Crossing the Line

The novel Crossing the Line, by Shenzhen writer Guo Haihong, weaves together the lives of two families and two generations in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, tracing the quiet currents of love and struggle among ordinary people as the cities draw closer in a new era. The story opens with Li Gaimei, a woman from Hu Family Village in Hunan. More than twenty years ago she and her husband, Old Hu, arrived in Shenzhen and settled in Huangbeiling, a well-known urban village. Rather than taking a job on an assembly line, she made her way through recycling scrap materials and domestic work—hard but flexible trades—building a reputation through diligence, warmth, and quick wits, her fortunes improving along with the city's. Then Old Hu fell ill with cancer and died. After burying him, Li Gaimei soon returned to Shenzhen, stepping back into the clamor of Huangbeiling with grief clinging to her. She comes to cross paths with Zhang Jianqi, who runs a thriving home-style restaurant in Huangbeiling, and with young Zhu Charlie and his father, entrepreneurs who have come to Shenzhen to build a business: Zhang Jianqi wants to open a shop in Hong Kong, Li Gaimei helps make the connection, and Zhu Charlie is asked to help open a branch in Sha Tin. Zhu Charlie's father, Professor Zhang, a labor and social security researcher, also grows close to Li Gaimei—though she has no idea who he really is. Moving through the complex textures of daily provisions, social obligations, and business dealings, the novel explores both the loves and loneliness of the elderly and the hardships and vitality of the young, and through the meetings and entanglements of a few ordinary people reflects the larger question of coordinated Shenzhen-Hong Kong development. Critics have called it a Shenzhen story told from an "alternative" angle.