying, "不坚持社会主义，不改革开放，不发展经济，不改善人民生活，只能是死路一条。" (Not adhering to socialism, not reforming and opening up, not developing the economy, and not improving the people's lives can only be a dead end.)

I just discovered it acting as a bookmark in my copy of Aihwa Ong's Flexible Citizenship. I wondered what that area of town looks like now. A blogpost from 2017 gives some interesting (if hagiographic) history of the sign. Here's a rough translation (with the help of Google Translate, mainly because I wanted to translate it in a few hours rather than a few days...):

Shenzhen Totem: The History of Changes to the Deng Xiaoping Portrait 

By 泉影 (Quan Ying) 

On February 19, 1997, with 131 days left before the return of Hong Kong, Deng Xiaoping passed away. That chilly morning, a large group of Shenzhen residents spontaneously came to Deng Xiaoping's portrait to pay their respect to the benefactor of this SAR. Although more and more people gathered, filling the roads on both sides of the portrait, it was orderly. Seniors, young people, and children all came, a sad atmosphere permeating the scene. Some people held white flowers in their hands, wore black veils on their arms, and some stood for a long time holding high portraits of Deng Xiaoping that read, "The people will forever miss you." Because of Deng Xiaoping, Shenzhen had become the most direct beneficiary of China's reform and opening up, so the people of Shenzhen came with grateful feelings to say goodbye to the "chief designer" of reform and opening up. 

With Hongling Road, Luohu District, and Futian District as the boundaries, the area where Shennan Middle Road meets it was the most prosperous financial district in Shenzhen in the 1980s and 1990s. The northeast side of this crossroad became a must-see place because of the long-standing giant portrait of Deng Xiaoping. After Deng Xiaoping's southern tour, this portrait became the urban scenery most frequently exposed in both domestic and foreign news media. It has become a symbol of the reform and opening up of Shenzhen and China and a famous "landmark" in Shenzhen. 

A Product of the Southern Tour

At the beginning of the new year in 1992, reform in China faced a dilemma. In the early spring in southern China, the chill had not yet subsided, but the flowers and trees were green and spring was abundant. Already nominally retired, Deng Xiaoping came to Shenzhen on his southern tour and made an important speech, encouraging local cadres to "be bolder for reform and opening up." For a time, the major media reported on the themes of "An east wind blows an eyeful of spring" and "The South China Sea surges with a tide of reform." The talk greatly liberated the people's thought, and the reform deadlock was broken. China returned to the road of reform and opening up.

Because the southern talk incited a great response around the country, the propaganda department of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee proposed to erect in the city center a huge poster promoting Deng Xiaoping's inspection of Shenzhen. After repeated discussions, everyone agreed that the portrait should be erected in the most conspicuous, central, and most convenient place in Shenzhen. After careful site selection, the intersection of Shennan Avenue and Hongling Road was identified as the most suitable place.

After the painting was made, it was revised several times, and in the end the Shenzhen Municipal Art Advertising Company (深圳市美术广告公司) sent their most powerful artist to work in the underground parking lot of the Shenzhen Grand Theater. The enormous painting, measuring 300 square meters, took three to four months to create. It was done completely by hand, and one finger on the painting was taller than a man. On June 28, 1992 the huge painting of Deng Xiaoping was finally erected on Shennan Road. This was quite rare in China at that time, and the portrait immediately caused a sensation.

The first version of Deng Xiaoping's portrait was based on a photograph taken at the Xianhu Botanical Garden during Deng's inspection tour of Shenzhen. Dressed in a light brown jacket, his eyes are bright and ...

Well, I started this post a while back and just decided to come back to it so I could finish it in February (the 26th anniversary of my trip to Shenzhen). To my surprise, when I clicked on the link to go back to  泉影's blog, here's what I got:

"Sorry, this post is password-protected!"

So much for my timely translation... I wonder what happened?

Here are a few other links to posts about this poster:
[Updated June 1, 2020 with the AP story]

• "The symbolism of Xi Jinping's trip South" (contextualizes Xi's trip in light of Deng's trip)
• "Memory of Deng Xiaoping strong in Shenzhen" (includes some history, as above, as well as a photo of the new poster, which is described as "a computer-generated image created in 2004")
• 《小平同志在深圳》画像著作权官司终结
• "New, Improved Billboard of Deng Xiaoping Resurrected in Shenzhen"
  I learned from this Associated Press article from August 24, 1992, that there was a different Deng Xiaoping billboard before the one in the photo above. According to the article,

The old billboard had been erected in June following Deng’s visit to the special economic zone in January. During his trip, Deng encouraged the rest of China to follow Shenzhen’s example. 

In the old billboard, a stern-looking Deng pointed with his index finger, saying: ″Shenzhen’s development and experience has proven that our policy of setting up the special economic zones was correct.″