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by gcmartinelli 3359 days ago
Watching this documentary (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGJ5cZnoodY) about Shenzhen I got a very strong cyberpunk vibe, especially the last 1/3 of it. People at the streets fixing electronics, cheap/pirated circuit boards being sold at the curb, etc.
1 comments

I was in Shenzhen not long ago. Good shout, but the city is actually very new. It's very clean and the subway is near spotless, so it doesn't give off a dark, dystopian cyberpunk kinda feel to it. Hong Kong is another good shout, specifically Kowloon region. Many Asian cities like these have lots of old neon signs, architecture, and technology that definitely gives off the Cyberpunk vibe
HK is a really good example of cyberpunk, you have both the kowloon side which is... it's hard to say "dark" but I would say it's more "real", "intense", and "chaotic" than the island, whereas the island itself has the shadowrun-esque clique of the mega-rich business conglomerates.

the only issue I see with HK being the perfect example of cyberpunk is victoria harbor keeps these two sides separate, whereas to fit the genre more I think they should be jammed up uncomfortably next to each other.

some HK films make use of the separation of kowloon / island, by placing the immaculate police headquarters on the island, but requiring the policeman/hero to go to the other side to get their hands dirty / get shit done / rescue the uncle/wife/child from the triad or whatever. when they go over to kowloon you know shit's going to go down.