Jane Lai, Cathy Mo

DOZENS of people crowded into the launching ceremony of “Biography of Yuan Geng” at Garden City Center in Nanshan District on Saturday.

The 526-page book, which focuses on Yuan’s reform details between 1978 and 1984, was written by Tu Qiao, who finished it after three years of interviews with 156 people from Shekou.

Some expressed regret at not seeing Yuan at the launch. “I thought I could see Yuan Geng here but was not able to. I used to meet him here around 13 years ago,” said Zhang Fakun, a 70-something professor at Shenzhen University.

The founder of the Shekou Industrial Zone, Yuan is well-known among Chinese as a “pioneer of reforms.”

A Shenzhen native and reformist, Yuan was born in April 1917 in Dapeng Township in what was then Bao’an County. In 1944, he joined the Guangdong Dongjiang People’s Anti-Japanese Guerrilla Column. In the 1950s, Yuan was consul general of the Chinese Consulate in Jakarta, Indonesia. However, he was put into prison by the “Gang of Four” in 1968. After the “Cultural Revolution,” Yuan was set free and appointed executive vice chairman of the board of directors of China Merchants Group.

Yuan proposed to the Central Government in 1978 to establish the Shekou Industrial Zone.

Yuan took the lead in the nation’s reform and opening-up drive. He implemented a series of reform policies and put forward the slogan of “Time is money and efficiency is life,” which has had great influence on the whole country during China’s reform and opening-up drive.

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